Life of an Albuquerque Mommy

Looking

2008-07-29T08:12:00.001-06:00

If you're looking for me, I'm not here. I'm over here!

Blog Wars

2007-02-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

"Luke, I am your Father."

"NOOOO!!!!!!!"

"Join me on the dark side Luke. Together as Father and Son."

"No! I will never join you!"

"Oh Come on. It's really not that bad. It has all kinds of cool features not available over here. It's actually pretty fun."

"Oh. In THAT case! Sure, no problem."

You can know find me and my blog on the dark side at

http://theartofpatience.wordpress.com/

you're fired!

2007-01-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Do you think a Guardian Angel can get fired? Is there a complaint department I can write to? I can just imagine somewhere a line of Guardian Angel's waiting for their unemployment checks because they were fired from their last job for not protecting their person as well as they could be. I have a bone to pick with the person that assigns out the Guardian Angel's when the babies are born.

My daughter's Guardian Angel has a bit to be desired. I mean don't get me wrong, he's there right at the nick of time to make sure that something truly horrible doesn't happen. The injuries she's received have always been minor and I am so thankful for that, but come on, can't the guy be a little more on the ball to try to prevent some accidents from occurring at all?

I seriously believe my son's Guardian Angel is a overachiever. He's a very active boy, always running, jumping, skipping, leaping. But does he ever get hurt? NO! Seriously, a jump between the couch to the chair that could result in seriously injury he sails gracefully and lands perfectly without bouncing off. That Guardian Angel might just be a brown-noser to the Lead Guardian Angel.

My daugther's Guardian Angel I swear is a beginner, working to get his wings. Some young punk that didn't pay attention in class and copied off of his neighbor's tests in school. How this guy ever was given an assignment of watching my little girl I'll never know.

Yes. He did make sure that when she chipped her front tooth BEFORE it even cut through the gums it wasn't so serious that the tooth died, turned black and had to be pulled.
Yes. Now that she has THREE chips in her two front teeth neither of them have turned black and died.
Yes. Her gash on her chin wasn't serious enough that it required stitches. Just some glue. Thank you.
Yes. Her numerous cuts and scratchs have resulted in minimal scarring.
Yes. When her finger got smashed in the door it just got a little sore and swollen but didn't get broken. She's a very lucky girl.

And YES! Last night when she swallowed a penny, her Guardian Angel was there to make sure she didn't choke on it and that it passed her esophogus down to her stomach with minimal discomfort. But come on, couldn't he have been there just a few minutes earlier to make sure she didn't swallow it at all?

Instead I had to spend three hours in the Emergency Room with a little girl that looked like she had just won the lottery. It was a slow night, not busy and she got to be the star of the E.R. Everyone loved her and thought she was so cute. From the time we walked out the front door of the house to the time she went to bed after the E.R. visit she was as happy as a clam. Never would have thought there was anything wrong with her. We all know she's a drama queen and loves to play the victim so it wouldn't be any surprise to you that right before they called me over to view the x-ray the thought went through my mind "she better darn well have swallowed that thing and didn't just react because I THOUGHT she did!" Even though it's hard to see a foreign object show up on the x-ray of your child I kinda breathed a sigh of relief to see that she actually DID swallow a penny. Today I had to follow up with her pediatrician and another x-ray. At 1pm today the penny was still in her stomach. Sometime during this weekend a normal diaper change is going to present me with a big surprise.

You know the saying "you can't choose your Guardian Angel."? Well if you could I'd choose that my daughter had my sons. Aren't the boys the ones that are supposed to get hurt all the time? Not the precious little girl!

Rose by any other name...

2007-01-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

A few stories that only someone with the last name of:

Anderson
Brown
Johnson
Jones
or
Smith would understand.

Anyone else might get it but never understand fully unless you have a very common last name.

**********************

This a story I overheard my dad telling of something that happened to him one day at work a few months ago.

Co-worker: Oh, Cliff. I'm so sorry to hear about your dad.

Dad: What do you mean?

Co-worker: Well I saw in the paper that he just passed away.

Dad: That's funny. I just talked with him on the phone last night. I know I'm good but I didn't think I had a direct line to heaven.

Co-worker: No, I saw it. It said your dad had passed away.

Dad: Was it Claude C. Jones?

Co-worker: Well, no. It was Claude R. Jones.

Dad: Ya, um, that's not my dad.

Co-worker: Oops. Sorry.

*******************

My dad was named after his dad, only the first and middle name are reversed. So you can imagine everyone's surprise when the death announcement in the paper the day after my grandpa passed away showed that MY dad had passed away and NOT my grandpa. Oops. At least they got it right in the memorial article the day before the funeral.

*******************

A few more things to complain about before I try to find the positive side of 2007:

~ Our garage door opener no longer works. We'll have to replace the opener and the garage door.
~ Got a new chip in the windshield of our car
~ The windshield wiper fluid isn't working. It may just be that the fluid is frozen. (yes it's been that cold), or it could be worse and there's a chance that the freezing fluid has made a crack in the line or the tank.
~ Our car now has 78,500 miles. Our extended warranty ran out at 75,000 miles. (yes, 2000 miles after the extended warranty ran out the bearing in the right rear tire went bad.)

*************

Things to look forward to in 2007:

~ My husband is getting Lasik Eye Surgery. We set aside the money into a medical savings account. It's been taken out of the paycheck, he can't back out now.
~ Our 7th Wedding anniversary in March.
~ The birth of our 3rd baby in July.
~ Getting a new car. (hopefully)
~Birthdays. My husband-30. My daughter-3. My son-5. Me-29.

I'm trying to think of what else we have to look forward to this year but that's all I can come up with. Any help coming up with positive things to look forward to are always welcomed.

2007: You can keep it!

2007-01-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

'Cause, Baby! I don't want it!

The over a foot of snow we received on my birthday and the day after has finally melted. It's taken three weeks but it's finally gone. It took the city and everyone here over a week just to get dug out from that storm. My birthday plans were cancelled as because the whole city was shutdown. I even had to call the babysitter and tell her we wouldn't be picking her up. We had contemplated celebrating my birthday the next day but idea of just making a quick run to the grocery store for milk was squashed. My car got stuck in the driveway! Happy 28th birthday. Snowed in.

Three weeks before christmas my brother was arrested. He sat in jail for two weeks. Back in october his roommates were arrested for drug possession and parafanelia. Because my brother's name was on the lease they came back and arrested him two months later.

I have been sick beyond belief. My husband has informed me that this will be our third and LAST baby because he can't stand seeing me so sick and he doesn't like all the extra work he's received because of it. The thought makes me sad.

I've known since May that the time would come. It was inevitable. I made the trip up to Washington with my kids in June so I could make sure to see him before it happened. No one ever thought he would make it this long but they didn't know the stubborness that resides in my grandpa and runs through my veins as well. From Christmas day on he was pretty much not conscious. He wouldn't wake up to eat or take his meds. On my birthday when my grandma called to wish me a happy birthday she told me they didn't think grandpa would make it to the New Year. Well of course he proved her wrong too. He always liked to do that. So that first week of January was tough. Every time the phone rang I dreaded answering it. If the caller ID showed up as my parents calling I had an axiety attack. I knew it was coming. I was having dreams of what I would say if I were asked to speak at his funeral. Then the call finally came. Saturday January 6th. My grandpa had finally passed away in his sleep Friday January 5th at 9:30pm. That last week he was in the hospice the nurses gave him morphine patches for the pain.

Then came the decision of figuring out what to do. Last minute plane tickets were expensive especially for a family of four. I could have flown up by myself but I knew I wouldn't be able to handle everything by myself. I needed my husband to be there. Plus throw into the mix that there would be a storm on our heels on the 20 hr drive up and another on the 20 hr drive back. Do we even go? 20 hr drive with two little kids with possible bad weather and a sick as a dog pregnant lady couldn't make for a good combination. There was the possibility of renting a minivan and riding up with my uncle and brothers but we didn't want to put them through 20 hours of listening to our kids crying.

We finally decided we would drive up by ourselves in our own car. There was major concern about needing tire chains. But of course I would have the car with the size tires and wheels to make it impossible to have chains. I spent the entire day last monday making phone calls looking for chains. We we got our first storm on December 19th everyone freaked out and bought out all the chains in the ENTIRE STATE! Not to mention the second storm that dumped over three feet in parts of the city on December 29th, there wasn't a single set of chains to be purchased anywhere! Finally I found someone that had a set of chains that would fit my tires back in a warehouse. I was thrilled. But 4pm on Monday I was practically in tears. I had spent more time on my cell phone in that one day that I have on a cell phone in my entire life. I was getting yelled at by total strangers JUST BECAUSE there was a cell phone up to my ear. When I bought the chains and took them out of the box to look at them I discovered that yes they would would work on my size tires but not that size tire on MY car! The tire sits in closer to the strut and with that chain on the tire the locking mechinism would rub against the strut and eventually make a hole that would leak oil and there would go my car.

We were lucky enough to have dry roads all the way up to my parents house. The last hour the kids finally fell asleep and there was silence. That's when I started noticing a weird grinding noise coming from the right rear tire. My first thought was a piece of gravel got up in the brake but that's the front wheel and the sound was coming from the back wheel. When we got to my parents house I told my dad about the noise and he took apart the wheel to discover that we had a bearing go out. If we had ignored the noise that bearing could have been thrown the entire wheel could have come off while going 80 mph down the freeway. Luckily my dad was able to fix it for the cost of parts ($50) rather than having to take it in and pay over $500.

The family joke going around while up there is that being the stubborn man my grandfather was he would wait to pass away for the coldest week. His funeral would be held on the coldest day and relatives would have to travel through treacherous weather conditions in order to get there. All of those things were true.

The evening of the day of the funeral all the extended family from my grandpa's side that made the trip up from Boise came out to my parents house for a visit. It was a great time with lots of stories, laughter, jokes and sharing. My grandpa's younger brother told some great stories about how his "love affair" with a 1937 Ford truck came to be. I will have to make sure to write that story down later on. My husband was a part of both of the musical numbers at the funeral. He accompanied my grandma's SIL while she sang and then my mom accompanied him while he played violin. Even without it being played at a solemn gathering the piece he played brings tears to the eyes of all who listen to it.

My grandparents opened their home up to make foster children adopting the first two. They opened up their home to a Native American education program and had a number of children live with them during the school year so they could receive an education. One of those children was there at the funeral and at the family gathering that night. He talked to us about many native american traditions. He is Cherokee from Montana. And that night while out at the house sang a song in honor of my grandpa while playing his drum and then another song on his indian flute. It was a long emotional week and though we were sad that grandpa was no longer with us there was peace and comfort in knowing that he is no longer suffering in a body that was failing him. He suffered for four years from Multiple Myaloma. A cancer of the white blood cells grown in the bone marrow. It hurt him just to move an elbow.

I know all of these things happen for a reason and that there is opportunites for growth and they are learning experiences but come on do they all have to happen at the same time? I haven't had the chance to get over one thing before the next thing happens. I could use a break from all these opportunites for spiritual and emotional growth.

Hello Out There

2006-12-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

I have a question. Isn't it bad enough that I'm suffering from exhaustion, low energy, nausea, and vomiting? Do I really have to have extreme heart-burn thrown into the mix? I have been fighting heart-burn since 4 O'clock this morning. Man I thought I was miserable before, this is insane! Anything I took to try to combat the heart-burn turned on the morning sickness. Now that it's late afternoon the morning sickness has settled but I still have the dang heart-burn. Nothing's working! Hot Chocolate? Nope. Ice Cream? Nope. This is really annoying.

It's Snowing. Yes my friends it is snowing in the Duke City. We have a couple of inches on the ground to report of as of right now. This morning didn't look promising but now we're wondering if it's ever going to stop. Reports say it's supposed to stick around till Wednesday evening. Get a break on thursday and then start up again on Friday and Saturday. My kids are very excited. Today my son said "It's snowing! That mean's it's Christmas!" He was a little bummed when I informed him that today isn't Christmas yet. We have big plans. We're going to Provo for Christmas. The whole family is meeting there. We had originally planned to leave Friday morning early but it looks like we'll probably be leaving on Thursday instead.

I have all my Christmas shopping done. Last night was a marathon wrapping party. If you were to walk into our house right now you would 1. think a Tornado had wripped through my house, and 2. think Scrooge must live here. We have no tree. We have no Christmas decorations. We have one string of lights that runs around the top of the wall around the living room. Along with the lights we have a closet door where I hang the Christmas cards we receive. Saturday my husband did manage to put the lights up on the front of the house. I did not send out Christmas cards or my usualy small gift to close friends. I feel badly about this but I would expect that everyone would understand. It's funny. I was pregnant this same time of year three years ago but I was way more ambitious, excited and able to do things. I took pictures at a wedding a week before Christmas. My son was playing out in the yard in the snow for almost an hour today, I didn't even have the energy to pick up the camera and capture a picture of him catching snowflakes on his tongue.

My dad was here last week. It was completely unexpected but completely welcomed. He had to come down as a result of a brother-related issue (I won't be discussing it) but was able to spend all but 2 days out of his week here at my house. I say it was welcomed because we were really starting to feel like we were drowning just trying to keep up with everything. Being that I am absolutely miserable all the time a lot of things are getting left undone. My dad isn't one to just sit around and watch t.v. and for that this week I was thankful. He did my dishes, he cleaned my kitchen, he vaccuumed my house. He helped me run errands and take care of my kids, he helped my husband on a number of projects as well. They took two truck-loads of stuff to Goodwill. They rebuilt the pergola in the backyard(a spring windstorm was about to rip it down so we took it down before it could fall down) and They were able to build the outer wall of the bathroom and get drywall up. I really appreciate all the hard work my dad put in while he was here. Now that he's been gone for two days and my house looks like a disaster again I'm really missing him.

I had my first doctor's appointment a few weeks ago. I met with a nurse/mid-wife. She was really awesome, willing to listen to everything I said, wasn't in a hurry to get me out and on to the next patient. She listened to my concerns, my history from my previous two kids and when I told her I really didn't need to have the STD related tests done she didn't push it. I really liked the nurse she was kind and courteous and respectful. Overall it was a good visit. If only I didn't have to wait for nearly an hour in hopes of being able to pee in a cup. That was kind of embarrassing. There was one thing that bothered me about the appointment. It's all me though, my own attitude. I was a bit surprised when the mid-wife walked in and I think she saw it in my face. She was extremely obese. I mean, not just a little overweight but the almost not able to walk obese. I tried to quickly hide my surprise. When she asked about a history of diabetes in the family I said "Oh, yes. my paternal grandfather has diabetes but that's because he's..." That's where I stopped my self. I was about today "because he's overweight". But then realized who I was talking to and caught myself before I made a faux pas. I know it's wrong to judge someone by how they look. But I can't be the only person that does it right? I choose female doctor's over a male doctor. That's just my preference. The more I thought about it after my appointment the more I was embarrassed but more comfortable with this doctor. Yes we tend to gravitate towards good looking people but do I really want a good-looking Midwife/OBGYN? Someone that every month I go in will see me fatter than the month before? See my stretch marks, etc? I would hate to say that the good-looking Dr would be judging how I look but it isn't a far stretch of the imagination. At least with this midwife no matter how fat, how bad I get stretch marks she'll always think I'm beautiful. (I'm sorry that sounds prideful.)

It looks like tomorrow is going to be a packing day and Thursday a travel day. Please wish us luck that we can get everything to fit in our tiny car and that the roads will be good for travel. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (along with a Happy Birthday to Sariah and Me!) See you next year!

Laugh or Cry

2006-12-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have this cd by the Indigo Girls, actually it's a 2 cd box set called 1200 curfews. Almost all the songs on these two cd's were performed while they were on a summer tour around the United States. You know how at concerts the performer always says a couple of sentances in order to introduce the next song? On these cd's there are quite a few tracks that include the intro. Some are just a description of how the song came to be or who wrote it, other's are just kinda funny. There's one that I just can't get out of my head right now.

"You have to laugh at yourself 'cause you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't!"

Actually there's more to the intro of the song Least Complicated but I didn't remember that part until I listened to the track to make sure I have the quote right.

I find myself crying a lot more than I'm laughing lately.

Here is what I depend on to make me laugh nowadays.

back to back episodes of Still Standing
back to back King of Kings
back to back Scrubs
back to back Everybody Loves Raymond
OR
back to back FRIENDS

What do you got up your sleeves to make me smile or laugh?

Weather Report

2006-11-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

"...And now to ABQ Mom with the weather..."

Thank you. Let's get right into it. There's a lot to discuss. A storm front has ripped it's way through the state of New Mexico leaving in it's wake towns digging themselves out of 1/2 inch to 2 feet of snow depending on the area. The storm made it's way out of the state and into Texas over night. This morning the city of Albuquerque woke to a slight dusting of snow. Just enough to make things look white but not enough to cause any major traffic delays or even the smallest snowball. Children everywhere were completely devastated. On the heels of this storm an artic cold and wrapped itself around the state. Last night's low was very low for the city. Dipped down to 17 degrees. Today's predicted high: a whopping 37 degrees. Welcome to winter New Mexico it's arrived!

A Tale of a few Stories

2006-11-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Just to prepare you I'm going to write a few different stories all in one post.

* My son and I both got a stomach flu. Man I hate puking, but I hate wondering if/when I'm going to puke more!

* My husband tries so hard to take care of me and the house when I'm sick but it drives me crazy that he won't come near me with a 10 foot pole because he's worried he's gonna catch something.

*It's been 4 days now and luckily my daughter and husband didn't catch whatever it was we had.

~~~~~~~~~~

* Did you ever hear the one about the girl that got ice stuck to her hand? You didn't! Well let me tell you about it! The kids love the fact that our new fridge/freezer comes with an icemaker. They couldn't get enough of that thing when it was warm outside. They would be constantly in the freezer getting ice then running outside and throwing it on the patio to watch it melt. We tried not to be too upset about it, we never had to worry about getting stale ice, the kids made sure to recycle it frequently.

Now that it's getting cooler they don't get into the ice quite as often but I still catch them in there sometimes. Nowadays though it's so they can have "cold, cold, COLD water". They'll get a little plastic cup, run into our bathroom (it's the only sink in the house they can reach) fill up their cup with water then run into the kitchen to get some ice. I've gotten used to this scenario so I tried not to let it bother me. It's just water, if it spills it will dry. I was pretending not to notice what was going on when I was brought out of my reverie by my little girl crying. Not surprising when she and big brother are together she's prone to start crying, but this was a different kind of cry. Besides Big Brother wasn't even near her.

When I found her she showed me her right hand. It had ice cubes stuck to every finger and a few stuck to the palm of her hand! She tried shaking them off and they wouldn't move. She tried pulling but they were pretty stuck! I think she was crying the most because it scared her that they were stuck. I tried not to laugh in amazement at the situation and walked her into the bathroom and ran water over her hand to get the ice to come unstuck. She must have tried to get some ice out of the freezer with wet hands. It had me giggling pretty good when I told her Daddy about it later. And you know what?!? They haven't played in the ice since!

~~~~~~~~~~

*It's always hard to accept that we're growing up, that we're getting older, that we're no longer the full of energy youngin's we once were. But you know what is even harder to accept? Knowing that our parents are getting older too. My husband and I were shocked with this revelation a few weeks ago while talking with my Mother-in-Law on the phone.

She grew up in Idaho, her father was a potato farmer, she studied horticulture in college before getting married. You might just say that there's a little dirt that runs through her veins. I've always loved going to their house in Idaho, there are so many beautiful flower beds all over their property. It's like walking through a plant catalog walking around the yard. She has worked for 15 years on those flower beds. She had a little help from her husband but mostly the help came from her two sons. My husband left and went to college, got married, moved away, she lost her most helpful assistant but she still had Sterling at home. He didn't LOVE gardening like my Mother-in-Law and my husband but he felt inclined to help. Now Sterling is away at college. My Mother-in-Law is a 4th grade teacher, working on her Master's degree and no longer has her son's around to help her with the yard. Yes, Juell, her 12 yr old daughter is still at home but isn't nearly the assistant as the boys were.

She just turned 50 this spring. Maybe that birthday made her realize she was getting older. Maybe the lack of helpful hands around the house made it frustrating. Maybe just understanding she doesn't have as much free time as she once did with teaching school and working towards her Master's pushed the decision. Whatever the reason it was a sad day when she had her husband rip out all the plants from the flower beds (except for two) and cover them over with mulch. She cried while it was being done. My husband and I practically cried when she told us about it. We're scared to go to the house and look at the yard and not see all the plants (yes even though it's dormant now). We never thought the day would come when she would think herself too old to keep up with her gardening. We definitely were shocked to learn the news.

(P.S. My husband asked me to write about this. He felt it was something important I should blog about.)

~~~~~~~~~~

* Wha....?!?! How did this happen? Well, ya, of course I know HOW? But How? It wasn't supposed to happen this way! We had it all planned. We had it all scheduled for when it would work the best for us and our little family. This was truly unexpected! It just goes to show you that no matter how much we think we got our lives under control, He knows what we need and when we need it more than we do!

I've gone through the full spectrum now. Having a hard time, not understanding why we weren't being blessed with something we so truly wanted and then expecting at exactly the best time for our situation. Then the getting what we wanted at exactly the time we wanted it even though it was a little close to the last one. Then this time around, where we were preventing and somehow it happened anyway.

This time around I have all the jokes running through my head:

-"You DO know how this happens, don't you?"
-"You know what causes pregnancy, right?"
-"Give me the name of a birth control and I'll give you a name of a child."
-"What did you do wash your underwear together?"
-"Did you get into the shower after him?"

And of course I have the insane thoughts too:

-"She's a walking baby factory now, isn't she?"
-"All she knows how to do is have babies huh?"

Yes I know, those are unfair, I am imagining the thoughts of other people and thinking that they're actually thinking it. Everyone knew we weren't going to have ONLY two kids. They should have expected an announcement of another pregnancy eventually. She is almost 2 1/2 now.

I just have to keep telling myself He knew better than we did. He knew another baby was supposed to come into our family NOW not a year from now. My due date is July 12th. My daughter's third birthday is July 17th.

"Every baby is a blessing."

~~~~~~~~~~

* We fly to Idaho tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday. My son's fourth birthday is on Wednesday. We have been counting down for literally two months now. He's so excited to fly on an airplane tomorrow and then his birthday is the day after that! I'm just excited I don't have to hear "I want that for my birthday." "I want to put that on my birthday list." Now I can look forward to hearing "I want that for Christmas." "I want to put that on my Christmas list."

Bragging Moment

2006-11-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Lookie, lookie what I just did! I just finished this bag! They taught us how to make them at enrichment last night. I didn't finish mine, (man I make a lot of mistakes when I'm sewing in public!) Once I started working on it today it started to make a lot more sense. But now it's finished! I bought three different fabrics, this one and one other that will go with black corduroy, then another fabric that can go with brown corduroy. I'm thinking I might make them as christmas presents. Now that I have the basic idea down I can make them smaller, more like a purse or bigger, like a bookbag.

blog links

2006-11-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

I promised to post some websites where I have found blog templates. So here they are.

http://bloggertemplatesbycaz.blogspot.com/

http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com

http://www.diaphaneity.com

http://www.blogfrocks.com

http://www.tinkonline.nl

http://creativecommons.org

http://blogspottemplates.blogspot.com/

http://www.angiemckaig.com/misc/blogtemplates.html

http://www.zootsdesigns.com/

An Arizona Story

2006-11-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

It was interesting going back to Phoenix. It's been a few years since I had last been there, and this was the first time I had ever been in Phoenix without Shane.

Phoenix was the place of our first kiss.
Phoenix was where we spent our three months of engagement.
Phoenix was where we spent our first three years of marriage.
Phoenix was where my son was born.

I-17 Corridor.
The first time I had driven that road was when I moved down to Phoenix when we got engaged so I could look for a job. Shane was driving but I was still scared to death! I couldn't believe we were going 90 miles and hour and being passed like we were standing still! Driving that stretch of freeway was fun now! It was exhilarating. I knew the road like the back of my hand and could take the curves like Speed Racer.

Phoenix.
As I drove into the city I was amazed at how much it had grown since the last time I had been there. There was new neighborhoods, stores, roads, everything. But there were things that had never changed. I saw the exit to Lake Pleasant we had taken when I had come down to visit Shane to see if we were supposed to be together. His roommate had taken us water-skiing. The exit that went to his old apartment. Castles & Coasters, knowing also that DeVry where he had gone to school, our apartment and the hospital where our son was born was all just down the road on that exit. The exit that would take me to my old OB's office when I was pregnant. I saw the Central Ave corridor. The building I used to work in. The State Fair was going on and I was reminded of our one trip to the state fair.

So many of these places had memories in them that Shane and I shared and it was so weird to be seeing them again without the man that I had made all these memories with. I had my kids with me and tried to express to them the memories I had of these different places, but being at a young age it was hard for them to understand.

I saw the school I had taken some classes at to finish my Associates Degree. The airport where I had picked up my future sister-in-law for Christmas a month after getting engaged to her brother. I didn't even know what she looked like! Being in Tempe I was reminded of the different family events we had gone to with Shane's extended family. The movie theatre Brooke and I went to while waiting for the rest of the family to arrive the day before Christmas. The Arizona Mills Mall where Shane and I had walked to pass away the time and hoped to induce labor. The In N' Out Burger we ate at because we were both having a craving.

Since moving away from Phoenix every time we've gone back we've been blown away at the beauty of the city. Phoenix is a fairly new city, they took design and landscape into consideration when designing the city. Every inch of non-pavement has landscape. Beautiful flowering plants and trees. We realize how pretty it really was there and have hopes that one day ABQ will get it together. October was the month I had first visited. It was nice to be there at that same time of year.

We have lived there for three years while Shane was attending school. It was far away from family and we knew when the three years were over that we would leave Phoenix. We couldn't wait for that time to pass so we could move on to the next phase of life. Job. Baby. House. We hoped we'd move closer to our parents. We did move closer. Two hours closer. Not exactly what we had planned.

The Old Job.
I was so excited to take Sariah to the building where I used to work. If was a phase of my life that I "suffered" through, but there were people and moments that I enjoyed and I wanted to show Sariah that timespan from my previous life.

Since moving away I've kept in touch with Sue regularly. She has filled so many rolls in my life I don't even know where to start. She reads my blog on a daily basis and looks forward to the next email with pictures of my babies. I had emailed her before telling her I was coming to town. The kids loved the fountain in the lobby and it was fun to have Sue see my kids in person. While standing there in the lobby watching W and Aiden run laps around the fountain and Sariah and I visiting with Sue a few other old co-workers came walking by. They all recognized me and were thrilled to see me and visit for a few minutes.

I loved showing Sariah the places where I'd take my 15 minute breaks or eat my lunch while reading a book. The "park" in front of the building across the street where the kids played for nearly three hours. After our picnic at the park I took Sy back to my old office. Sue walked me around the office to see who was still working there that was there when I used to work there. It had been four years in a sales company that has a high turn-over rate but there were still quite a few familiar faces. My face was familiar too and they were excited to see my beautiful little girl. After saying hi to everyone that would have known me I headed back to Sariah's house. Friday at 4pm = traffic. I had forgotten how bad the traffic could be. I didn't miss that.

When I got back the boys were watching a movie so it gave Sariah and I a chance to talk. I told her about the different people that I had visited with and the reaction they had when they saw me in the old stomping grounds of the office. During that conversation Sariah said something that turned on the waterworks. She said "Even though it's been four years since you last worked there, those people were happy and excited to see you. You must have had some sort of effect or influence on those people when you worked there for them to have a reaction like that." That thought hadn't even occurred to me and it made me realize what a special thing I had at that old job. Yes there were days when I couldn't wait to quit. People that I was glad never to see again, but overall it was a good experience because of the people I was able to get to know.

I never thought that Phoenix would have a special place in my heart. After visiting with such a space since the last visit and without the man that helped to make that place special I realized that it does. I'm not saying I'd move there tomorrow. The visits during the fall-spring are nice though.

Rockin' Around The Clock

2006-11-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

They're both sick.

She doesn't sleep well when she has a cold.

She woke up at 9pm before I had even gone to bed. She stayed up with me till 10:30pm. She wouldn't sleep in my bed so she went back to hers.

I forgot to eat dinner last night. Got up at 11pm to eat something. She woke up at the same time.

Midnight He woke up to use the bathroom. Needed my help to get his pajamas back on.

I woke up at 1am to use the bathroom. She woke up again.

Then again at 2am. This time daddy went in. Brought her into our bed... I had a tiny sliver of the edge of the bed to myself. I even had to give up my pillow to the little princess!

5:30am rolls around. Like clock-work He wanders into our room. 5:45am daddy's alarm clock goes off. He see that she's in our bed too. Starts talking to her and woke her up. By 6:15am I knew noone was going back to sleep. The three of us sat on the couch in the dark till daddy left for work.

6:30am daddy left for work. Watched 15 minutes of news.

6:45am Started Disney/Pixar's CARS. Watched whole movie including shorts and bonus footage.

10:30am We've all been up for 5 hours. I think I may have gotten a total of 4 hours sleep last night.

Man am I exhausted!

Halloween

2006-11-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

We had a fun halloween this year. The kids were very excited to wear their costumes. Remember that pumpkin patch field trip? We ended up with 6 pumpkins from that. Yep. I carved them all. Well okay, not all of them. The 6th one got hollowed out but is still sitting outside waiting to be carved. It probably won't. :-(

Being that we live in New Mexico I felt it appropriate to do a Roswell Alien Jack O' Lantern.

A happy ghost.

A cyclops.

This is Sy's pumpkin. She's pushed it in the baby stroller and rolled it around the yard. Carried it around the house. When it came time to carve it she had no problem picking out the pattern she wanted on her pumpkin. A bat.

This is W's pumpkin. The day we brought it home from the pumpkin patch he painted a face on it with grandma. We carved the other side of it. He happily chose the spider pattern for his pumpkin.

Here they are in their costumes. I got a really good deal on them through disneystore.com. W had been telling everyone he was going to be Peter Pan for halloween and would tell them his sister was going to be Tinkerbell.

They absolutely loved being in their costumes.

Tink had eaten some pizza before her picture was taken.

Peter Pan getting ready to fly back to Neverland.

The did not want to take their costumes off when we got home that night. They wanted to put them on again the next day. I was "told" that they "will get to wear their costumes again on W'l birthday."

Road Trip!

2006-11-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

The weekend before Halloween I decided to go on a little Road Trip. Thursday afternoon after W got out of Preschool we hit the road headed for Arizona and a visit with Sariah and her family. I told W we were going to a friends house and earlier that day had shown him pictures of Aiden. It was the perfect day to leave as Albuquerque was bitter cold and being blasted by horrible winds. While we drove W asked lots of questions and was very excited to play with his new friend. After every curve or every hill he'd point at a house and ask "Is that Aiden's house?" Then it progressed to "Aiden's house is after we go over that big, Big, BIG hill way over there!"

We arrived around 10pm Thursday night. I got to tell you, I missed driving that I-17 corridor between Flagstaff and Phoenix. It's the only section of road where you can drive like Speed Racer and still get passed by other vehicles. It was great to see Ches and Sariah again. We had only just barely knew each other when we were at Ricks together, and I tagged along with some mutual band friends to their wedding!

W and Aiden immediately hit it off and were so wound up it was hard to get them to sleep that night! Friday morning came early and W loved seeing all of Aiden's toys and they played hard. Sadly Aiden had to go to Preschool that day so for a few hours they missed each other immensely.

Sariah and I prepared for a nice picnic once Aiden was out of preschool. There's this building in downtown Phoenix that's across the street from the building I worked in when I lived Phoenix years ago. There is this awesome grassy area, awesome fountain/lake, and these cool statues. I thought the kids would love it. But before going to the "park" as I will call it from now on we went to the lobby of the building I used to work in.

There's this big fountain in the middle that the kids just went crazy over. Sariah and I visited with Sue, an old co-worker of mine for a little bit and thought it might be fun to tour the old office. As soon as we stepped off the elevator it's like we lost complete control of our kids! We didn't even recognize them. They started yelling and screaming and running around the office. Sariah and I were so embarrassed we grabbed armfuls of kids and practically ran to the elevators!

Once we were to the "park" the kids were able to run and yell till their heart's content. I tried to take some pictures.

Here is Aiden trying to throw a rock into the water. Too bad they were cemented to the ground!

Dalling trying to figure out how to get into the water without us noticing!

Dallin checking out one of the lights that shines on a nearby tree.

Dallin imagining how fun it would be to play in the water.

Dallin trying to sneak down into the water.

Sariah taking a picture of me while I took a picture of her.

Sydnie and her trusty giraffe gazing into the water.

I had asked Aiden to stand next to the tree so I could take his picture. W and Sy seemed to think he was lonely or needed help posing.

W sitting by the fountain being the photogenic boy that he is.

Friday night after finally getting the kids asleep we stayed up late and chatted. CHes came home from a football game the middle school band was playing at and we stayed up even later talking about memories from Ricks and other things. It was fun to talk with other musicians about musically related topics again.

Saturday we planned to do some fun, free Halloween related stuff. The day seemed filled with obstacles and at one point Dallin and Parker were taking naps. I took that opportunity to go over to my hubby's grandparents house so the kids could visit with them. Shane's grandfather had yet to even see Sy so I felt it important that they have the chance to visit. My kids started out shy at first but once Papa started sharing candy corn with them they warmed up quickly. They got to have popsicles with Mother under the Pomagranate tree. W "helped" Mother with a sewing project by pulling out pins that weren't ready to be pulled yet which resulted in some good tickles and cuddles. While cuddling Mother turned to me and said "I'm so sorry Dana, but you had absolutely nothing to do with this one (W)." I quickly replied (I've heard this before) "Yes I know Mother. I was just the oven!" When it was time to leave W and Sy were more than enthusiastic to give good-bye hugs to Mother and Papa, it almost brought tears to my eyes. Over all it was a good visit with the great-grandparents.

We quickly hurried back over to Sariah's house where we tried to get ready to go to the festival. After a quick stop at the wal-mart we went over to a local church's halloween carnival. Sadly Sariah and I got quickly frustrated and angry while there. It was poorly run and of course the older kids (teenagers) had to ruin it for our kids. Even though they didn't seem to be bothered by it, it really bothered us moms.

Here are pictures taken at the carnival.

W, Aiden and Sy in the bouncy house for their TWO MINUTE time limit!

W and Aiden. A.K.A. "The Twins". These two were inseparable.

After the carnival we went back to the house where we had hamburgers cooked on the grill and watched "Over The Hedge". We got some cute pictures of the boys playing together and Ches commented more than once that the weekend gave us insight into what it would be like with twins. We were all glad we didn't have them! It was a tearful goodbye Sunday evening. Aiden was sad to see W go and said "You can come back anytime you need to" while giving him a hug. It was so sweet!

(P.S. I didn't purposely take all these picture in black and white. I didn't know till the roll was done and went to switch it out with a new roll that it was a black and white roll. I was so mad! But at least the pictures turned out good.)

template changes

2006-11-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

It's been over two weeks since my last post. I wouldn't be surprised if you all thought I fallen off the edge of the earth or something. I wish I had a good excuse for why I haven't posted more recently but sadly I don't. I have a few things in the works, a lot on my mind, some things that I would like to write about but can't (yet).

I've really been unhappy with my blog template lately. I've been playing a bit with some templates today, got the files all ready to copy and paste in, but having a tough time deciding. This is where you come in. Help me decide. I actually have a few others that I really like too, but I can't seem to get them right. Anyway this is what I was able to do myself without any problems or help.

Okay, so you choose. Which one should I change to?

NOTICE: IMMEDIATE OPENING

2006-10-23T09:15:00.000-06:00

Attention! Vacant Position open for quick placement!

Location: Albuquerque, NM

Base Pay: N/A

Employee Type: Temporary

Industry: Arts

Manages Others: no, only yourself

Job Type: Attend "Phantom of the Opera" Concert

Req'd Education: Some Music Appreciation background encouraged but not required

Req'd Experience: Knowing me since Ricks would be nice but not required, just wanting to go is good enough.

Req'd Travel: Get yourself here!

Relocation Covered: I would if I could but I can't

Description: "Phantom of the Opera is on tour and will be here in Albuquerque, NM for a short engagement. October 28th-November 18th. I wish to attend at least one performance with a close friend that would appreciate it, more than likely female.

Job Description: Wish that you could attend and pretend like you are putting forth every effort you can to WANT to attend. Make me feel like you really would if you could. Make your performance believable.

Closing Date for position application: November 17th, 2006.

EDIT: It actually runs through November 18th. There are 32 performances, but it's been advertised for 2 months already, to see what nights are still available click here. Then click on the blue dates on the calendar on the right.

Bats and Pumpkins

2006-10-20T09:21:00.000-06:00

While my parents were here visiting we went to the pumpkin patch for my son's field trip with his preschool. I posted pictures of it on my flickr page. We also took a few days and went down to Carlsbad Caverns. I didn't take pictures there but my mom did. You can see them here.

It was an interesting trip, with my 24 year old brother who is claustrophobic and a two year old toddler that wanted to walk "by herself" and a four year old that wanted grandma to take a picture of every single thing he saw.

We went to the cave at dusk to see the bats fly out for their evening meal. It was really cool, too bad they didn't tell us that it would last over an hour, we weren't allowed to have cameras, cell phones, or video cameras on, and we had to be absolutely quiet.

So I have no photographer evidence of the bats leaving their caves, and we didn't even get to see it to the end. My little two year old was really having a hard time with the whole whispering thing. It was cute except for all the dirty looks we received from those sitting around us.

Puzzle Mania

2006-10-17T17:38:00.000-06:00

Try your hand at a few puzzles. Featuring photographs by ME!

Bubblebee Friends

Angel & Devil

Flowers

Cow

Daffodil

Balloons

Balloon Glow

Leaves

Muscari

Scarecrow

We didn't make it to balloon fiesta this year so the balloon pictures are a few years old.

(blank)

2006-10-16T09:16:00.000-06:00

No. Nada. Nothing. Nought. None. Nil. Nix. Null. Zero. Zippo. Zilch. Zip. Cero. Diddly. Empty. Goose Egg. Void. Bare. Plain. Spotless. Squat. Hollow. Vacant. Abyss. Cavity. Hole. Devoid. Missing. Minus. Bleak. Desert.

Calls and Releases

2006-10-12T11:25:00.000-06:00

My Bishop just called.

I've been released from my calling as Ward Music Chairperson.

This coming January will be 2 years in that calling. I will be officially released this coming Sunday. Although I've enjoyed it immensely; introducing unfamiliar hymns to the congregation and more instrumental musical numbers rather than vocal; I have found myself starting to get a bit burned out. Topics for the talks are starting to circle back around, I've used a few of the same hymns now. Even though I am a bit ready to be released I find my self feeling a little sad to leave this calling. It's my first music related calling I've ever had. (Not counting the two months were I was the ward choir director! YIKES!) And it just felt so good to have a calling related to my background. My husband even though he probably wouldn't admit it openly enjoyed my having this calling as well because it gave him the opportunity to play organ every once in awhile. I'll have to meet with the new music chairperson sometime this next week to help him get into the swing of things.

In the same breath that was used to extend my release I was also extended a call for a different position in the ward. I have been called as the Relief Society Historian. Ya. I know. I've never heard of that calling before either! From what little information I gathered from the bishop it sounds like it will be a combination of a blog, a newsletter, and a scrapbook. Including brief summaries of the lessons from sunday. There was mention of birth announcements, I think that would probably open up to include announcement and intro of new families that move into the ward and maybe announcment of new baptisms. Pictures taken at the different activities including volleyball, tennis, playgroup, mid-week activity, and Enrichment night. I could probably broaden that to include ward parties including the pumpkin carving party this weekend and the ward trunk-or-treat on Halloween night. The christmas party and different socials at the park. This should definitely be a fun an exciting project to take on. It sounds like a monumentous task but I think I'm up for it. I don't know if this going to be a weekly publication or a end of the year scrapbook or something inbetween. The idea of the mypublisher.com photo books came floating to the forefront of my mind...The bishop mentioned pictures, and computer. Do they want me to create a website? Or would it be more like my Music Alumni Newsletter but on a weekly basis? I have no idea! I should be sustained into this calling also this sunday. But possibly not until the 22nd. And of course I'll have to talk with the Relief Society Presidency and see exactly what they had in mind.

I'm feeling a little unqualified for this calling but don't we all when receiving any new calling? Wish me luck and if you have any suggestions or ideas I'm willing to hear them. Does your ward have a calling like this?

"It's Just Another Manic Monday..."

2006-09-29T12:57:00.000-06:00

Well actually No, it appears it's going to be a Random Friday!

I have a bunch of things I want to write about but non of them feel strong enough to stand as their own post, so I guess I'll just combine them all together.

I'm kinda feeling like I might want to change my template for my blog again. I don't know, I may bat that idea around a bit before I do anything drastic.

Went to Volleyball this morning. Second time I've played since hurting my arm back in July. (Well actually it's the third time, but the first time doesn't really count I was only using one arm). Today went really well. Two weeks ago when I went I played hard and about half way through my right arm was starting ache a bit so I thought I'd try to take it easy the rest of the time. Today my once injured arm hardly even crossed my mind. I played well, got some pretty good serves in and my arm didn't start to ache at all. I really love to go play volleyball, and getting those good serves and sets and spikes in just feels sooo good. It's probably my competitive side coming through a little. But I find myself being really self-conscious while playing. I find myself feeling fat and clutzy, which in turns makes me play bad which just leads to a viscious cycle of playing more badly. I need some good workout clothes I think. Something that I feel comfortable in without feeling like I'm wearing pajamas.

I also had the chance to visit with one gal for a bit. She's a photography nut like I am and just got home from a trip to St. Louis. She was telling me she was looking for a way to make a digital scrapbook of the pictures she took on her trip. I told her about mypublisher.com and she seemed really excited about it.

Speaking of taking pictures. Yesterday after dropping W off at Preschool Sy and I walked around the mall. Just out of curiousity I went into Ritz camera to ask them about the Minolta 7D Digital SLR camera. I had been keeping my eye on that model for awhile and I wanted confirmation that the lenses I have on my film minolta SLR would work on the digital. He immediately informed me that they didn't sell that camera anymore as Minolta had been bought out by Sony. But he did show me the new Sony Alpha which is almost completely based on Minolta's technology and design. It was so awesome! 10 MP. An amazing autofocus, quick like a cat picture taking I was so immediately in love. "Someday, my prince will come..."

Speaking of Preschool. W has been doing really well. It seems like on every Thursday the teacher tells me that he has run up to her near the end of class and whispered in her ear "I want to do the whole day again!". The teacher thinks it's so cute, and I think it is too, he really loves going to preschool. This past Tuesday I took him to class just like any other day. We were walking along the parking lot when W had discovered this black piece of plastic. An old wiretie or something. He wanted to pick it up. I asked him to not pick it up and gave him some pretty good reasons why, so I thought. He of course then REALLY wanted to pick it up. I put my foot over it. He started to cry. All the other mom's are walking by with their kids. I quickly picked it up and put it in my back looking for a garbage can. There was one near the front door and I put the thing in the trash. W continued to cry wanting this random piece of trash that had quickly become treasure! I stood between him and the garbage can waiting for him to calm down enough so we could go into the school. Just then the director (principal) of the preschool came out and asked what the problem was. I explained to her the situation. She then turned looked into the trash and pulled out the piece of black plastic. She smiled as she handed it back to my son and said "It doesn't bother me, does it bother you?" YES IT BOTHERS ME! and I told her "yes actually it does". She then replied as I walked into the school "we must pick our battles." Yes, she's right, there are some battles that just aren't worth fighting, but you know what lady, this a battle I picked and therefore I must stand my ground with my son! You just underminded me in front of my son and he will forever think "My teacher is nicer than my mom. She'll give me what I want when she won't". It made me SOO angry that this woman would do that to me. I was hot and bothered for the rest of the day. I told the story to my husband and asked him if I was over reacting. He told me No, I had every right to be mad. I told the other moms at playgroup. They all agreed that I had every reason to be mad. OOOHH!!!! I really want to complain, but guess what she's the one I would be going to complain to. I can just imagine: "I have a complaint." "Yes? Who with?" "Well actually you..." I'm sure that would go over well.

When I got home from volleyball today there was a message blinking on the answering machine. I thought and assumed that it was my husband calling from work. When the message started to play it wasn't a voice I recognized so started to listen more carefully. It was a man from a local delivery company with a shipment for us from Vintage Tubs. We had finally gotten brave enough to order our tub on Sunday and it's already here in Albuquerque. I called the company back it our tub will be delivered on this following Tuesday. Tuesday will be a tight schedule but I'm sure everything will be fine. YAY! Our bathroom remodel is almost finished!

My parents left Washington this morning. They'll spend a few days in Salt Lake with my brother and a day touring Arches National Park and they should hopefully be here on Wednesday. They'll then stay for a whole week. We have plans to go on W's preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch, go down to Carlsbad and see the caves and of course go to Balloon Fiesta. The kids are really excited to have grandma and pap come down for a visit!

Our relief society is doing another cookbook this year. Quite a few people in the ward asked me if I had submitted any of my recipes. They were quite bummed that I didn't. I kinda feel bad about that, but at the same time I don't. It's not that I don't want to share my recipes, I have no problem sharing them with others I know will like them and use them. But to just blindly submit everything I have to a cookbook where who knows will be looking at them felt kinda like casting pearls before swine. Plus, I kinda like the feedback. Besides, most of the recipes that I make were given to my by Christy. Even though she gave me permission to do whatever I wanted with the recipes I just couldn't put them in this mass cookbook. So I guess I'll just tell the people that are bummed that I didn't put anything in that I have no problem sharing my recipes with them individually.

I have the feeling I need to express some tender feelings here. Lately I have really wanted to express some words of thankfulness. I am so thankful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There are so many reasons and so many levels. I am greatful for the opportunity I had to go to Ricks College. There I made friends with so many wonderful people, women that I am so lucky to have touched my life. I met my wonderful husband there. Because of the church I know that wherever I move I will never have to be lonely. I know there is a built-in network of "family" anywhere I go. Because of the church, we were in a ward in Phoenix that allowed me to become good friends with Christy and her fabulous husband and kids and her sisters (hopefully they think of me as a friends as well). Over the past two years, I have really been struggling, and I am just so glad to have the friends that I have. The friends that I made at Ricks College 8 years ago and haven't seen in person since. But I know that if I'm having a hard time all I need to do is switch on the computer and there will be someone ready and waiting to wrap their virtual arms around me and show how much they love me. So thank you Heather. Thank you April. Thank you Sariah. And Laural, and Julia. And thank you to Claudia who every day has been there online to talk to me when I needed it. And thank you to Christy, who helps me sort out so many questions and dilemnas I have (or think I have). And thank you to the friends I've made through my blog, Karen, and Cara, and Timber, and Joyce, and Alyson, and Sariah in Vancouver. Thank you for your blogs, for the words of comfort you've given to me when you thought you were just writing for you. I don't know how I would have managed these past two years without you all, I'm sure I would have gotten through but you all have made it much easier. I hope I can keep you all in my arsenal over the next years as well.

Thank you.

Glorious September!

2006-09-26T18:23:00.000-06:00

This is the time of year we look forward to most around our house. We love the fact that monsoon season is over, the humidity level goes down quite a bit. Our overnight lows are in the 50s and our daytime highs are low 80's. We've already winterized the evaporative cooler and haven't turned on the heater yet. We love that the trees are just barely starting to change color and it causes in us a want to put away shorts and pull out long pants and long sleeves.

But you know what?!? Those are all great and terrific but the reason we look forward to the end of september the most is because it's the end of the Fiscal year at my husband's work! October begins the new fiscal year. His work hands out their yearly bonuses and raises at the end of September that take effect in October. We were expecting to find out soon, and hoping with fingers crossed that it would be a good year. We have debt to pay off from the bathroom remodel! I mean come on! We started hearing rumor's that the raise's and bonuses were pretty good this year, but we didn't know what that meant for us.

Today I sat on the couch while the kids played in the backyard waiting for my hubby to come home from work. I had already started dinner which of course wasn't soon enough for my tired, hungry kids. W thought was going to die of 1. starvation and 2. of an imaginary something in his eye. My hubby finally walked in the door at the time I was about to either start screaming or crying or both. To ease my mood my husband slyly said to me "I have something that might put you in a good mood!" and then handed me a slip of paper. It's THE piece of paper we look forward to every year! The one with the bonus amount and the raise increase percentage! In the past four years a typical pay increase has been between 5-7%. This year was 14%!!! What that means is they increase the previous year's salary by 14% of that year's salary. This is huge for us!

We're totally celebrating, but not rushing out to go buy anything of course. It just feels so good to have a sigh of relief as far as the budget is concerned! I just updated the monthly budget today and felt like crying. We can get the credit cards paid off and then maybe after that I can get a new car. Our little focus is just getting too small. I need a car where there's space between the kids so they can't sit there and torment each other the whole time we're driving!

Best part is November is a three paycheck month!

Attention!

2006-09-25T16:45:00.000-06:00

Calling all mothers of little girls! Or aunts, or grandma's or older sister's or cousin's orwhatever!

I am in search of hair clips for my daughter! They seem to disappear so easily, and now I'm having a hard time finding hair clips at the stores that will work in her fine hair. I found a few when she was just a newborn, looking back now I should have bought them all! They were circo brand at Target in the baby aisle next to the socks. Apparently Target doesn't seem them anymore! They're the only one's that will work, the goody brand are for thicker hair and just won't stay in her hair. Here is what I have found. The green heart and yellow star kind seem to stay in her hair the best.

Now here is where you all come in. I want to know where you find hair clips for your daughters, neices or granddaughters. What brands to you like, where do you find them? Have YOU seen these clips at your local Target stores? If you have PLEASE pick them up for me, I'll pay you for the cost of them and the shipping! I'm serious!

My next beg: What do I do with her hair? It's starting to grow out, it tend to grow in the back faster then the front. I have been consistant at trimming her hair along her neckline till it all grows out to be a cute little bob. The hair in the front is barely long enough to go into a hair clip. Oh and she has this funny little curly-Q cowlick right at the back of her head, It makes the hair grow in one direction like a big swirl. This prevents me from putting her hair in a small ponytail on the top of her head, everything else goes forward. Here are examples of the two ways I do her hair. Suggestions are welcomed!

I have always hated staticky hair, I can't stand it even more on my daughter! I wash her hair with shampoo and baby conditioner and leave-in conditioner, it makes her hair really shiny and soft and no static! I know her hair will grow out and it will be really cute and I will be able to do lots of things with it, but what do I do with it in the meantime?

~Signed, a frazzle-haired mommy!

Are you talking to ME?

2006-09-19T18:59:00.000-06:00

"You must be talking to me. I don't see anyone else around. So you must be talking to ME!"

I don't know why I had thought that way. Maybe it had something to do with my tomboy childhood days. I played with my brothers and the neighbor boys, I was rough and tough and boys weren't known for handing out compliments. Usually they were handing out insults.

Maybe it was the clothes I wore. Maybe it was my dark brown hair that wouldn't hold a curl for anything. It was straight and it was fine. Maybe it was my freckles. Maybe it was being told I would have big thighs by my grandma and being told I was flat-chested by my "friends" in junior high school. I guess I just always thought beauty lied with being blonde with or without curls, and skin unblemished by freckles.

As I went through high school and college the freckles and big thighs stayed with me. I dated a few guys. There were younger guys that had crushes on me. Was I pretty? NO way. If my self-esteem could have been crushed any more it's when I met my college roommates. I was the only non-blonde in an apartment of 6!
(The 5th blonde was so blonde and beautiful she was never home!)

There was a guy in my ward that could boost anyone's self esteem. Sam. He was a bit overweight but the nicest guy ever. Any time he saw me he would tell me how beautiful I was and give me a huge hug. He was such an awesome guy.

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

One night after work I just wasn't feeling up to going home and making dinner. I was 8 months pregnant, it was still quite warm outside (it was Phoenix afterall) and just the thought of my husband's "usual" of a chicken breast with some random Cambell's soup poured over the top made me want to heave. I stopped by Papa John's pizza on the way home. I placed my order and took a seat. I was staring out the window into a darkened parking lot just daydreaming. A young family with two little girls broke me out of my reverie. They came in placed their order and walked back out. As they walked along the sidewalk the youngest little girl looked at me through the glass. She then looked up at her mom and I was able to read her lips as she said "Mommy, she's pretty." I could have cried!

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

Saturday night was our date night. I can't remember the last time we went out on a date. Actually, I can, I blogged about it! We were about due and after the week we had both had we really needed a break.

We went to dinner at Tony Roma's. While sitting at our table, I noticed a table of four to the left and over my hubby's shoulder. Two couples; one younger probably 30's and the other older, probably in their 80's. It was an odd grouping but I assumed the older couple were parents or maybe grandparents of the one of the younger couple.

About half way through our dinner I looked over at the table. The server was going over the desert menu and I didn't want to miss anything. The older gentleman noticed me looking at their table and gave me a funny look, sort of a smile. I wasn't sure what it meant so I looked away, embarrassed that he caught me looking at them.

During our desert their table got up to leave. The next thing I knew the older gentleman was standing next to our table. I didn't have any idea what he was about to say. He leaned in to me and whispered in my ear "You are a beautiful woman!". I immediately blushed, he began to walk away and then turned around, nodded towards my husband and said "You don't have to tell him what I said", then he walked back over and joined his group. The younger woman asked him "Are you flirting with beautiful women again?" He turned back to look at us and shrugged his shoulders with a look that said "Oh well, what can you do?" He then walked away. My husband and I both just about bust a gut! My hubby said "I can't punch a guy with two hearing aids!" through tears of laughter!

I am nowhere near where I would like to be physically. I weigh 20 pounds more than I did before and immediately after my daughter was born, and 30 pounds more than I would ideally like to be. I've been having a really hard time lately and since seeing pictures of myself at my Sister-in-law's wedding in June haven't even wanted to look in the mirror.

This compliment couldn't have come at a better time, and you know what, the fact that he was a man in his 80's made the compliment have more weight. He's been around for awhile, he must know a beautiful woman when he sees one!

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

I was taught in young women's that one rule of good manners was to accept a compliment when one is given. Nobody likes it when someone argues with them when they have given you a compliment. So I've accepted the compliments that have been given me without argument. Maybe I should start believing them, they might be on to something.

His Talent

2006-09-18T16:15:00.000-06:00

He has always had this amazing fascination with cars. I guess I don't really have a problem filling that desire either. Ever since he was big enoug to push a car across the floor his fascination with having them in order has developed as well. We would often walk into a room and find all his cars lined up in perfect order like in a parking lot. We've seen them lined up two by two like a traffic jam. We've seen the cars grouped together by size, color, style (car or truck) and even specific type (all the Ford trucks over here please).

As he's gotten older the complexity of his orders has grown. It's been very interesting to follow. He has often freaked out if his little sister messes them up, and gets frustrated if the cars won't line up the way he would like them to.

So I guess this afternoon really shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. While sister was taking a nap and I was doing some internet searches he was playing quietly with a few of his cars. I heard him make many trips between the toy box in his room and the living room. He even came in and asked "do you see any more of my cars?" I helped him find a few.

About 30 minutes later he came in with a big, proud grin on his face and asked "Mommy come look at what I did!" He took me by the hand and led me out into the living room. He ran and jumped on the couch as I viewed his masterpiece. He grinned even bigger as I smiled, giggled a little and told him we should take a picture.

Every single one of his cars has been lined up perfectly around my kitchen table. He's attempted to line his cars up on my table before but usually it was one long line that began on one end of the table and ended on the other. This is a new level to his talent.

Who knows, maybe he'll be a car salesman, or a parking attendant or something along those lines when he grows up. :-) I believe he has the potential to become anything he wants to, including an engineer or designer or a rocket scientist that has absolutely nothing to do with cars, whatever the field I'm sure he will have a mind for organization and order.

Sabotage

2006-09-15T08:44:00.000-06:00

Apparently THEY didn't get the memo...

After the LAST one WE decided to wait a bit longer before having the NEXT one. Did you really think I could survive having ANOTHER one only 20 months later?

THEY are like moths to a flame to the "things". No matter where they are hidden they alway seem to find them. the "things" are in brightly colored wrappers and they're fun to throw around the room or collect up like treasure.

I've been "charting" for 7 months now. THEY seem to be drawn to my pencil, thermometer and paperwork too.

Do THEY know something WE don't?

Made with Love

2006-09-13T17:18:00.000-06:00

As if this glorious day couldn't get any worse! I go ahead and top off the day!

I burned RICE! Yes, that's right you read correctly, I burned boiling white rice!

Don't tell me how I did it. I started it to a boil and then completely forgot about it. It wasn't until the burning smell reached my nose that I realized what I had done. I went running into the kitchen to see the entire room full of smoke and smoke rolling out of the pan as well! It must have boiled over getting the water onto the burner, and then it boiled all the water right out of the pan! Here is what it looks like.

Every window and door is open in the house, all the fans are running full blast, everything stinks of smoke. I figured this being such a rare occasion that I mess up dinner. ;-) I better capture it in film. Here is the side of the pot. As you can see it burned the outside of it as well.
I didn't want to put the pan directly on our outdoor table so I stuck it on a scap piece of sheetrock that happened to be out there from the bathroom remodel. the pan was so hot it scorched the sheetrock.

It looks like we're going to be having plain burritos without rice for dinner tonight...

Personality Test

2006-09-13T09:25:00.000-06:00

There are so many of these personality test meme's, but I liked this one. There were a lot of questions so I think it was really able to get a look into who I am. I even learned a lot about myself through this particular test.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion		73%
Stability		20%
Orderliness		50%
Accommodation		76%
Interdependence		43%
Intellectual		23%
Mystical		50%
Artistic		76%
Religious		90%
Hedonism		10%
Materialism		50%
Narcissism		36%
Adventurousness		63%
Work ethic		63%
Self absorbed		56%
Conflict seeking		43%
Need to dominate		50%

Romantic		76%
Avoidant		36%
Anti-authority		76%
Wealth		10%
Dependency		76%
Change averse		43%
Cautiousness		56%
Individuality		90%
Sexuality		70%
Peter pan complex		56%
Physical security		83%
Physical Fitness		30%
Histrionic		43%
Paranoia		56%
Vanity		56%
Hypersensitivity		90%
Female cliche		76%

Stability results were low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

Trait Snapshot:
open, tough, irritable, worrying, does not like to be alone, craves attention, low self control, emotionally sensitive, interacting, sad, very social, aggressive, prefer organized to unpredictable, dependent, social chameleon, suspicious, values the heart over the mind, likes large parties, outgoing, likes to make fun, likes to fit in, mildly phobic, vain, makes friends easily, enjoys leadership, clingy, rash

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

A beautiful morning

2006-09-13T08:34:00.000-06:00

The day only started an hour and half ago and I am already SO ready for it to be done!

I had such great plans for today. I would wake up happy, while W ate his breakfast I would type out the post about the motivation behind starting my blog and enrichment last night after I got dinner going in the crockpot. Later on we would go to playgroup at the park.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My hubby has been having a hard time at work. Personality issues. He has a PHD "boss" that's over the projects he works on, he has his manager, and he also has a Safety Inspector that watches over him when they're out at the test site. It's this safety Inspector that is driving him insane. My hubby is a very laidback quiet type, he'll get things done, at his own pace, and usually its very good quality work when it is done.

This Safety Inspector is a micro manager to the Nth degree. He drives my husband and everyone else in his group completely crazy with his constant questioning about when they are going to do something. Something so simple as "are you going to pick up that wrench and put it away?" For the past two weeks he's come home from work with that sick knot tightening feeling in his stomach. Dreading having to go back to work the next day and deal with this guy all over again.

Monday he finally snapped, he told the guy off, told him he wasn't the only one that felt that way and that he would appreciate it if he could show him a little respect. The guy was totally shocked, and ran off to the PHD over my husband and another PHD, luckily management wasn't involved. But yesterday was the showdown, my husband had to meet with the PHD and the safety manager and they all had to "kiss and makeup". Being the sensitive, quiet person my husband was, having everyone in his building know that he had stirred up trouble made him feel worse then the actual confrontation.

To try to ease my husband's suffering I took the kids to enrichment with me last night. I finally got them off to bed at 9pm. Miss Syd didn't get a nap last night, and didn't sleep well last night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

W woke up at 7am this morning. I woke up with a positive attitude, got him some breakfast and set about to start on dinner. It's this delicious, beef & chipolte burritos that have to cook in the crockpot. Anyone who's cooked in a crockpot knows that you gotta give that baby time to cook. 7:30am start time, 10 hours cooking time would put it ready at 5:30pm right when we would be ready to eat dinner. I dumped the meat into the crockpot and opened the cupboard for the can of diced tomatoes. Couldn't find it, search the pantry, still couldn't find it. Okay, well I knew that I was going to have to make a quick run to the store to get a can of tomatoes. Just then Syd woke up. I brought her out, let her eat some cereal and then got their sandals on so we could run to the store really fast.

That's when it all broke loose. Both kids started crying hysterically. I had no clue why. I got them into the car, they're still crying. They cried to the corner grocery store. They cried as I got them out of the car, and when I put them in the cart they started to cry even more, harder and louder. I walk into the small, quiet grocery store, where all 10 people in the entire store turn and look at me and my crying kids! I hurried to the aisle where the canned tomatoes were, grabbed 2 @ $.75/each and hurried to a checkout line. There was only one register open. And all 10 people in the store were lined up in front of me. The kids are still crying as loud as they possibly can, and believe me they can cry loud. I stood there in line trying to quiet them down, at this point they were just looking for reasons to continue to cry. "I want candy. I want donuts, I want a toy..." They would ask for things, because they knew I would say NO just so they could cry louder.

By this point I'm thinking "I'll just make something else for dinner, I'll come back and get the diced tomatoes later", when the manager of the store ushered me over to another register that they were opening. The cashier asked me how I was doing I said over my crying kids "Oh, I'm good. And if you believe that then..." The manager was standing behind me in line and commented "by this point they've probably forgotten what they're crying about right?" I thought in my head "No, you would be wrong, they come up with new reasons to continue to cry", but said "Ya probably" grabbed my receipt and the cans of tomoatoes and rushed out of the store. I got them back into the car and hurried home. They were still crying as we pulled into the driveway.

We walked into the house and I headed directly into the kitchen to start putting everything into the crockpot. Syd was still crying, by this point I started to cry too. Oh, you think I lost it didn't you? You think I started to cry because my kids had pushed me over the edge? No, it was the onions.

"Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh what a beautiful day.
Oh, what a glorious feelin',
Everything's going my way."

(I'm sorry that it seems like the only time I write about my kids is when something has gone horribly wrong. But I guess that's when I feel I need the outlet the most. I do love my kids and there are moments when things are going good rather than bad, I promise.)

Where were you?

2006-09-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

I was living in Phoenix at the time. We had just had our 18 month anniversary 8 days earlier. My husband had left for work around 6am that morning. My job with the cable advertising company didn't require me in the office till 9am so my alarm didn't go off till 8am (PST) that morning. It wasn't unusual to wake up to the morning talk show people talking instead of music but as soon as the radio turned on to wake me up I could tell that something had happened. The radio Deejays weren't their happy, funny selves.

I jumped out of bed and ran into the living room and flipped on the t.v to Fox News Channel. Only one of the towers was still standing, the other had just tumbled to the ground. I picked up the phone and called Christy. She having two little ones I knew she was awake and had probably been for awhile. She told me that terrorists had high-jacked airplanes and crashed them into the towers and the pentagon. I think by this point the 4th plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. I sat down on the couch in shock. Christy told me that Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind it. She had some Pakistani neighbors; they had often said that Osama had been looked at as a hero, Christy and I only hoped that after this horrific attack they might find some way to support the country they live in now.

After hanging up with Christy I called my office. I talked with Sue. I worked very closely with her. She confirmed what Christy had told me and that so far everyone was to come into the office. Sue and my job was to put commercials that didn't air back into the rotation, switching them out with promos and free spots. She told me that for the past four hours not a single commercial had aired on nearly 15 cable channels. Everything was running live coverage of the attacks.

I hung up, got showered and dressed quickly and hurried into the office. By close to 9am most people were in their offices and Phoenix was quiet but there was an erie quietness to the city as I drove into work. There were no car horns rudely honking, people weren't rushing through the street lights; everywhere you looked people were being kind and considerate to each other.

I walked into the office to find the same somber silence. Every tv in the office (it was a cable company there were a lot of them) was tuned to CNN, MSNBC or Fox News Channel watching the coverage. I knew it was pointless to try to put the fallen out commercials back in, so I put started to work on the future orders. I remember looking up at the t.v. watching a reporter giving a live detailed report when directly behind her the second tower began to tumble to the ground and she along with her crew went running for cover.

I found it hard to work and hard to concentrate and it wasn't just me. One of the televisions was right above my desk and everyone else in my department was standing around watching the screen. I was only in the office for 30 minutes when our boss came around telling everyone that they were going to close up the office. Slowly the rest of my department filed out of the office.

My specific job at Cablerep was to build the playlists for all the commercials schedules for all the different channels in all the different zones for the next day. We knew that the cable networks would most likely not be running commercials for a few days. I built the modified playlists, finding myself alone in the office. The tv was still on. I took the tapes with the new commercials into the Master Control and walked back out to my desk.

It felt so odd and unreal to turn off the tv and my computer and walk out of the office before Noon. I went back out to my car and drove home. I don't really remember much about the rest of the day. My husband was at school. Did they let out too? I don't know. Did I stay at home for the rest of the day till my husband came home? I don't know.

I do know that the next few days were a very odd feeling. It felt wrong to be happy, and return to our normal every day tasks. I remember a feeling of patriotism so large I couldn't remember ever seeing the country so patriotic. The radio station arranged a giant concert for charity to donate to the families of the victims of 9/11. For many going back to their regular lives was easy, but down at CableRep it wasn't so easy.

Looking at the computer showing the commercials that played and the ones that didn't was a simple reminder of what had happened. The news channels were still running live coverage almost every day. Our clients felt the need to revise their commercials to include some sort of remembrance of what had happened in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. Some clients asked to have their commercials removed completely, they didn't want to appear as being insensitive for running their commercials so soon. And we in the traffic department did what the client wanted.

A few days later President Bush declared a day of prayer. Churches and organizations gathered together across the country. President Hinkley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints had arranged a worldwide broadcast that would include talks from leaders of the church and patriotic songs sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There were a few Mormons in our office, and just a few that were good friends with members of the church that were interested in listening to the broadcast. We gathered in a small office where a tv had been turned to BYUTV so that we could watch the broadcast. It felt so wonderful to stand there with other members of the church and listen to the Prophet speak and to hear the beautiful choir sing.

It's been 5 years now. You just have to look out on the street to see that people have settled back into their normal every day lives. No longer does every house on the street have a flag flying high. An email was sent out to encourage everyone to fly an American Flag on this the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I want my children to know that today is a special, solemn, sober day. Our main task for today will be to go buy a flag and make sure it's flying high.

This picture was taken by my Brother-in-law Sterling at the house in Idaho.

Eden and
Sariah in Vancouver and
Karen have very good posts about today.

Welcome to the blogworld

2006-09-10T16:36:00.000-06:00

Someone very close to me has decided to join the blog world. I know I've mentioned her in previous posts probably numerous times, so I'm so excited to be able to share her with my blog friends.

She and her husband and their two little ones (then) were our best friends when we were all living in Phoenix. We moved to Albuquerque shortly after my first baby was born and a few months before her third baby was born. Shortly after that they moved back to Portland. We have kept in touch over the past 4 years and try to see each other whenever my family would make it up to Washington. Things working out the way they do and He started go back to school to prepare for Dental School. They moved their now family of four children across the country to Upstate New York to begin Dental School.

Being far away from family and friends she has now been encouraged to start a blog. Hopefully she'll eventually write and post pictures. She is a wonderful woman and I have been so blessed to know her and have her in my life. Her children ARE my neices and nephews and I love and miss them all so much. I hope that she'll be just as inspiring in your lives as she has been in mine.

Welcome to the blog world Christy, glad you could come. So far she hasn't written any posts but I'll hold out hope that will change. Click here if you want to see her blog.

What's in the bag?

2006-09-07T13:30:00.000-06:00

I saw this on Alyson's blog and thought it might be kinda fun. The question is posed :What's in your makeup bag? Then you show using pictures what's in your bag.

Here is my makeup bag. As you can see it's not even a bag. I have used a plastic box ever since I was in college, it just made for traveling so much easier to have it all in a nice waterproof box. This is actually the second one I've gone through since college. My first one had a hinged lid and the hinges had finally broken off.

Here is my makeup bag with the lid off. Everything I need to do my makeup fits perfectly in this little box. If it doesn't fit I don't really need it do I?

I have always thought my eyes were my best feature. I love my eyes, I've never thought of them as exactly green. I've always said their hazel but that was until I learned what a true hazel eye looks like. So now I just say they're green. Because I think my eyes are my best feature I try to enhance them. This is a picture of all my assorted eye makeup. My 7 eye liners on on the left. They're all covergirl self-sharpening pencils. They just seem to go on the best for me. In the middle are all my eye shadows. They're from Merle Norman. At the top are two mascaras, the smaller one was a free sample from Merle Norman and the other is Revlon Fabulash. I am always trying out new mascaras looking for the one that makes my lashes look the longest. I won't be buying this brand again. It comes out all clumpy but so far it doesn't go on my lashes very clumpy. Next to the mascara is my eyelash curler, and below that is my favorite makeup item ever. It's an Automatic Shadow Base. It's a cream that you put over your entire eyelid before applying any shadow. It helps the shadow stay in place and keeps the shadow from settling in the creases of the eye. On the far right are my shadow brushes. Biggest to smallest from left to right.

These are my lipsticks, chapstick, lip gloss and lipstick pencil sharpener. The lipstick pencils are from Merle Norman, there is lipliner on one end and lipstick on the other. Next to it is softlips chapstick. The tube of lipstick was a free sample from Merle Norman. On any given day I will use these in any combination depending on how much or how little color I want on my lips. On an average day I will usually just wear lipgloss or chapstick.

During the summer I don't really like to wear foundation. It feels thick, and I perspire on my face quite a bit and I just want something light. This summer I have opted to use the sunless tanner on my face. Then a little powder to just there's no shine. I have my blush brush, with more sample containers of blush and bronzer. I don't use the bronzer very often. The tube of lipstick is also used as a quick way to add color to my cheeks without using a powder. Just apply to the cheekbone and rub in. After all the makeup has been taken out of my makeup bag this is what is left at the bottom. Lots of clips to help keep my hair out of my face. I've discovered that I'm also starting to get a collection of my daughter's clips in my bag too.

It wasn't until 2 year of marriage that I learned the proper way to apply makeup, along with the colors best for my eyes and skintone. I love going to Merle Norman because I can sit at the counter and they will help me with every single thing till I walk out of the store happy that I have found the colors that work best for me. I don't wear makeup everyday, but on the days when I do I apply it only once in the morning and that's it. Part of being a woodwind musician is accepting the fact that you don't get to wear lipstick. It would always be all over my clarinet reed by the time I'm done. Chapstick is a clarinet player's best friend, so when I do get to put lipstick on, again it's only once and hope it lasts.

I've now shown you what's in my makeup bag. What's in yours?

A Very Labored Day!

2006-09-05T09:01:00.000-06:00

After reading Feathersky's post the other day about "Thomas and the very bad Day" I felt for her, I really did. But then I had a repeat of hers yesterday and I felt for her that much more!

Yesterday being that it was Labor Day felt like a good day to try to accomplish some work on our bathroom. Being as it is that we have two young children that have a tendancy to like to help in their own little ways it really ends up being my hubby that does the work and I keep the kids busy with doing something else. We have learned from experience that it's best when I take the kids somewhere outside of the house than it is to stay home and have them banging on the door because they want daddy who is locked behind it.

Monday's are kids get in free days at the zoo. It's awesome. We've gone during the summer when school was out and it wasn't too crowded, and we've gone once school was back in session and that was just wonderful, there were hardly any people at the zoo at all. I figured that a holiday would be like a day during the summer or at the very worst a Saturday, and thought it would be the best way to spend our time so daddy could get a lot done.

I loaded up the kids into the car and we went to lunch at McDonalds first. My first mistake, picking a McDonald's without a playplace. The kids were disappointed at first, but once they started eating and remembering that we were going to the zoo they quickly cheered and everything was well. We finished our lunch with very happy faces and full tummies and loaded back into the car.

When I was still two blocks away from the zoo I knew immediately that the place was going to be a ZOO! As I got closer my suspicions were confirmed. There were people every where, cars parked on the street and that the baseball park across the street, there were cars weaving in and out of aisles looking for a place to park. I said quietly to the kids in the backseat that it looked like it would be too busy for us to go to the zoo. W about melted onto the floormats right there on the spot. To ease the mounting meltdown I told him that we would drive through the parking lot and if we could find a place to park we would go to the zoo. We wandered up and down every aisle looking for a spot to pull into. It just wasn't in the cards for that day. We drove away from the zoo sad, and forlorned trying to figure out what to do at that point.

I figured we might go by the aquarium/botanic garden, it couldn't possibly be as busy as the zoo was. As we drove down Central Ave (old Route 66) I comforted W by telling him we'd see if maybe we could go to the aquarium instead. He perked up and got himself excited about seeing the sharks and turtles. I pulled the car into the parking lot and it was the same picture we had seen at the zoo. I tried to comfort a disappointed (again) son as we meandered through the parking lot. Once again we pulled back out on to the street depressed.

W wasn't happy at all by this point. He had been let down two times now (three if you count the McDonalds). He didn't want to go home, and I COULDN'T go home till I got the "all clear" call from my hubby. I was trying to be quick on my feet. What could we do now that could take up at least an hour? I then suggested that we go to the park. The kids were okay with that idea, so west on Central Ave I headed again. I was just about to turn to head to the park close to our house when I received sudden inspiration! I looked farther west on Central when it occurred to me: Go to the Humane Society! The kids love to go there to look at the dogs and cats. Sometimes we've even had them take one out to the petting area so the kids could play. It was perfect! I could see no flaws with this plan. W and little sister were talking animatedly about seeing the cats and dogs. I pulled into the parking lot of the Humane Society, very few cars, a good sign! We pulled into a spot right in front of the building. I opened the doors and got the kids out of their seats. Walked up to the front door and pulled. The door didn't move. I tried again. Still the door held firm. I stepped back to look at the business hours, they couldn't possibly be closed on holidays could they? No, they're closed EVERY Monday!

By this point, my little ones could not take it anymore. They BOTH started crying and screaming right there on the sidewalk in front of the doors of the Humane Society. I felt like sittingdown and crying with them. But I couldn't, I had to keep on a brave face. I somehow managed to get them back into their carseats and buckled in. I began to think furiously about what I could possibly do to entertain them on a holiday where it wouldn't be so crazy, busy that I might start to cry! I knew they were very disappointed, and as I was deep in thought accelerating onto the highway W told me I had forgotten to buckle him in! Luckily the very next exit goes towards our house and the park nearby.

As I pulled into the parking lot at the park there were only 3 other cars. I scanned the playground for other kids. So far so good. I get the kids out of the car and we began to walk down the hill. That's when I saw them. A middle aged couple rapped in each others arms sitting on a picnic bench sucking face! I was so upset. I did not want my children seeing this very disgusting display. The couple happened to come up for air and notice my and my children. Even so we went to the other side of the playground where they would be out of our view. W and Sy spent a marvelous time on the swings and shortly after that the couple walked back to their car and drove away. Then the kids raced each other down the grass hill and back up again. While running I recieved the call giving me the "all clear". W exclaimed that he wanted to go home when he made it back up the hill.

We loaded back into the car again but this time went home where little sister took a nap and big brother showed daddy some seeds we had collected while at the park. While driving around I had told W that we could maybe go to the store and pick out a new toy. Lately he has been saving coins in a jar for a new toy instead of asking me at the store for EVERY-SINGLE-THING-HE-SEES! Or we've gone to "maybe that's something we can put on your birthday list". Both ways have really seemed to help him from nagging for everything and then freaking out because he didn't get it.

While sister was napping at home he reminded me of the going to the store to get a new toy thing. So we spent a good 30 minutes counting out all his change. He was a really good helper counting out the money. We then went to the store where he picked out a set of 8 cars. They were pretty cool, and with the left over money he got a new My Little Pony for Sy. It was really sweet of him.

All in all it was a very long and tiring day. But on the positive side we were able to finish up the drywall, get up some more wainscotting and even spackle a little in the bathroom!

Wearing it on my Sleeve

2006-08-31T13:17:00.000-06:00

I've often been told that I am a cry baby. Even by my most closest friends all throughout my life. I'll admit it, I am easily brought to tears. I always have been. My brother in law the other day told me that I'm not a cry baby as much as I am a person that is sensitive to other's feelings and burdens. That's a good way of putting it, I think I'll stick with that.

Music is an interesting medium. Music has the ability to stir emotions in you that you sometimes forget you have. Or maybe just those that you thought you had buried. I think music often has the same power over us that the sense of smell can. For example with smells you may go for years without smelling something and yet when you do it takes you immediately back to the first time you ever smelled it. I believe music can effect is in that same way.

I love to sing along with the music, especially on long distance trips and my drive up to Washington earlier this summer was no different. My car has a 6 disc player which is awesome! I have a 5 cd box set of Disney classics that I absolutely love to listen to, especially on long drives.

It was while listening to these cd's that I really started to think about my emotional well-being and the influence music has on it. Because you see for as long as I can remember there are songs that I have NEVER been able to sing along with because I get so choked up and about to cry that I physically CANNOT sing!

You may find my list of songs silly. I know I do, for you see I have NEVER been able to figure out what it is about these specific songs that stirs up so much emotion in me. Maybe someone out there can analyze my list and let me know.

Chim Chim Cheree-Mary Poppins

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah-Song of the South

Candle on the Water-Pete's Dragon

The Age of Not Believing-Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Feed the Birds-Mary Poppins

Best of Friends-Fox and the Hound

On the Front Porch-Summer Magic

When You Wish Upon a Star-Pinnoccio

You've Got a Friend in Me-Toy Story

My Name Is James-James and the Giant Peach

Stay Awake-Mary Poppins

I Will Go Sailing No More-Toy Story

That's Wat Friends Are For-The Jungle Book

Baby Mine-Dumbo

I Won't Say (I'm in Love)-Hercules

Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)

Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)-Pete's Dragon

This is a song that has caused me to cry every time it's been song or played since I was 8 years old. Even now as an adult I have a hard time getting through it.

Families Can Be Together Forever

Happy Blogiversary to me!

2006-08-25T10:15:00.000-06:00

Today is the one year anniversary of starting my blog. But I had actually started writing posts before my blog. In June of last year I had started a music department alumni yahoo!group. I had started writing little posts for that in hopes to spur conversations on the site. So technically my first post was June 30th.

But that's all right, I'll celebrate the day I started this blog with the web address "the art of patience". Hoping that one day I will be the patient mom for my children and husband that I always want to be.

Throw Me a Life Preserver Please!

2006-08-24T15:59:00.000-06:00

We're drowning over here! Seriously. There are parts of Albuquerque that have received over 9 inches of rain just in the month of August alone. Gotta love those Monsoons. They're micro-cells so one part of town could be perfectly clear skies and the other side of town will get a deluge of rain. This month we've been on the drier side of town. All the rain has been focusing on the East side of town closest to the Sandia Mountains.

The entire state has been under a constant flash flood warning almost every day. The soil is so water-logged and some of these storms dump so much so quickly the water doesn't have anywhere to go. Some towns after storms have looked like New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. It's been nuts.

There have been roads washed away, mudslides wiping out roads and cars. Cars getting stuck in flooded streets, every night there has been one news story or another that's been weather-related. It's been really humid and our backyard has been over-run with fleas. Kinda yucky.

On the upside we've hardly had to run the sprinkler system for our plants! Here is a picture of our front yard. It looks a little piddly but those little plants will be much bigger next year.

This summer we have seen the longest bloom on our Crape Mertle tree EVER! Usually it will start to bloom end of june/early july and be done by middle of July. This year it's been blooming non-stop since mid-june and here it is nearly September. Apparently all it needs is a lot of rain and cooler temperatures!

This was the sight when I walked in the front door after taking the pictures of my front yard. I couldn't resist putting it up too. It was just too funny.

I would put up some pictures of the backyard but it's about to rain but the sun is still shining so it's creating a weird light and we just thinned out the beds and some flowers are really overgrown so aren't that pretty anymore. The beds are mostly zinnias of all colors right now.

Life's like a Roller-Coaster

2006-08-22T07:53:00.000-06:00

So apparently my hubby is quite the roller-coaster enthusiast. I caught a glimpse of this when we were engaged and he told me "If we're going to get married you have to like roller-coasters." I replied that yes I did like roller-coasters, I had been on quite a few growing up. I thought to myself "how often are we actually going to be on a roller-coaster anyway?"

That's where I assumed wrong. For you see, any time my hubby can get on a roller-coaster he will! We went to Vegas for our One year anniversary. We had a lot of fun walking the strip, staying on the 10th floor of a hotel, and trying out a few nickel and penny slots. But when he asked me to go on the roller-coaster up on top of the "Seattle Space Needle" I laughed! "That things WAY up there!" I told him I'd do the New York, New York ride instead. But he thought that was piddly. The last day we were in Vegas we went to a outlet mall south of town, but when we were done instead of heading back up to the strip he headed the car south. Apparently there's a small little town called Primm, Nevada that has a "really cool, roller-coaster"! He pushed, pulled, prodded and dragged me onto that old rickety thing. As we stood in line the cars would rush along the tracks over our head. Somehow I ended up in the car all strapped in. You know how some roller-coasters start out nicely, just go up a hill or something before you go tumbling down to your death? That didn't happen on this one. We started high and the next thing I know I was going down the track that felt almost perpendicular! It went by really quickly so I guess thats a good thing. Unfortunately I think my newlywed hubby was a little disappointed with my roller-coaster riding!

I guess all the roller-coasters I had been on previous to being married were really tame! I really am terrified of heights. I don't mind being up at the height but the idea of coming down really fast that scares me. I even have a hard time jumping off the roof of the house boat at lake powell into the water below. Or when I went bridge jumping at college! Thats another story. The thing is, that even though I am deathly afraid I somehow convince myself to do it. Don't I deserve some love for that?

We lived in North Phoenix practically next door to DeVry when we were there for school. Not even a mile away was Metrocenter mall. Being that we were college students, and it was always really hot outside a lot of our free time was spent walking around the mall. Also right there in the mall parking lot was Castles N' Coasters amusement park. Its right there on I-17 so it's very easily seen. It's one of those things not easily missed. When I moved down to AZ I "knew" that we would be going there sometime during our three years in Phoenix. We did some miniature golfing while there, that was a lot of fun, but difficult to be patient when there were people in front of you you're waiting on and people behind you waiting on you. One mild winter day my hubby decided we needed to go on some of the "coasters" referred to in the amusement parks name. This was about a year after our Primm, Nevada ordeal. I "forgot" about the experience (just like a mom forgets about child-birth when she gets pregnant again). We went on a few of the small rides, and I think we decided to skip the wooden roller-coaster, for some reason I think it was my hubby's idea. We stood in line for the metal loopty-loop coaster. I don't like going on rides that make me go upside down but I was ready for it. (I thought!) We get into our seats and make sure we're buckled in tight. The car slowly starts to move, it gets hooked and we begin the jerking pull up to the top. Next thing we know we're screaming down, then back up, through the first loop, my head gets slammed against the back of the seat. Between the first and second loop my head went forward and it didn't go back against the headrest before the second loop. I went through the second loop with my head forward. I got off the ride with intense pain in my neck! Three chiropractor appointments and 6 months later it finally got fixed.

That was my last roller-coaster ride. I haven't been on another roller-coaster since. But that doesn't neccessarily mean that it was out of my hubby's system. My hubby, my 16 month old son and my 6 month pregnant self went to Orlando with my parents and grandparents. I watched as my hubby went on ride after ride with my dad at MGM studios and Epcot Center. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to go on the rides, but also probably secretly a little relieved at the same time! Two months later my hubby left me 8 months pregnant with an 18 month old for a week so could go to Cedar Point, Ohio with his dad and brother.

So it must have been like a song singing in my hubby's heart the other day when he saw his two children pretending to be on a roller-coaster when riding in the car. They've done it with me a few different times but this was the first time HE had been able to witness it. We have a sporty little car that we tend to like to take corners fast in, and jump over speed bumps and that kind of thing. When we go around a corner we hear a duet of "woah" and "wow" from the backseat. When we go over speedbumps they throw their hands in the air. When we speed up the on-ramp they throw their hands in the air, lean and yell. Now when we're all in the car together we're "encouraged" to throw our hands in the air over every bump, and scream on every turn. It made my hubby so proud of his children's newly discovered love without it being "learned" he had to brag to his brother on the phone that night!

One day my hubby will have his roller-coaster riding partners, and it won't have to be me trying to suppress my fear and look happy while standing in line!

It's COMING!

2006-08-18T12:47:00.000-06:00

You can feel it in the air! It's the topic of most conversations around town these days. The anticipation for it is rising with every morning! Can YOU feel it? Do you know where you will be when it happens?I know where you SHOULD be when it happens.

People ask seasoned vetrans how to make plans for the event. Problem is seasoned vetrans don't truly have all their plans set. All they can do is tell them how it works and what they can do.

Can you feel it?
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BALLOON FIESTA IS COMING!

The traditional spelling

2006-08-16T08:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday evening was the open house at the preschool W will start attending tomorrow afternoon. It was fun to go meet his teacher, find his classroom, get a little apple magnet, a new book and a t-shirt with the preschool's name on it. They got to play on the playground for a little bit, get their pictures taken for their cubby and have some fruit, cheese and crackers. Looking back the funniest part was when we were in his classroom.

The teacher was talking to another little girl and her parents when we walked in. I heard them mention the name of my daughter. I thought to myself, that might be weird for W to go to school with a little girl that has the same name as his sister. A short while later the teacher came over to meet W. My husband and I introduced ourselves and W's little sister. The teacher immediately made the connection between the two girls with the same name. The other girls mom heard and turned to talk to me. Just then the little girl turned and I was able to see her nametag. I got a little confused.

I asked the mom "is it Sydney or Cindy?" The mom said "oh, it's Sydney, you know the traditional spelling, like the city". I looked down at the little girl's nametag again and was still confused. Because as you see it was spelled Syndey. To me that was Cindy, with a very untraditional spelling. I looked back up at the mom and quietly said "oh, I guess I was confused because it's misspelled on her nametag." The mom then got quite embarrassed and passed the blame onto her husband saying "He missed happy hour." I then quickly said as they were leaving the classroom that my daughter's name was the untraditional spelling that ended in "n-i-e".

I found the whole thing quite funny, but at the same time felt really bad for pointing out the misspelling. As we were laying in bed my husband brought it all up again. "Oh, I'm sorry I guess the misspelling threw me off." And we both continued to laugh over it for a few more minutes, even though I did feel bad for pointing the whole thing out.

New Record

2006-08-16T08:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I believe W set a new record for causing me frustration. By 9:30am he had already broken his sister's baby doll stroller that she had gotten for her birthday and hadn't even had for a month yet, AND while I was putting it outside in the trash can snuck out the front door and took off down the sidewalk. Seriously there are times that I believe he has picked up on the traits of our old dog Jack. You know the little nursery rhyme "Can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man"? That little cookie man would be my son. It frustrated me to the point of tears. I walked back into the house and waited for him to come back in. He runs down the sidewalk hoping I'll chase him, if I do chase him he'll just run farther and faster. Just like a basenji.

A short while later a woman in my ward called. I've mentioned her before she's the one the kids refer to as "grandma jill" she's babysat them, and she's the one that did the Lake Powell picture for my hubby for Christmas. She had borrowed a couple of coolers for her family reunion last week and was on her way over to return them. She walked in and could tell I was having a bad morning. She turned to W and said "Go get your shoes. You're gonna spend the day with grandma jill". She took him with her while she ran errands all over town for 4 hours.

She called to check in after 2 1/2 hours. I asked how everyone was getting along. She told me that he was quite the "chatterbox". He had been talking nonstop. She then said "I can see that he is very bright. That might be the problem, you have to keep him busy that keeps him entertained or he gets bored and he finds something else to entertain himself which menas he ends up getting into trouble." Wow, she had him for a couple of hours and she nailed it right on the head! "She then said, "preschool is going to help out a lot."

Which leads me to my next story...

Injury Update

2006-08-14T08:06:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I've posted so I figure I'll give an update on the various injuries our family has endured lately.

Me: Two days after my crash on the top of the mountain we were able to get in to see an orthopedic specialist. They looked at the original x-rays from the urgent care office and took the splint off my arm. I was to continue to wear a sling but to try to extend the elbow and twist the wrist, neither of which were easy to do as it was extremely painful.

After a week I didn't need to wear the sling anymore but still had to take it easy. I was able to do more things around the house but still couldn't do any heavy lifting.

Last wednesday I went back in to see the orthopedic specialist. They did another set of x-rays where they confirmed that the injury is an "impacted fracture". The best way to describe that is if you were to hold a stick, one hand at each end and try to push the ends together horizontally (not bending). The point where the stick gives and it "mushes" together is where it "impacted" picture that happening in a bone, specifically the radial bone close to the elbow. It's doing a lot better now I just have to remember that I do have a hurt arm before trying to do something. Most of the time it's just a dull ache feeling just above my wrist.

Sy: As you recall Sy didn't get stitches in her chin. They just glued it and put the steri-strips on her chin. After a few days those fell off and too the scabs with them. Now she just has little pink lines on her chin with a slight indentation. With a little Mederma Kids it should heal well enough that you can't even tell that she hurt her chin.

About a week after the crash I noticed that it looked like she had chipped her front tooth. She had chipped one before it had even cut through the gums last October but now both top front teeth have little chips in it. She already has a space between her front teeth and now with the two chips the space is more prominant. But at least they're baby teeth!

I was just to the point where I was thinking everything was okay and that we would walk away from this event without too much to show for it. Ya of course, I had spoken too soon. The other day (friday maybe) when I was changing her diaper I noticed that the more recently chipped tooth was looking a little discolored. GREAT! (hear sarcasm please)

Yesterday at church I talked to a friend of mine thats a dental hygenist. She was able to look at Sy's tooth and told me to expect it to continue to get darker until it's black. As long as it's not causing her any pain and we don't see an absess developing to leave it alone. Right now it's a place holder for the adult teeth. When she's a little bit older we can take her into a pediatric dentist and they can put a cap on it. Because she got her baby teeth late, I'm pretty sure that she'll loose her baby teeth late and get her adult teeth late. I'm thinking those front teeth might not fall out until 7 or 8.

W: No major injuries to report for W. Just being a boy and being completely covered in bruises. Every day I notice a new bruise. The newest one that's worth mention is right at the end of his chin. On the bottom, if it was a scar he and Sy would match. From what little information I was able to get from him, he had been climbing up the slide and his feet slipped out from under him and he banged his chin on the slide. It was a pretty good bruise, but not it's just that yucky yellowish-green.

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

No more injuries to report. W starts preschool on Thursday. Tomorrow evening is an open house for the parents and teachers to meet the child's teachers. I'm really hoping that everything goes well and W doesn't have too hard of a time adjusting. I don't know how much help I'll be able to offer to the class with having little Sy at home too, but I'll do what I can to help him get settled in the new class. One day he's really excited about starting "school" and the next day he doesn't want to go to "school" so we'll see how it goes.

Hallelujah!!!!!

2006-08-01T12:10:00.000-06:00

My new refrigerator has finally arrived! After waiting for over a week I finally have a fridge again. I could have kissed the delivery guy when he arrived at 11:30am instead of the scheduled 12:30-2:30pm!! I could have kissed my brand new HUGE fridge. It's bigger than the old one! I'm so excited! It's still the same design, freezer on bottom, but this one has an ice maker! WOOT!

They took away the old one, and I looked outside to see the other delivery guy removing all the packing from my new fridge. Its then that I realized the door was not correct. When I had ordered and bought my new fridge I had given specific instructions that the door needed to be switched so it would open the other way. I had been told that was part of the reason why it would take so long for delivery! I almost lost it on the delivery guy inside. The two gentlemen were gracious enough to take the doors off and switch them around. And they also helped me find the shut off valve for the waterline that runs to the icemaker. They took down the Associate # of the salesman that sold me the fridge, they're gonna make sure he gets in big trouble.

Just as I was signing the paperwork, the phone rang. Both my kids handed me a phone, it was my brother and I would just call him back. After the delivery guys had left I called my brother back. I've spent most of the morning making a grocery list of things I need to restock my fridge. My brother is driving down from Farmington to Albuquerque to take a friend to the airport. He's gonna stop by! He's going to take me to the grocery store so I can stock my fridge. Because of my arm I still can't drive or do any heavy lifting so it was either have my hubby do the shopping on the way home or all of us go together. This way my hubby can just come straight home. I almost cried when Dale said he'd take me to the grocery store!

Yay for my new large fridge!
Yay for my brother coming down to ABQ for the day!
Yay for my brother taking me to the store!
YAY, YAY, YAY!

Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood...

2006-08-01T07:55:00.000-06:00

I have a confession to make. I love Winnie the Pooh. I never tire of watching Winnie the Pooh movies, I could watch every one of them over and over, which is a good thing because Disney Channel is showing all of them today except The Tigger Movie (one of my favorites, I cry at the end every time).

I have different Winnie the Pooh books, and a giant Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh in my children's room. (Though I had gotten the Tigger for myself when I was in High School, the Eeyore and Pooh were after W was born). I even did my baby's nursery in Classic Pooh.

With the help of my mom we painted the murals in the nursery when W was just 10 months old. Now that my little girl Sy is 2 and a big girl the Winnie the Pooh murals have been painted over, but that doesn't mean I don't still love Winnie the Pooh.

"TTFN-Ta Ta For Now!"

Jack and Jill went up the hill...

2006-07-23T20:18:00.000-06:00

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.

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

2006-07-22T21:59:00.000-06:00

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.

Rule of Thumb

2006-07-21T09:16:00.000-06:00

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?

All in a day's work!

2006-07-19T08:13:00.000-06:00

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.

When did I grow up?

2006-07-11T18:33:00.000-06:00

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!

I'm Back!

2006-07-09T15:53:00.000-06:00

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.

Quotes on my mom's desk

2006-06-27T23:30:00.000-06:00

There are quotes on my mom's computer desk. A few have been there as long as I can remember a few are new. If she stumbles upon a cute quote she'll write it on a sticky note and put it on her desk somewhere. I want to share the few that I've seen this week with you.

"We can't all be stars, but we can all twinkle."

"To the world, you might be one person; But to one person you just might be the world."

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." ~Dr. Seuss

and the one I've seen up on my mom's desk the longest...

"One day I shall burst my bud of calm and blossom into hysteria!"

Arr, I'm a Pirate!

2006-06-16T09:51:00.000-06:00

I first learned that phrase shortly after I was married. We became good friends with another couple in our ward. I've know I've mentioned them before, but I'll give you just a short recap. They were from Washington and he was going to DeVry with my husband. They had two small children, a 3 yr old girl and a baby boy. We often went over for dinner. I first heard Christy use the phrase.

Christy: "Oh I'm about to go crazy!"

D: "Why? What's the problem?"

Christy: "I'm stuck in the house without the car, it's 113 degrees outside and the kids are going stir-crazy."

D: "oh, I see. I'm sorry."

Christy: "When I'm frustrated I've often said to the kids 'Arr, I'm a Pirate!' One time Ciela responded, 'Mommy, you're not a pirate, you're a mommy!' I laughed and she laughed."

D: "I'm laughing too. I'll have to use that in the future!"

...and I have. I've become so frustrated I didn't know what to do or say. I've let out a sigh and told W "Arr, I'm a Pirate!" Then we both giggle. I've said it to Proud Mum too. It's become almost a code phrase to each other!

I saw this on April's blog and just had to try it out myself!

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Flint

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Have I mentioned that we've played the music from the soundtrack of "Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean" in our Concert Band? It's been a lot of fun playing it. At one point it goes to 3/4 time but it's so fast the director starts conducting in 1. So fun!

I am so way excited to see the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie!

Arr, Matey, want to hear a true Pirate's song?!?! "A Pirate Says Arr!"

War of the Irises

2006-06-14T11:08:00.000-06:00

When I see an Iris flower I have fond memories of visiting my great-grandma's house in downtown Salt Lake. She had a beautiful yard with huge flowerbed's full of irises. Irises need to be split when they get bigger and older. My grandpa (my mom's dad) would take divisions of the different flowers from grandma's house (his mom) and then plant them in his yard. As they got bigger and needed to be split again my mom would take them and plant them in her yard in Washington.

I see an iris in my grandpa's yard or in my mom's yard and I immediately think that it came from my great-grandma's house. Of course that's just a child's fantasy. I know they bought some too.

These are a few pictures of irises I remember in my great-grandma's yard.
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9

My great-grandma passed away when I was sixteen. The house was sold and now someone else is enjoying all those beautiful irises.

I have yet to take divisions from my mom's yard for my own yard.

I was reminded the other day of another fond memory involving irises. This memory wasn't of the beautiful flowers though. I was outside looking at my daylillies when I noticed that they were producing seedpods too but on a much smaller scale.

That's when I remembered these. This is a picture of a seed pod of an iris flower after it's done blooming. From what I've read if you leave these pods on the plant for a little longer they're dry up, turn brown and crack open. The seeds are inside. I don't ever remember actually seeing one stay on the plant long enough to turn brown!

My brothers and I thought these were the coolest things ever. For wars! We'd gather up as many as we could and pelt each other as hard as we could! I don't remember how it started, I'm sure one of us was mad at another and we reached for the closest thing we could throw. I think when it hit the other person in the back and it burst open we realized what kind of armory we had! We'd chase each other all over the yard chucking these things at each other. Sometimes they'd burst open sometimes they didn't and we could throw it back at the other person. I'm sure there were times when we'd claim that we hadn't been hit.

"No you missed me. It didn't hit me!"

"oh come on. Don't lie. I can see the welt on your arm! It totally hit you!"

The game would then continue with someone throwing another pod at the other.

It was a game that could only be played for a small window of maybe a week in the summer. But every so often the war would resume when we found a lone seed pod hidden in the grass.

Life is the Pits

2006-06-13T08:17:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite summertime treats as a kid growing up was a big bag of frozen cherries. As a family we would go to Grover's Orchard and pick cherries. I remember standing in tall wet grass under these old narled trees the limbs weighed down with red. We'd then come home, clean, destem and pit the cherries. Then my mom would either bottle them or freeze them as snacks for my brothers and I for the summer. We would come inside from a long day of playing in the hot sun and open up a bag of cherries. We'd sit outside in the grass and eat that sweet cold goodness until I teeth hurt from the cold or the cherries thawed. "Ooh, it's So Good!"

Our Stake had a welfare farm. They grew cherries, apples, apricots, peaches, grapes, asparagus, potatos, tomatos and countless other things. The food from the welfare farm went to the Bishop's storehouse for families that might need assistance. The farm was a way for people that have received assistance to pay it back you could say. The farm always needed help when it came to harvest season and I remember my family would often volunteer to go help. (Though I do remember not being really happy about the idea. Especially when I had to wake up at 5am). But I do remember that once we were there and awake we enjoyed the work. Plus there was practically a 2:1 ratio of cherries that went in the bucket as what went in my mouth.

Bing cherries are good. That's the kind most people associate with fresh cherries. But being the Washington girl I am I KNOW that there's another species of cherry; the Rainier Cherry. The Rainier cherry is really great for just snacking. They're my favorite. They always have.

July 2002 was the first time we visited Washington during the summer. I was so excited to show my Idaho-grown-potato-harvesting husband how beautiful it was there during the summer. We made a trip up to Grand Coulee Dam with my brothers. And we went over to Leavenworth with my parents, and drove by Mt. Rainier and through Vancouver, Wa. We stopped in Wenatchee for dinner on our way to Leavenworth. We pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and because we had our little dog with us we waited out in the camper while my parents went in the store. We were sitting outside on the bumper when I looked across the parking lot and saw a guy selling cherries out of the back of his truck. I started jumping up and down all excited. For one I was 5 months pregnant so was "jonesin" for some cherries, but for another I was so excited to introduce my husband to real Washington Cherries. The vender was only selling Bing's at the time but that was okay. My hubby wasn't all that enthusiastic about buying a bag of cherries out of the back of a truck until he ate one. He ate almost the whole bag in less than 24 hours! He was then on a mission scanning the horizon for more trucks selling cherries. When we got back to Kennewick he wanted more so we went to a local grocery store that I remember selling really good produce. They had Rainier cherries! I was way excited at that point. Though my hubby did like them he admitted he liked the Bing Cherries better.

From that time on we've bought a bag of cherries (or a few) from the store every summer. Even though they're not from Washington and especially even though to get them at the store in New Mexico is $4.98/lb when we had only paid $1/lb off the back of a truck!

The first tree we planted when we bought our house was a maple tree that had leaves that would turn red in the fall. Next were two bing cherry trees! This is the 4th summer for those trees. They do produce fruit, but they're kinda on the small and sour side. The kids have discovered the hidden fruits of the backyard. Cherries and Stawberries. Sy will go outside, point and say "bewwie, bewwie". It's so cute.

This summer my kids discovered what we had been hoarding/hiding. Every time I turned around I would find W in the fridge getting out the bag of cherries. Daddy taught them how to eat the cherries like an apple so they wouldn't eat the seed, but after a week of finding stems and seeds and half eaten cherries all over the house I needed to come up with a better plan. Besides my husband and I only got a small handful out of that bag!

I bought a new bag of cherries with the groceries yesterday but this time I had a plan. I would also buy a cherry pitter. Too bad Wal-mart didn't have one and the associate I asked didn't even know what I was talking about! I took a chance and drove across town to this little kitchen supply store called "Now We're Cooking!". Seriously, it's the coolest store ever, if I had extra cash and free time without worrying what W was pulling off the shelves I could go crazy in that store! I walked in and they asked me what I was looking for. I told them and they immediately pointed me in the right direction. The didn't just have one. They had three to choose from! From the low end, to the one that had a bowl where you just poured the cherried in and they fell into a little slot voluntarily where I could pit them. I chose the cheap one and came home. I set up the sprinkler in the backyard so the kids could play and I set to work pitting the cherries. Juice was splattering all over my hands, face and clothes. Soon the kids discovered what I was up to and for every three cherries I pitted I'd have to pop one in each of their mouths!

I finally got the pitting done, got them divided into two bags and stuck in the freezer. Just then hubby walked in. He walked over to the cherry tree and plucked an almost ripe fruit from the branches. I then whispered to him that he might like whats in the freezer better. He hurried in and got a bag before they were frozen, as he was eating and sharing with the kids he commented "these are even more enjoyable without the seeds!" I had to giggle.

I'm hoping that by putting the cherries in the freezer they might last a little longer. They won't all get eaten in one sitting. I've done the same thing with grapes and blueberries. It gives them a little summertime snack, and they don't sit and eat them all at once. I just hope my kids enjoy it as much as my brothers and I did as kids.

(P.S. I thought about entitling this post "Big, Black Horse in the Cherry Tree".)

Do you know?

2006-06-13T08:14:00.000-06:00

I heard this on the morning radio show on the way home from tennis this morning.

"What is the only word in the English language that ends in 'mt'?"

Do you know the answer?

It came to me immediately and I was yelling the answer at the radio but alas they couldn't hear me and I didn't win the 1 hour massage. (If I only had a cell phone!) But it made me curious. Does any of you know what the word is?

Meme Bandwagon

2006-06-10T14:00:00.000-06:00

THE NAME GAME (as copied from Julia and Karen and Heather)

1. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your Father's side/ favorite candy) :

Gloria Andes

2. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of your first name followed by "izzle", first two or three letters of your [middle] name followed by "dizzle") :

Dizzle Lyndizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal)

Teal Panda (Bear)

4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your name, first three letter's of your mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your [former] pet's name repeated twice) :

Dan-Vie Jac Jac

5. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The" favorite color, the automobile you drive) :

The Aquamarine Ranger

Like Proud Mum said on hers it's hard to think of favorites right off the top of my head. So this represents my favorites as of right now. My kids are napping, might as well do something fun with my free time! And for number 5 I used our other vehicle so I wouldn't be the same as Proud Mum. We drive the same car! WOOT!

Unsystematic Saturday

2006-06-10T13:30:00.000-06:00

Today I had the opportunity to play with the Albuquerque Concert Band for a G.E.D. graduation. A local community college provides a program for people to earn their High School equivalency.

It was interesting to sit there near the stage and listen to a few of the speakers talk about the trials they faced in their lives, and what made them decide to change their lives around and seek out an education. It was really quite inspiring and at the same time made me and others in the band comment afterwards on how appreciative we were for the lives we have led.

One speaker that was a part of this year's graduating class told of his experiences. He is 33 yrs old. At the age of two he went to the hospital for injuries from abuse of the hands of his father. At the age of 15 he dropped out of school. He worked in construction for awhile, and through that job he was introduced to cocaine. At the age of 21 he was convicted of aggrevated assult and numerous other crimes that were related to his drug abuse in Texas. He was sentanced for 10 years. After 2 years he went before the same judge that sentanced him. The judge could tell he had done a complete 180 and allowed his sentance to be reduced. He then returned home to Albuquerque and went back to working construction. He got married and had two little girls. While on a construction site the ladder he was on broke and he fell 18 feet breaking his shoulder. After two years of worker's comp the insurance ran out and his employer let him go. He didn't know what to do. He decided to go back to school. He got his G.E.D. and a few specialty employment type classes.

Another speaker only had 2 years of formal education. She was born in Louisiana. She and her 8 brothers and sisters were all abused. One day they loaded up into their family bus and drove around the country. They would sell things on the side of the highway in northern New Mexico. They spent a lot of their time following the Greatful Dead around the country. She was able to meet a lot of different types of people. While living in New Mexico she went to 1st grade and half a year of 2nd grade. She taught herself how to read using the "hooked on phonics" program. She spent most of the time while traveling the country reading books. From age 14-16 she travelled with some different people still following the Greatful Dead. She then went back to her family who were in California. After a few months she left her family again to try and figure out what to do with her life. She somehow ended up in Albuquerque and at the age of 21 was the mother of two small boys. With the support of her fiance she went to the community college to take some beginning math classes. She took the equivalency test and barely passed. Her english, writing and science skills helped her to pass the test.

During the ceremony they present an award entitled "The New Reader Award". It was given to someone that overcome the inability to read and write. They told of a woman that had dropped out of school in the 10th grade because she couldn't read. She had always been a shy and quiet girl and she thought that is why she kept slipping through the cracks. They told of how the woman felt that life had been so difficult for her because she didn't know how to read. Now today at the age of 75 she can now read and write. As they told the story of this woman it was hard to choke back the tears. When they presented her with the award everyone stood to applaude this woman.

The morning truly was an inspirational time.

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

My hubby also had a music related gig today. Actually 2 to tell you the truth! Two weddings on the same day. And with my band thing today our schedules overlapped. The older couple in our ward that has given us now TWO sets of tickets to the symphony are like honorary grandparents. They volunteered to watch the kids for a few hours. I'm so greatful for people that understand what it's like to not have family nearby and are willing to fill that roll. My kids refer to them as "grandma jill" and "granpa harold". It's really sweet.

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

Tomorrow I will most likely be leaving after church to drive up to Kennewick. It would be another trip for just the kids and I.

I have known for a couple of weeks now that my grandpa is dying. For awhile now he has had multiple myaloma. It's a cancer of the bone marrow. He's had diabetes for a number of years, so it was tricky to try to treat the cancer. They had to give him a drug specially for diabetics. About a month ago my grandma had broncitis. My grandpa caught it and it turned into pnemonia. Because of the chemotherapy he was on he had no way of fighting the infection. They took him to the hospital where they discovered that the chemo hadn't been helping. The myaloma had spread throughout his whole body. They gave him a few blood transfusions while in the hospital and antibiotics to help with the pnemonia. The pnemonia improved and he was starting to feel better but the cancer was beyond their control. He was released from the hospital but not to go home. They admitted him to a long term elderly care. After much prayer and fasting my grandparents and my dad and his siblings decided to stop having grandpa receive transfusions. Continuing with the transfusions would only extend his life by maybe an extra week.

It's almost two years since the last time I was in Kennewick. My daughter was only 3 months old. She'll be two middle of July. I am going up to see him while he is still semi-good health. I don't know if I could handle it seeing him going down hill.

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

I feel like the walls are closing in around me. Maybe it's that there is so much stuff between me and the walls that the rooms seem smaller. Whatever the case maybe I feel like I'm about to go insane. Everywhere I look I see chaos. With the bathroom remodel going on we don't have a closet. All our clothes are in the 3rd bedroom. This room has also been designated as the computer/piano room and the toy room. The kids have been sharing a room for a few months. Little Sy has figured out how to climb out of her crib. There was no keeping her in. Tuesday of this week I took the crib down. I made the bunkbed into two separate beds and bought some cute girly twin-size bedding. She's been doing really well with it. She has been taking naps without a problem and sleeping all through the night. It's wonderful.

I have this urge to purge. I want to get rid of all the baby stuff. The crib, swing, bouncy, crib bedding, carseats, maybe even baby clothes and toys for 12 months and under. When the time comes to have another baby then we would get all new updated baby stuff. I would try to sell the baby stuff through the classified newspaper at my husband's work. The money would go into a savings account to be used for future baby stuff.

Am I insane? Why do I have the urge to get rid of all this stuff? Is it the right move to clear the house of things that aren't being used? I feel so wishy-washy about the idea.

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

Today my hubby asked if he should become a jr high/high school orchestra teacher. He's been having a rough time at work. Over the past year there has been a big shake up in management. A few have retired. A few others have moved on to something else.

He had always planned on staying with this job for a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 10. One of the hiring perks when he got the job was that when he wanted to get a master's degree the company would pay for it. I had always assumed he would have started that immediately but after some discussion I learned that while he felt comfortable and relaxed with the job he wouldn't pursue other positions or even think about going back to school.

This morning he was looking at Master's programs at University of Phoenix. He said he gave himself maybe another 3 years at this job. (That would be between 5-7 years here).

I knew he was having a rough time at work, but I guess I didn't realize it was that bad. He's ready to move on to the next step.

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

Last night on the news they showed a restaurant on fire. El Bruno's was a favorite stopping point for my family on the way down to Albuquerque. It's a tiny little town called Cuba between ABQ and Farmington. A little (New) Mexican restaurant that seriously had the best chips and salsa I have ever had. It made me so sad to see it in flames and smoke. I immediately called my parents in Washington to tell them the news. My husband admitted he was bummed because he hasn't had the chance to eat there yet.

This morning my brother in Farmington called to see if I had heard the news. He saw it on the front page of a newspaper on his way to work. He asked how W was doing. I casually (and with humor) said "Oh, he's a terror..." My brother responded "oh ya. Like me." In response I joked "ya but you didn't have a younger sibling!" We both said "oh poor Sy".

He is driving me crazy. He's constantly getting into things, and he's pestering his little sister just for the heck of it. Daddy and I have both caught him pulling her hair. We've found him chewing up bit of food and spitting it on her. And she's come in the house from playing in the backyard with her hair full of sand. Half the time she's giggling while she's being tormented. The other half she's crying. It's the constant crying I hear from her that is driving me crazy the most! I don't know what to do. I've tried the normal punishments and they don't seem to be working.

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

I've now purged my head of all my thoughts. When do I start feeling better?

Of Singing and Updating...

2006-06-08T07:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we ran to Home Depot really fast. A few things I wanted to pick up. Sy was happy sitting in the seat of the cart and W was content sitting in the basket of the cart while I quickly wandered around the store. We had gone to Wal-mart just before and they were happy eating their popcorn chicken I got at the deli.

While we were standing in line W started singing. Specifically he began singing Dvorak's New World Symphony #9, 2nd movement. He doesn't know it by that title though. He knows it as "Rocket has come home" or "The Butterfly song" from Little Einsteins. (Sariah I know Aiden loves that show too, if I don't have my episode references right let me know. :-P )

I hadn't even noticed that he was singing, shortly Sy had joined in (though it wasn't exactly what her big brother was singing). I was paying for my purchases and heard a *noise* coming from the basket but I must have been tuning it out at the moment. It wasn't until the cashier I was working with and the one next to her and one 3 aisles down were all giggling, and smiling that I really began to realize what was going on. One cashier said "That's the cutest thing I've ever seen. Thank you so much for singing." She then began clapping. Another cashier asked if she could sing with them and she tried singing along.

The funniest part to me was looking at the kids and noticing that they could care less that they were putting on a concert for a large audience or that they were receiving praise and admiration. They were singing at the top of their lungs for themselves and them along!

My journey to Home Depot was to get new faceplates for all the electrical outlets and light switches in the house. The majority of them were this awful oak. I had hated them since we bought the house and always wanted them replaced. My hubby always tried talking me out of it saying that they were expensive, that they looked okay. Here's the problem: Like I said it was a majority there were a lot of normal white faceplates in the house. And the oak one's weren't all the same style!

I just couldn't take it any more. I knew the white one's I wanted were only $.25 a piece. I couldn't allow the cost to stand in my way any longer. Along with the faceplates I also bought some miracle-gro. With my bag of goodies I came home. Put Sy down for a nap and set forth replacing the faceplates.

To my utter horror and astonishment I discovered that the bright white faceplates I bought didn't match the lightswitches or electrical outlets. They're either an almond color OR they WERE white 25 years ago and over the past 25 years of smokers in the house and time they are now an offwhite/almond. In the entire house a few are white, but they were either replaced later or we had replaced them. There are a few others they painted over the top of when they did a sloppy job of painting before they moved out. So those are white but the paint is scraping off and you can see that awful almond color underneath.

I'm just disgusted. Now I want to go back to home depot and buy all new outlets and switches. (All the light-switches are those big fat ones that are the same size as a dimmer switch.) But those cost a little more then the faceplates...I went ahead and replaced them all anyway. I don't care that much. I just hate that they aren't white like I thought! : Plus NOW I'll have to do some touch up painting around a few in the second bathroom (that I just painted a few weeks ago) and the kitchen (about 18 months ago) because the plates I got are smaller than the oak ones.

Even though these new faceplates don't match the switches and outlets, and I will have to do some quick touch-up painting I do think it looks tons better than those oak one's.

There are a few other things in the house I would like to change too. But those will have to wait till farther down the road. Like replace all the bedroom doors or at least paint them. And I want to make a few changes to the second bathroom as well. It seems like there's always something that goes along with the ownership of a house...

Date Night

2006-05-28T19:07:00.000-06:00

Babysitter for 4 hours: $30

Gas used while driving around town: $5

Grout and Toilet Seat for bathroom remodel: $43.88

Tickets to the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra: $0

groceries for Sunday dinner: $23.17

A night out with my husband WITHOUT the kids and a reminder of our previous college lives: PRICELESS!

Evolution of Dance

2006-05-18T09:46:00.000-06:00

I saw this on this blog. I was laughing so hard when I watched it! It brought back many memories of church dances growing up! We did many of these dances. Just as a warning it's 6 minutes long, but my kids were laughing and clapping through the whole thing! Enjoy!

Helpful Hints

2006-05-17T08:32:00.000-06:00

(A few of these I've heard before, many are very new. Interesting list. Hope you enjoy a few helpful hints.)

THINGS TO KNOW

1. Budweiser beer conditions the hair

2. Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish

3. Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 minutes

4. Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair

5. Elmer's Glue - paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any

6. Shiny Hair - use brewed Lipton Tea

7. Sunburn - empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water

8. Minor burn - Colgate or Crest toothpaste

9. Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!

10. Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kill insect stings too

11 Bee stings - meat tenderizer

12. Chigger bite - Preparation H

13. Puffy eyes - Preparation H

14. Paper cut - crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of>sutures at most hospitals)

15. Stinky feet - Jello

16. Athletes feet - cornstarch

17. Fungus on toenails or fingernails - Vicks vapor rub

18. Kool aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. (Wow, and we drink this stuff)

19. Kool Aid can be used as a dye in paint also. Use Kool Aid in Dannon plain yogurt as a finger paint, your kids will love it and it won't hurt them if they eat it

20. Peanut butter - will get scratches out of CD's. Wipe off with a coffee filter paper

21. Sticking bicycle chain - Pam no-stick cooking spray

22. Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands. Keep a can in your garage for your hubby

23. Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls

24. When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with cornstarch and watch them slide on

25. Heavy dandruff - pour on the vinegar

26. Body paint - Crisco mixed with food coloring. Heat the Crisco in the microwave, pour in to an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice

27. Tie Dye T-shirt - mix a solution of Kool Aid in a container, tie a rubber band around a section of the T-shirt and soak

28. Preserving a newspaper clipping - large bottle of club soda and cup of milk of magnesia, soak for 2 0 min. and let dry, will last for many years

29. A Slinky will hold toast and CD's

30. To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste

31. Wine stains, pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.

32. To remove wax - Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel

33. Remove labels off glassware etc. rub with Peanut butter

34. Baked on food - fill container with water, get a Bounce paper softener and the static from the Bounce towel will cause the baked on food to adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also; you can use 2 Efferdent tablets, soak overnight

35. Crayon on the wall - Colgate toothpaste and brush it

36. Dirty grout - Listerine

37. Stains on clothes - Colgate

38. Grass stains - Karo Syrup

39. Grease Stains - Coca Cola, it will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. We know it will take corrosion from car batteries.

40. Fleas in your carpet? 20 Mule Team Borax- Sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Maybe this will work if you get them back again.

41. To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer Add a little Clorox, or 2 Bayer Aspirin, or just use 7-up instead of water.

42. When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you everwondered which is the freshest, so you "squeeze" for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie. They are: Monday = Blue, Tuesday = Green, Thursday = Red, Friday = White, and Saturday = Yellow . So if today was Thursday, you would want red twist tie; not white which is Fridays (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green - Red - White - Yellow, Monday through Saturday. Very easy to remember. Even the ones with the plastic clips have different colors. You learn something new everyday! Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.

Old Favorite meets New Favorite

2006-05-14T16:15:00.000-06:00

Old Favorite:

Since we were young my mom tried to introduce us to television and movies that we didn't normally watch on a daily basis. That would include musicals. My brothers and I would moan and grown but if we actually sat down and watched them we usually enjoyed it.

Along with musicals she introduced us to British comedy that would be on the local PBS station, usually during telethons. The two that we liked the most were Red Dwarf and Mr. Bean. Red Dwarf was funny and I liked watching it but it clicked more with my younger brother. Mr. Bean clicked with me. I loved it!

I didn't go around telling everyone I knew that I was into Mr. Bean. People I went to high school with either hadn't ever heard of him and I would have to explain it to them. Or had stumbled upon it while flipping through channels and thought it was stupid and therefore I must be a weirdo for liking it.

Two of my best friends when I was in high school happened to be Mr. Bean fans too. What's so funny is that Michael and Kevin had both "stumbled" upon it and got hooked just as I did. It wasn't like one of us had introduced the other two to the show. We all had been secret fans of the show. One night when in conversation, I believe Kevin mentioned to Michael that there was going to be a Mr. Bean marathon. I freaked out right there on the spot! I started screaming at them (not really screaming but you know what I mean) "YOU LIKE MR. BEAN TOO!" If we hadn't have been such good friends already this would have cemented us to each other immediately.

From that point on any time there was a Mr. Bean episode on one of us would call the other two to make sure they knew it was on. The phone call went something like this: "Hey! Mr. Bean's on right now! I'll call you when it's over! Okay. Bye!" Then we would call each other afterwards to talk about the episode. The three of us would refer to different episodes when we were together, and Kevin was the best and copying Mr. Bean's actions and sounds. The others around us wouldn't have a clue as to what we were talking about but we were okay with that. The three of us knew and that was all that mattered.

*****

New Favorite:

On Sunday afternoons my favorite channels are TLC, Discovery Channel, and A&E. I love to watch the homemaker over shows, and the "Sell This House!" shows. I try to flip around but I find myself getting stuf on Discovery Channel quite a bit. That's because I LOVE Mythbusters!

I think it awakens that little bit of scientist in me. That "figure out what it does or how it works". When I was in Junior High there was program called O.M. or "Odyssey of the Mind". It seemed like an elite club of the smartest kids in our class. But on Wednesdays the adult leaders of the group would come to my advanced math class (most of the O.M. kids were in that class) so the rest of us could be a part of it as well. We were given an assignment and a list of items. And we had to figure out how to complete the assignment using only the items provided. It had a MacGyver feel to it. I loved it and always wished that I could have been in that group.

Mythbusters reminds me of O.M. They have a Myth, with a little background info and they use what they have available and what info they get and try to prove it or debunk it. Being the wife of an explosives technologist it also gives me an insight to the possibilities of what my husband does at work. (It's all top secret goverment stuff so he can't really TELL me.)

*****

How The Two Collide:

This afternoon I discovered that Discovery Channel was having a Mythbusters marathon. WOOT! On the episode I was tuned in to they were watching an episode of Mr. Bean where he is too lazy to paint his apartment using a paintbrush. Instead Mr. Bean puts a stick of dynamite in a bucket of paint, lights the fuse and then walks out of the room. At the same time his nosey neighbor walked in just as it exploded. It left a silloette of the neighbor on the wall but the rest of the room was thoroughly and evenly coated in paint.

Just seeing that little snippit of the episode had me laughing in remembrance of how silly Michael, Kevin and I were. The Mythbusters task was to try to prove whether puting dynamite in a bucket of paint would evenly paint a room. They did numerous tests, using a lifesize room with a dummy as the nosey neighbor and also scaled down tests. In the end the myth was busted but it was fun to watch. Before they did the test I asked my husband if he thought it would work, being the explosives expert that he is. He immediately said it wouldn't work but that didn't make me not want to watch any less.

Even though the myth was busted I really have the urge to call up the guys and say "You'll never guess what I just watched!"

RANDOM!

2006-05-12T14:23:00.000-06:00

When I was at college I had become famous for using the word RANDOM alot. Okay I was famous for it in the Music Department and in my apartment. It was funny though. I loved saying it and I loved that people knew it was my word. It's funny how some of my favorite words and phrases kinda phased out once I left college. I used to say "You're Fired!" quite a bit too. It was great to use on friends and family members. Some would "argue" with me saying they couldn't be fired from being my friend or whatever. It didn't work so well once I was in the work force, people didn't know I was joking. They would say something like "you can't fire me." That phrase didn't last long, people didn't get the joke.

**************************************

Wednesday I walked to playgroup at the park. I pushed W and Sy in the stroller. I put sunscreen on them and on myself. But I guess on myself I didn't put it in the right places or enough. My upper arms are fine, I got sunburns on my forearms, backs of my hands (from pushing the stroller), the tops of my feet and my toes (from wearing my teva sandals), and the fronts of my shins (from sitting on a bench talking to the other moms.) You would think after almost 4 years in Albuquerque that I would learn that I burn easy and fast here. Being at nearly 5500 feet in elevation it makes the air thinner and we're close to the sun. I.e. I get sunburns!

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Yesterday was tennis day at the park. I remembered my sunscreen! Today was volleyball day. We had a lot show up today. We were actually able to play 6 on 6. Usually its more like 4 on 4. I found myself diving more today than I have ever. I got some good sets up and I received some good sets for some great kills. I'm very competitive, I've mentioned that before, and it just feels so good to play a good game!

******************************************

I've discovered that our little squirrel friend we've been seeing actually lives IN our backyard! LITERALLY! A few weeks ago we noticed a hole. We thought it might belong to a prairie dog or something. The other day I watched as our little gray squirrel friend was running around in the backyard. He was stealing strawberries and attempting to eat the flowers off my petunias. I'd bang on the window when he tried that. I watched as he stole a strawberry and ran up the cinder block wall. He was running along the top when he dropped the strawberry ran down the wall after it and right into the whole that I thought might be the home of a prairie dog. I caught him running into that same hole a few times later on in the day as well.

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Our bathroom remodel is coming along. I just updated my bathroom remodel blog. There are 4 new posts all with today's date. Stop by and check if out if you like.

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My husband's string quartet has 7 booked gigs for the month of May. They've had one already, and another 6 to go before the month is up. Then they have like 3 for June and 2 for July currently booked as well. I'm not sure about August, I think at least one. Maybe as we get farther along in the summer those months will start to pick up too.

*********************************************

If anyone ever decided to come visit me in Albuquerque I would suggest the first weekend followed by the first full week of October. That is Balloon Fiesta time in Albuquerque. Its in the fall, the weather is cooler but still very pleasant, and when else can you see over 700 hot air balloons all at the same time!

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Random is a great word. I should start using it more often. But then again it was fun to say it for many different people. The only people I'd be saying it to now are my husband and kids. They'd probably get tired of it pretty quickly.

I love quotes so I thought I'd share one too.

"Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you."
~Frank Tyger

Bathroom Trip

2006-05-09T13:32:00.000-06:00

HE needed to go to the bathroom. Though HE didn't tell me.
SHE went in to help him. I didn't know.
SHE likes to try to help wipe.

THEY had been quiet and I went to go check on them as to why THEY were being so quiet.

I walk into the bathroom to see THEM both standing in front of the toilet mesmorized by something in the water.

HIS underwear is down around his ankles and the toilet water slowly is rising.
There is an empty toilet paper roll on the holder.
It was full this morning.
All over the bathroom floor is remants of the roll.

THEY had obviously tried flushing it a few times.
The water didn't overflow. But it was close.

SHE was put in her crib so SHE couldn't be of more help.
HE needed a thorough bum wipe and underwear replacement.

I used the plunger for a few minutes to no avail.
Time will help the plunger work better later on.

The bathroom door is now locked.

Backyard Friends-Update

2006-05-08T08:36:00.000-06:00

Two mornings in the past week my son and I have spent a good amount of time sitting on the floor looking out the window to our backyard. What are we watching you wonder?

Oh one of these:

We have a new little friend. Its a happy little cottontail. This morning in particular we sat and watched him hop around in the yard for a good 30 minutes. We watched as he dined on his private little backyard buffet of all our plants and flowers. My son happily watched him hop around, worried when he couldn't see him and excited when mr. cottontail would appear from behind some flower. I watched to verify which plants he was filling his tummy on. He seems to prefer the big leaves of the hollyhock plants. He can't do too much damage to those so as long as he doesn't invite 20 of his closest friends for a party both my son and I will remain happy to watch him hop around in our backyard.

"go sit in the hall"

2006-05-04T16:53:00.000-06:00

It was reported on the news tonight that a 4th grader in Roswell, New Mexico was punished for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish. The teacher made the student sit in the hall. Apparently the Roswell school district has been teaching the Pledge of Allegiance in English and Spanish for many years. The mother of the child wasn't upset because they taught the Pledge in spanish but because she feels her sons constitutional right was violated. The school was asked if the teacher would receive any punishment for her actions. The principal refused to comment.

Just thought I'd pass this along. I think it stirs the same emotion in me as when I heard that the National Anthem had been rewritten in spanish, including changing some of the lines.

I don't want to go on a rant, but I just feel that this is the United States, the national language is english. Why then is there so much being changed to spanish to accomodate those from other countries?

Backyard Friends

2006-04-26T09:21:00.000-06:00

When the kids and I were in Utah we stayed with my old roommate and her husband. They are both great friends with my husband and I. They have two dogs, two cats and two chickens. My kids thought they had died and gone to heaven! They didn't get to play with the chickens but they loved talking to them through the sliding glass back door. The dogs loved the kids too. They had so much fun following my little ones around hoping for a few crumbs to fall to the floor. My kids really wanted to love the cats, but alas the cats are not fond of kids.

"W" especially was sad that the kitties didn't like him. He always treated the animals very nicely while we were there. But the kitties were just a little bit jumpy. Early in the morning or late in the evening the cats would come out of their hiding places. They'd be sitting there on a couch or a chair. "W" would see the cat and slowly walk over to pet the cats. The first few times the cats would bolt as soon as he attempted to walk over to them. Eventually they'd sit still for a few minutes.

One night "W" was petting one of the cats. He was so excited he came running to me and announced; "Mommy the kitty isn't scared anymore. She's letting me pet her and touch her nose!" He went back to pet the kitty some more and she took off. Ran down the hall and hid under the bed. "W" would follow the cats. "Kitty, don't be scared. Come back! Don't hide under the bed!"

Another morning the cats were brave enough to venture out of their hiding places. One of them allowed "W" a few precious moments of petting and then got scared and scampered off again. I was reading the newspaper when I remember hearing "W" saying "Kitty, please don't run away. I'm being nice to you. I don't want to scare you. I just want to pet you. I just want to touch your nose. Please don't be scared. Come back kitty!" I felt so bad for the kid.

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

We've noticed a lot of new backyard friends lately. The normal guests are here. The birds, the lizards. The other morning we noticed a bunny in our front yard in the flower bed. He was having a wonderful breakfast of something in our flower bed. The kids just stood there at the window watching him hop around. Another day "Sy" was looking at the window and I thought she was saying "doggie". She was pointing outside at something. I looked to see what she was pointing at. It was two big fat robins. She was so excited.

I've sent "W" out in the backyard on a lizard hunt. I know there's no way he could catch one, but he does love trying to find them. Our newest backyard guest is a little squirral. The funniest thing is everyday he becomes a little bit more bold. He doesn't run away as quickly. In fact this morning "W" was standing at the back door having a little conversation with the squirral. For a few minutes it was right next to the glass back door. Then he climbed the cinder block wall. I could hear "W" say "Don't be scared little squirral." The squirral sat there on the wall looking at "W" and my son looking at him in silence for about 10 minutes. This little squirral is going to be a really close friend by the end of the summer I think!

Flames, Smoke, Ashes...and Tears

2006-04-25T10:14:00.000-06:00

I am the daugther of a firefighter. And have been for nearly 20 years. My dad is the lieutenant as well as a firefighter and first responder(one step below EMT) with the local rural area volunteer company. A volunteer firefighter goes through all the rigorous training that a regular firefighter goes through but its more of a part-time gig. All the firefighters at his department have regular jobs and respond to calls when they are available. Being a fireman's daughter I have been to a fireman's funeral and some of our most favorite movies as a family are also very emotional for us as a family like "Backdraft" or "Ladder 49".

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When and Why he became a fireman:

It was a cold but dry December night. A week or two before my 11th or 12th birthday. We were going up to the church for the Ward Christmas Party. We were driving in separate cars, my mom and I in our car, and my dad and my brother in a van. My dad had done some body work on it for a friend from Church and was driving it to the Christmas Party since he was done working on it. We left our house at about the same time but I believe my dad had to return home for something so we arrived at the church a few minutes before they were supposed to arrive. We sat there for awhile wondering where my dad and brothers were. After a while we started to get worried. Someone arrived shortly at the party and told us that my dad and brothers had been in a car accident.

My dad driving the van he just did body work on was waiting for traffic to make a left hand turn. It being a more rural road there wasn't a left hand turn lane. There had been many accidents at this same intersection before so it had been habit to keep an eye on the rear view mirror. That's exactly what my dad was doing. He looked into the mirror and saw that the car behind him wasn't slowing down, reacting quickly my dad tried to get the van over to the shoulder hoping to miss an accident but to at least minimize the collision. The van didn't get out of the way quick enough and the car clipped the back of the van sending the van rolling over the shoulder and down a 10-15 foot embankment into the ditch. The local fire department was called. Although my dad and brothers weren't hurt too badly my brothers were really shook up. One of the firemen on the department was a man that my brothers and I knew well. He worked at our Elementary School, and our school bus stop was in his driveway. My dad witnessed the fear escape my brothers eyes when Gary began talking to them. He gained a deep respect for that man. Shortly after that accident my dad made the decision to join the fire department. Because of his rotating shift job schedule he was a great asset to the department. Unlike most other people at the department who worked M-F 8-5 my dad was available to go on calls during the day when others possibly wouldn't be.

I'm sure that any fireman will tell you, regardless if they're professional or a volunteer that there are calls that they respond to that shake them up. When we were kids my dad worried about the possible drowning down at the river, or the car vs. Bike calls. When we were teenagers he worried about the car vs. Car accidents, or car vs. Train accidents. Sometimes when he went on a call we'd get a lecture when he'd come home. "Don't you EVER do drugs!" We knew he had been on a call that was a drug overdose of someone close to our age.

I know that he has gone on a few calls over the years that have shook him up. Made him question his decision to join the fire department. I think any one in the medical field has those feelings when someone they're trying to save doesn't make it. He's been on a few of those.

Now that we're grown up I thought, (and maybe he did too) that the particular calls wouldn't effect him so much. But just like how my brothers and I grew up our friends did too. A year and a half ago my dad responded to a medical call. An 18 month old in fever induced coma. My dad along with the others on call were able to get the child breathing and rush him to the hospital. Only about a month later did my dad find out that little boy was the son of my high school best friend.

So on Friday night when I received a phone call from my dad asking me to give extra hugs and kisses to my little ones and tell them that grandpa loves them I knew that he had gone on a call that shook him up greatly. He said that he had a bad day and would be awhile before he could sleep well again.

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This is what happened:

Friday afternoon around 2pm my dad was preparing to leave for work. All the fireman at my dad's department carry around a pager, as well as having a box in the house. When a call goes into the 911 center they send out a specific tone. Each department in the area has a different tone. Well the tones went out on the box in the house and on the pager on my dad's belt. There was a brief description of a fire and then the address. My dad ran out the door but instead of jumping into the car to rush to the fire department he ran out into the driveway and to the house next door. You see the address they listed was just two numbers off from my parents address so my dad knew it was the house next door. He ran out expecting to see a little smoke curling out the front door, instead he saw the house almost fully engulfed with the mother screaming in the front yard. My dad ran to her, she was screaming that her child was still in inside, and my dad fought to keep her from running back into the house. He waited on the long gravel driveway for the trucks to arrive. He worked to keep the lane clear so the big trucks could get down to the end of the gravel road. When the trucks arrived he immediately started running the trucks while the man who drove the truck got his equipment on and went into the house. The little manufactured home went up quickly. They worked to put the fire out. The found the little body of a 3 year old in the child's bedroom. It had been too late. The little boy died in the fire.

The 3 yr old had been playing with a lighter in his bedroom. The 5 yr old brother came in and saw a fire and ran to tell his mom. The mom sent the 5 yr old out the front door to the other neighbor's house to call 911. The 3 yr old fearing he would be in trouble hid in his room.

After retelling the events my dad said to me "I guess your dad's not Superman anymore." It broke my heart to hear him say that. He questioned his actions. He said "if only I had gotten there a few minutes earlier and I knew which window was the child's bedroom I could have gone through the window." I tried to comfort him as well as I could. I was crying on the other end of the phone as well and he knew it.

I haven't talked to my family since that phone call. But I did receive an email from my mom this morning. There has been a lot of media coming down the gravel lane, and just a lot of curious "lookers" wanting to see the scene. Whenever there is an incident like this the department holds a special meeting to allow the guys to vent their feelings. My dad wasn't able to attend because of his normal job, so a close friend from the department is coming over tonight to visit with my dad and make sure he's doing okay.

I am so proud of my dad. He saw a place where he could help the community. He's helped countless numbers of people. He has made life long friends and touched many peoples lives. But every so often there is an event like this that reminds us that firemen aren't men of steel, they aren't Superman. First and foremost they are husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and also grandfathers. I know my dad's emotional wounds will heal, but I also know that he will never become hardened so that things like this won't effect him. I doubt any fireman has.

Bringing together

2006-04-21T09:07:00.000-06:00

You might have noticed an absence of writing and commenting from me lately. That's because I've spent the last week in Utah. I thought it would be nice for my children to spend time with their grandparents. Living far away from both sets makes it hard on them.

They were able to visit with aunts, and uncles, both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles, second cousins, and even an honorary aunt and uncle.

Too bad that this is the time that my children decided it would be good to go through their shy clingy stage.

Bridges

2006-04-07T16:08:00.000-06:00

According to the dictionary "a bridge is a structure spanning and providing passage over a gap or barrier, such as a river or roadway." Or a canyon, or a canyon WITH a river. I've known a number of bridges in my life. These are pictures of the Cable Bridge and the Blue Bridge that connect Kennewick to Pasco.

Growing up in the Tri - Cities you become used to bridges. The Columbia River divides Kennewick from Pasco and Pasco from Richland. The Yakima River divides Kennewick from Richland. The Snake River divides Pasco from Burbank, and the Walla Walla River divides Burbank from Walla Walla. And even if you wanted to go south from Kennewick you'd still have to cross the Columbia River before entering Oregon.

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Theres a joke: You know you live in the Tri - Cities when if you don't cross a bridge you haven't gone any place, nor can you.

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Even here in Albuquerque bridges have become part of our normal life. The Rio Grande runs right down the middle of the city. There are only 6 main roads that allow you to go East or West over the river. If there is an accident on one or MORE of those roads plan on sitting in traffic for a long time.

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There's this saying I remember hearing my dad use quite often. "Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it!"

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A random question by my husband led to a series of events that have caused me to think about the metophoric bridges in my life. I started thinking about different people from high school, I was curious about one in particular. If he did with his life what he said he was going to do when we were high school. I found my old high school year book from my senior year, I sat for awhile reminscing, looking at the different pictures and messages people had written.

I googled this old classmate. I found a little info on him but was not able to email him. I am so frustrated with these alumni websites that allow you to put your contact information on them, but you can't actually CONTACT anyone without having a paid membership. I thought I would possibly try to create a yahoo group for my high school class like I did with all the music majors at Ricks. I emailed my two closest friends from high school. Particularly because they're the only ones for which I have email addresses. One I've kept in better touch with than the other. I wrote them with my idea and how I came up with the idea. A few days later I received an email from the one I haven't been in contact with as well. Her response was not what I expected. She accused me of being nosey, not being a good friend to the people I DID have emails for (mainly her), and that I was just fishing for information about other people that would make me feel better about my own situation.

This email in particular has caused me some great reflection. Especially in reference to the different bridges in my life. A week after this email it was still bothering me but I was trying to convince myself it was something I just needed to get over. That same day Karen wrote a post that contained a couple of quotes, one of those hit home with me because of the things I had been raking over in my head.

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"We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."
~Tom Stoppard

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This single quote caused me to reflect upon my many metophoric bridges. I have always thought of myself as one that would never let a bridge be burned. In fact it was something I prided myself on. I was sitting there with a pail of water, any time I even saw a little cinder start up I was there in an attempt to put it out. Many considerations now have made me wonder whether I was really as good at protecting the bridges as I thought. Did I allow some to be burned without a fight? Was I not paying attention as another burst into flames and fell down into the cravase? Did I burn a bridge? Was I fanning the flames when I thought I was actually dousing the fire? Or maybe is it that my situation with no fault of my own caused some bridges to self-combust?

I always thought I was the one with the fire extinguisher. But perhaps I was the one with the torch? Or maybe I just turned a blind eye to the flame. I'm afraid that there have been a few bridges that can't be rebuilt, no matter how much I wish I could try maybe it's just not worth the effort.

Maybe it wasn't me that burned it down, but I'm not the one that needs to rebuild it.

Pets

2006-04-05T07:41:00.000-06:00

While we were sitting in Jiffy Lube yesterday waiting for the oil to be changed a 6 year old little boy asked my son if he had a dog.

His response: "No, just corn dogs, and hot dogs."

Cost and Reward

2006-03-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Price of Children

Something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.

It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich."
Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up.

You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs, and
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watching Saturday morning cartoons,
* going to Disney movies, and
* wishing on stars.
* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, handprints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God.

You have all the power to:
* heal a boo-boo,
* scare away the monsters under the bed,
* patch a broken heart,
* police a slumber party,
* ground them forever, and
* love them without limits.

So . . one day they will like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!

Love & enjoy your children!!!!!!

(I received this as a forward from my grandma)

A Photographer's Scavenger Hunt

2006-03-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

I had decided that I wanted to try out that 26 Things list like Karen has been doing. I am using the November 2005 list. I used my SLR film camera so I had to wait till I had all my pictures taken then get my film developed all at the same time. I am going to post each picture in an individual post. I took multiple pictures of different topics since I was using film. If you interested in seeing the alternates for some of the topics, you can see them on my flickr account.

26 Things: Majestic

2006-03-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

26 Things: framed

2006-03-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

26 Things: headwear

2006-03-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

26 Things: wrinkled

2006-03-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

26 Things: pattern

2006-03-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

26 Things: in season

2006-03-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

26 Things: upside down

2006-03-28T09:13:00.001-07:00

26 Things: behind

2006-03-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

26 Things: not allowed

2006-03-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

26 Things: next to

2006-03-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

26 Things: emotion

2006-03-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

26 Things: almost empty

2006-03-28T09:09:00.001-07:00

26 Things: a fridge

2006-03-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Left overs

2006-03-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

26 Things: numbered

2006-03-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

26 Things: stickers

2006-03-28T09:06:00.001-07:00

26 Things: up/down

2006-03-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Today's Paper

2006-03-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

26 Things: electrical

2006-03-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

26 Things: flaunt

2006-03-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Underneath

2006-03-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Understated

2006-03-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

26 Things: A Portrait

2006-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Shapes

2006-03-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Out Of Place

2006-03-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

26 Things: Let Go

2006-03-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

"I will name him George and I will hug him and squeeze him... "

2006-03-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

When I was in High School, one of my good friends told me that my hair should be in Pantene commercials. She loved to play with my hair, put it in braids or whatever. She would always say it was so soft, and shiny and silky, a beautiful color, and any agent would remiss if they didn't put my hair in a commercial. Wasn't she sweet?

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In college my roommates loved to touch my hair. It was a magnet for hands, and not just my roommates. It seemed like everyone wanted to touch my hair. If I didn't like people touching me it might have been a problem.

One semester I dated a guy from my field biology class. I would often go over to his apartment to study. He had two Samoan roommates. They were on the football team, and they were big guys. Andrew never left me alone in the room with his roommates. They were very nice, but secretly he told me he worried about a "Of Mice and Men" moment if he left the room. (Secretly I worried about that possibility a little too.)

One evening I was over at their apartment. We were sitting on the floor studying for an upcoming test. I was sitting with my back against the couch, when one of his roommates sat down on the couch. The next thing I know I was being petted. There was a hand on top of my head that was bigger than my head, just the weight of this hand was amazing. This huge Samoan football player, who could have easily crushed my skull with one hand, was petting my hair. The few times I had been over there previous he had hardly ever spoken more than two words to me, and here he was petting me like a dog, proclaiming that I had the softest hair he had ever touched. Shortly after that, Andrew took me home. It was the first time I was ever nervous when someone touched my hair.

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From the day my son was born up until he was a year old, maybe longer than that people constantly stopped me in the store to tell me how beautiful he was. With that bright white hair, and piercing blue eyes. The most favorite comment was he was a gerber baby. He should be in commericals. After hearing it from enough strangers I believed it must be true. My baby should be in lights! I called a Talent Agency in town and took my son in to see if he would be good enough for commericals, television and movies!

As I was sitting there in the waiting room, there was another agent sitting at the front desk. I believe he worked more with teenagers and adults. He noticed me sitting there with my 6 month old son, and knew why I was there and who I was seeing. Even though he knew I had been "taken" it still couldn't stop him from commenting on my hair. He said I had the most beautiful hair. For a brief moment I thought there was a possibility that I (or my hair at least) COULD be in Pantene commericials, then my son's name was called. If I had sat there for 5 more minutes I might have worked up the courage to ask what he meant.