my crazy life

folding chair

2011-07-06T13:20:00.004-06:00

We survived the heat in Vegas for Stars National dance competition again this year. It was over 100 degrees every day. We were either at the pool or at the dance competition. It was awesome at the awards this year, though, because BOTH of my girls were in a dance chosen as a judge's choice. There are 4 dances picked from the entire competition and it's a huge honor. The dance is performed again as an exhibition during the awards ceremony. This video is that performance. If you can, open it up in full-screen mode to get a better effect and to see their faces. Their facial expressions really make the dance. If I were you, I'd watch it more than once. ;) You need to watch my girls (who are by each other for parts of the routine) and you also need to keep track of the chair too. Oh, and keep an ear out for Ted and I. We're both yelling and laughing at different times in the routine. We just happened to be sitting next to the guy filming.

I'm so sad this dance is over, but it totally rocked. Ted didn't "get it" at first, but all the moms with daughters in the dance loved it! And apparently so did the judges!! :D

2011 competition season

2011-05-17T17:36:00.012-06:00

The last month has been crazy. We had all (but one) of the girls' dance competitions for the year. Unfortunately, 3 of them were scheduled back-to-back, so 3 weekends in a row were spent all day at dance competitions. Tiring!! However, the girls love it and they have a blast with all their dance friends.

I FINALLY caught Syd in the air on her aerial!

They have flipped her like this for the past 2 years. I've tried to stop being nervous every time.

This is the first year Savanna's been in a lift. She looks so graceful in it.

Do you see anything the matter with this picture? You probably don't, but I do. If you look at her left hand, she has on a ring. She is NOT supposed to! LOL The only jewelry she's allowed are those wrist bands, earrings, and necklace. Oops!!! Don't tell her dance director!!!

This is Syd's lyrical dance. It is so pretty and cute for these little girls. They have won first every time and even overall for their age division for this or their other dance at 3 of the 4 competitions (and at the other one they weren't competing because it was their director's competition and she doesn't count their scores in with the other teams because she doesn't think it's fair for her teams to be placed).

No, Savanna isn't supposed to be smiling. Throughout the beginning of this lyrical, they're all supposed to be straight faced. It is such a pretty routine. After competition season is over, then I'll post the YouTube links and you can watch the routines if you like.

Getting funky Cobra Style!! Savanna has some serious attitude and facial expressions in this dance.

All the little girls on Syd's team kill me with their facial expressions in this routine. They love it and have tons of fun with it. Sydney is always into her showmanship, in case you couldn't tell!

This is a really fun dance. The girls are fighting over the dance folding chair, and not just my girls, all the girls in the entire routine. It's such an entertaining routine! I love that my girls are together for lots of stuff in the routine so I can get pictures of them together.

At times it is exhausting and time consuming and expensive for my girls to dance, but they love it and so we do it!!

grief

2011-04-26T15:30:00.002-06:00

Photography courtesy of Portrait Creation and Utah Share.

going digital

2011-04-06T13:33:00.005-06:00

So, when digital scrapbooking became all the rage, I didn't think I would ever give in to it. And, honestly, I haven't in the way that most people have. I love to create hands-on in my scrapbook/craft area. I love cutting the paper. I love making things fit together and watching a fun thing emerge from it. So, as a consultant for Close To My Heart for about the last 7 years, I was a little leery when a few years ago they introduced Studio J, a form of digital scrapbooking. However, I tried it and I LOVE it!!! Everyone else in the scrapbooking world uses Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, which is extremely intimidating to me. I have no idea how to use it and really no time or money to take a class and learn. Studio J is completely FREE to use. Only when I want to purchase what I've created, then I pay. But to just play around, totally FREE. Plus, I don't have to download anything; it's all web-based. Simply upload my photos, pick the templates, pick my paper selection, drop my photos in the wells, add journaling, choose colors for the embellishments that are already there and I'm done!!! If I want. However, being me, I like to play around more and add more embellishments or change the papers up or even add an extra journaling or photo well. The possibilities are endless and it's AWESOME!!! I recently decided to create gift albums for family this way, and then of course get copies for myself as well. It's been a HUGE success.

Here are some of the layouts I've created.

Now, these are the first ones I did, so looking back, there are things I'd change, but overall I still love them.

This one is my favorite of those first ones I did. Mainly because of what it captures - my kids and some of their cousins and because, in retrospect, it was the beginning of a time of trials in our family and this was when we still didn't have a clue. Plus, I do love the colors and how it all just came together. Plus, the quote is so simple and yet so profound. It reminds me of how the simple and most basic things in life are really what matter the most.

These last ones are ones I did a few months ago. I love that I was able to choose how many pictures I had and then narrow down the layout options to choose from based on the number of photos. Another nice thing is, I can rotate the layout to change the orientation. If I didn't like the layout the way it came in because my photo was horizontal instead of vertical, there's a little button at the top that rotates it until I like the way it looks and my photos fit!

I love that I was able to fit 16 photos on this layout of my niece playing soccer - SIXTEEN!!!!

This is another one of my favorites. It took me months of just thinking about (not the actual creating!!!) to decide how I wanted to do it because I wanted something special. When I finally sat down to do these pages, this was what I did. I came up with a few of the more recent pictures but spanning different events and just stuck them all together. This one I added lots of extras to - the remember, the quote on the left page, and everything above the photos on the right page, as well as the heart on the top left page. The extras vary by which paper kit I choose so that they coordinate with the papers that I picked. Takes a lot of the guess work out, which is a hard thing for me. Having everything coordinated and then just being able to choose which combo I like, works wonderfully for me! The ribbons and buttons were already on the page, but they were "blank" - colorless - so I got to pick which colors I wanted.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I play around with these layouts over several days before I'm satisfied with them. There is actually more that the software does that I'm still exploring - getting rid of red eye, blemishes, and more. But I love it. There's a gal on YouTube who has created a series of instructional videos on different things the software does. I've watched a few of them and I need to watch more so I can learn more, but I have taught myself a lot just by playing around with it.

I have an entire family vacation album in the works from the cruise/Disney trip my parents gave all of us 3 years ago for Christmas. I have 7 pages done and just starting the rest. I can't wait until I have everything done and into one album ready to display and share with my family!!!!

I really love being able to just drag and drop my photos, play around with patterns and papers, adding some extras and then having them print the layouts and mail them to me!! When they come in the mail, I just slip them in my scrapbook and I'm done!!! Plus, having these layouts and giving them as a gift has been so fun. I've loved sharing memories this way and can't wait to share more!!!

lost

2011-03-17T12:55:00.003-06:00

Yes, I haven't posted in about 5 months. Wow. I had no idea it had been that long.

Today is St. Patrick's Day and I am a very cheesy mother who does all the cliche things, like bake corned beef (even though that's an American tradition, not an Irish one) and wear green and make my kids wear green and do cute clovers in my girls' hair. When I was growing up, my mom did the green food coloring in everything cliche thing - green pancakes, green mashed potatoes, you get the idea. Sometimes it was not very appealing. LOL It's amazing how visual we are about our food. So, today, yes, I have green on and so do my kids. Yes, my older girls have clover hairstyles with green ribbon. Yes, I have a corned beef in the crockpot. And, as a first, I am baking Irish soda bread later on, which is actually very Irish!! I also have a necklace (which I couldn't find this morning and will look again for in a bit) with a 3-leaf clover (or shamrock? I'm not sure which it is). However, I bought the necklace for a different reason altogether.

(I actually had a post about this that I posted right after it happened when I was blogging on Yahoo. However, I missed an email from Yahoo stating that they were deleting all the posts on their old blogging system and if I wanted them, then I needed to save them. I saw it too late. It's gone forever now. It was a very raw, emotional post. I can't even begin to duplicate it and I wish it wasn't lost because it would have been wonderful journaling to have. I remember my pain, but that raw emotion I wrote with then is not the same as I'm writing with now.)

For whatever reason, Heavenly Father seems to have plans for us that we aren't always aware of. For instance, Conner, Katie, this new pregnancy, and a few years ago when I had another pregnancy.

In early 2007, I found out I was pregnant again. I met Ted for lunch at Guadalahonky's with Conner and Syd and I actually told him there. Unfortunately, I also choked on some chips and salsa, so on top of dealing with a "hey honey, we're pregnant" announcement, while still trying to digest that news, then he had to run around the table to do the Heimlich on his wife. It was a little stressful lunch for him that day. He was a little surprised, as was I, but we were good with it. Another baby. OK. What I didn't share with Ted was the nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right.

You know how the instructions on the box of the pregnancy test say to wait 5 minutes before reading the results? I've never had to wait that long. It turns positive right away, every time. However, this time that second line was pretty faint so I did have to wait the 5 minutes.

Well, Ted and I had planned to attend the NASCAR race in Vegas, so we did. We took the trailer down and went to the race, had a little getaway for just us, no kids. While there I had some bleeding and some pain, leading to more uncomfortable, nagging feelings. I hadn't wanted to tell anyone yet, not until I'd been to the doctor, but Ted had told his parents and a few others.

After we got home, I had more bleeding and pain, so I went in to the doctor. He walked in the room and gave me my usual "Congratulations" and hug, but then he stopped while looking at my quantitative hCG results. I knew then that there was something wrong. He sat down and talked with me and said it looked like the numbers weren't quite where they should be and that he wanted me to come back in a few more days for another test to see where the numbers were going. The hCG should rise, but my number was a bit low. They watched the levels over several days and several blood draws, and my numbers were dropping -- I was miscarrying.

I'd known it. But still it was heartbreaking when I finally knew for sure. I sat at home for several days watching my body miscarry what was a surprise baby but was still my baby. I was barely pregnant. It was still developing, so while the medical community definitely did not call it a baby yet, any woman who has ever carried a child in her womb knows that there is an attachment and it's your baby from the beginning. I had known a friend or two and a sister-in-law who had miscarried and I had never comprehended their emotional pain until that moment. It is indescribable.

My doctor had been a bishop, so besides taking care of me from a medical perspective, he counseled me from a spiritual perspective and gave me so much reassurance about this not being my fault, that the Lord knows if it's not the right time for a baby or if things aren't developing the way they should, that he and his own wife had been through this a few times, and even that if that baby didn't come to me, Heavenly Father would make sure it came to one of my children. I really forget now everything he said, but I remember it all being comforting. It didn't take away the pain, but it helped me deal with the loss.

I had some wonderful friends who brought me flowers, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, hugs, thoughts, and more. They helped more than they can know. I remember sitting next to one dear friend at a church basketball game watching our husbands and visiting, and thinking I should tell her I was pregnant and then didn't. I was almost glad I hadn't when I knew I was miscarrying, but when she showed up on my door as emotional as I was, I knew I should have told her.

As shocked as Ted had been, the miscarriage was hard on him too. He brought me a dozen roses, all red, except for one white. I still have them. I keep asking him to make me a shadow box so I can display them somewhere, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe someday.

The kids had a hard time understanding what was going on, especially Conner - he was not quite 3. Syd was in kindergarten and Savanna was in 2nd grade. Still, they were very sweet and so good. They were quiet when I was resting and behaved for Ted or my mom. I have good kids.

I hadn't realized what a long, agonizing process a miscarriage could be. As hard as it was, though, I really think it was easier than having to deal with a cold, sterile procedure to do it for me. What was hard was having to save the clots that passed for the doctor. That added another level of emotion to it. I had small pieces that passed for a few days and then finally, on St. Patrick's Day, the largest pieces and pretty much the last pieces came. To me, that was my miscarriage. I remember just sobbing and sobbing. I cried a lot over those days, but when it seemed to be over with that, I really lost it. Poor Ted; he didn't know how to deal with all that emotion.

It took a while to stop bleeding, like an extremely painful, extremely heavy, extremely long period, but not like after giving birth. (Sorry, this maybe a lot of information here for some.) And the emotions took a while to deal with too. On my due date that November, I had another meltdown. I knew what day it was as soon as I woke up. I remember sitting on the edge of my bed and just crumpling up and sobbing. Poor Ted.

I don't remember when I bought the necklace, if it was that fall or the next one, but at Swiss Days with my friends I saw the shamrock/clover necklace in glass and I knew I needed it. I don't wear it often, usually only on St. Patrick's Day, but it is my little remembrance for the one that was lost.

look what i can do

2010-10-26T11:53:00.002-06:00

She just decided to follow her brother and sisters upstairs one day and if they leave her downstairs, she'll just go after them!! Dang my baby's getting big already!!! :(

heartbreak and excitement (aka nutcracker auditions)

2010-09-14T11:55:00.004-06:00

Saturday 9/11 we tried something we never have before. I took the girls into Salt Lake to the Rose Wagner Theater and they auditioned for Ballet West's Nutcracker. Oh my. I guess I had no idea really what we were getting into. It wasn't bad really, just a long day of waiting because they audition based on height and my girls were in 2 different height ranges, so they had to try out for 2 different parts. That meant early morning with Savanna and then late afternoon with Sydney.

I thought Savanna would be super nervous because she gets that way about a lot of things, but she wasn't at all. She woke up right away when I woke her up and got ready to go. After pulling her almost too-short hair back into a bun, off she, Katie, and I went. We got there and the theater lobby was packed. The older/taller girls were already there auditioning and then Savanna's group were all there getting ready. I think we were told there were over 130 girls trying out for the party girls and there were only 8 spots in 4 casts, so 32 girls total. That means about 100 broken hearts. We found some people we knew, so we were visiting and that and I didn't get many pictures (kicking myself a lot for that), but pretty soon my oldest was being whisked away downstairs to learn choreography and I wouldn't see her until she was done, 2-3 hours later.

Katie and I visited with the other dance moms I knew, then celebrated when one of Savanna's friends made it as an Oriental servant and were sad when another one was cut from the Ladies in Waiting. Finally, finally, finally at after 11 o'clock we were told the first release (or first group of girls to be cut) would be coming through the doors from the stage. As this time it was my daughter, I went over to the doors to wait to see if she would come through. My stomach was in knots. I'd heard other moms talk about how upset the girls got and even some of the moms. I was just nervous for her and wanted her to do so well. I knew I wouldn't cry if she didn't make it, but I wasn't sure if she would. As I watched the girls come out the doors, I saw one little girl we knew. She went straight for her mom but wasn't upset at all (what a trooper!!). I kept watching the girls coming out and didn't see her. Finally Kiley came up to me and said, "Savanna gets to stay." Oh my!! My stomach got butterflies!!

So Katie and I went back to settle in and wait for the next and final release, so we would know then if Savanna would be a party girl or not. Pretty soon it was time, so I went and lined up again. By this time, more girls were arriving to try out for the soldiers and another one of Savanna's friends was in this group. There were so many people there that I couldn't get up to the front closer to the doors to wait for Savanna. Her friend Lexie said that if Savanna didn't make it, she wanted to be the first one to give her a hug, so she pushed her way up through the moms towards the front. Katie had had it by this time, so I was trying to calm her down.

Well, we waited and waited and waited. I think we had to wait 10-20 minutes from when they announced it before the girls came out. As I watched more heartbroken girls come out and heard the applause, my stomach in knots again, my friend said that she was nervous for Savanna too and I could hardly see to know if my daughter was one of them or not. Pretty soon here came Lexie holding Savanna's hand and pulling her to us. My poor girl was in tears. As soon as she was to me, as best I could holding a sleeping baby, I pulled her to me and told her how proud I was of her. I've reiterated this many times since and also told her that she made it so far and I know she did her best. We were also told that this cut isn't necessarily based on ability but more on looks (hair color, height) as they group girls and try to have a variety. I told her that she made it farther than a lot of girls did that day. She also told me later that night that they were told that if girls are cut or drop out here pretty soon, there's a chance they could be called. That chance is probably so, so slim, but, to me, that lets me know she really was close.

This is the after shot as we were leaving the theater. Her eyes are a bit red, but she smiled great for the camera, even though on the way to the car afterwards and while we were driving home she was still upset. By the time Sydney and I left for her audition, Savanna had bounced back and wished her sister luck, telling her what to expect and giving her a big hug.

When we got back to the theater, I was expecting the soldiers to still be in auditions, especially as I found my friend there visiting with someone else. Come to find out, soldiers had already been cast and she was still there because her daughter had been called back to be Clara!!! She ended up not being chosen, but, wow, what an honor!

Pretty soon it was Syd's turn to head down the stairs to learn choreography. I couldn't get this shot of Savanna because there had been so many people there that morning and she ended up being one of the first whisked off down the stairs by the time I could get even close to the railing. This time there were less girls (Sydney later told me 72 auditioned for this part) and also less parents.

So, Katie and I sat and waited. My friend was still there waiting for her daughter to come out from the Clara auditions at that point. After a while, my mom and grandma had been over at the Greek festival down the street, so they walked over to visit. They were never able to see Sydney, but they brought yummy Greek desserts for me to sample.

After everyone I knew left, Katie entertained herself (and apparently everyone else watching her) by being totally fascinated with her reflection in the tile floor. Yes, she keeps trying to kiss the baby in the floor. She really wanted nothing to do with her toys, just her reflection. She'd talk to it, smack her hands on the floor, clap, and kiss it. Silly girl.

Pretty soon it was announced that there would be only one release/cut for the buffoons and that those girls would be coming through the door soon. So, I made my way over to that area once again with a nervous stomach to wait and see if my daughter would be coming through with a "thank you for auditioning, come again next year" letter. I watched more heartbroken girls stream out and waited. Pretty soon the doors closed and my daughter hadn't come out. My heart was pounding, as I had to wait some more. Pretty soon, I was greated with this......

My excited little girl who had made it!!!

So now, in addition to regular dance classes and piano and school and soccer, we get to drive to the Capitol Theater at least once a week for the next 3 months for Sydney to learn to dance like a buffoon and then perform. It will be an absolutely incredible experience for her, I know. Ted, who complains a lot about dance, was even proud of her and made sure she called his parents so she could tell them. Luckily, this is a fairly inexpensive dance opportunity, mostly just a lot of time invested. Unfortunately, with the make-up and costuming, it will be hard to tell which dancer she is up there on stage, but what an adventure for her!!

Sydney was nervous about how her big sister would handle it, and even the night before as we were at my parents' she'd commented that it would be sad if only one of them had made it. But Savanna handled it fabulously. She congratulated her and was excited for her. Before we even left the theater, my tender-hearted Syd said, "Mom, do you know what's sad? I made a friend and she didn't make it." As we walked around the corner, her friend was actually still there, and Sydney went over to her and gave her a big hug. What just hurts my heart is this little girl had been the one to befriend Sydney because she was being shy at first after heading downstairs for the choreography. Syd said Monet came up to her and asked her if she was scared and then told her to come stand by her. Oh my heart.

Such an emotional day!! I am so proud of both of my girls for trying something new and something so big. I know they both did their best and I know they will both grow from their different experiences with these auditions. I love you girls!!! You are my favorite little dancers in the whole wide world!!!!

life

2010-09-02T11:26:00.002-06:00

is crazy. life is beautiful. life is blessed. life is stressful. it's life.

Way back when I started this blog I had some crazy idea of putting up all my crafts, sewing, scrapbooking stuff. Hasn't happened. So my blog address is staying the same obviously, but my blog title is veering away from the creative aspect I'd planned on and focusing more on the life aspect. Maybe I'll throw up some recipes and any fun stuff I may or may not have time to make. We'll see. I wanted to promote my side business (er, hobby) of selling Close To My Heart scrapbooking/stamping supplies, but I haven't done that much either. I love, Love, LOVE their new digital Studio J, so I should post those layouts I've done.

Back to life. Kids have started school again, and that's been an adjustment. They were great babysitters for their little sister all summer!! Not that I went anywhere, I just got to work while they all played and kept each other entertained!

My dad had a stroke while out of town, been in rehab, and is just barely home, which has already been rocky. That's extremely stressful. Coping has been hard.

Katie's crawling and just generally growing up way faster than I'd like. Since she was such a hard baby, I never got to enjoy that snuggly, sleepy, sweet, newborn phase so I feel gypped.

Kidney infections suck. I started with one a couple weekends ago that had me down for 1 day, then up and down for another day, then I was feeling good. Nope, bam, hit me again this past weekend, down in bed for 2 straight days and on the mend now. Finally got to a doctor after the second wave hit. Should be on the mend for good now, for another 5 years or so anyway......

Well, no pics this time. My computer doesn't like reading a memory card with as many pictures on it as mine has. My friends who are so good about posting all their pics make me feel ashamed (kidding, well, only a little). I love looking at their blogs (even the ones with no comments so you don't know I've been there, but I have!!!) and seeing all their fun adventures. And then they try to come to mine and this is what you get. :D I'm going to Costco to unburden the memory card onto a CD, so better luck next posting. Some fun summer pics and pics of my kids to bore you with! :D

rockin bollywood dreams

2010-08-19T12:38:00.004-06:00

So, I mean to post. I really do. It just takes me a long time to type up stuff, so I don't. LOL I was going to post pics from the summer, since the kids are starting school in a few days and the last time I posted was when they just got out of school, but it takes forever for my photos to upload to my computer (all 900+ of them on my memory card!!), so I'll do that next week when they're back in school....maybe. LOL Instead, I'm sharing dance videos because I know you all want to watch my daughters rock the dance floor! ;)

Anyway, there's this great dad at dance who videos everything our teams do. Everything. He's at big rehearsals and every competition. He's so supportive. It's cute. Plus the teachers use the videos in class after competitions so the girls can see what they need to work on and what they did great on. Anyway, he's uploaded some of his videos of their routines to YouTube. So just in case you have some time and want to watch my girls dance, I'm sharing them with you here.

This first one is their lyrical routine from this past dance season that just ended. It won 2nd place every time because another team we competed against every time had a really pretty routine that the judges just loved. I actually never saw it because I always doing costume changes for my girls at that time, but I heard it was really good. Anyway, being biased, I think these girls do an awesome job!! ;)

This is their lyrical from the previous year. It's my favorite ever. It's so beautiful and they just blew the judges away every time. This is the routine at Nationals. I was so nervous because, as you'll see, they stopped them TWICE and had them start over and it flustered them a bit, or maybe just flustered me, because they won. They won the overall routine in their category and then their entire division at Nationals.

This is Sydney's team from this past year. It was a pretty cheesy, simple routine for them and I wish they would have stepped the choreography up a lot more than they did. They won 2nd place most of the time, then at Regionals they not only took first place in their category and their division but they tied for overall top scoring routine at the entire competition. I think based solely on their facial expressions alone because the girls loved being so silly in this routine. Unfortunately, you can't get the full effect from the video, but they were hamming it up.

Savanna's jazz routine from this year isn't posted yet, but I'll share hers from last year. They actually bumped her up to this team in the middle of the year because a girl moved and they needed someone to replace her without having to re-choreograph the entire routine. She did awesome! Though at this performance, yes, she's the one who slips and falls out of her back walk over. Oops!!

This year they didn't have to do the big show routine they've done in the past (show routines are huge productions and last usually 8+ minutes, a long time for dancers) because the national organization changed the requirements for sweepstakes. Anyway, to avoid the long explanation about it, I'll just say that instead of the big show production, our director opted to do this shorter routine (only 5 minutes) instead. A lot of parents love the shows, but I was really grateful not to have tons of extra practices that the shows have always seemed to require in the past. While they're really entertaining and fun, I like this shorter ETR (entire team routine) better. There are so many girls that it's hard to always find my girls, even for me and I watched this routine over and over last year. I've posted both their recital and nationals performances, because sometimes you can see them better in one or the other.

They've already auditioned and started learning choreography for this new year. The teams are different, restructured, and I'm not sure how that will go. It should be interesting. But they seem to love their routines already and the choreographer is the one who did Dream above (the orange lyrical one), and I just love her and her work, so I hope that's a good thing.

school growth

2010-06-06T15:47:00.006-06:00

I'm always amazed at how fast the end of the school year comes and all of a sudden it's summertime. While I love summertime because it means I don't have to be the mean mom constantly nagging my kids about homework and getting them up, ready, and out the door for school in the mornings, I love the school year too. I'm amazed at the good teachers they have year after year and all that those saintly, patient women have been able to deal with, with so many students all year long -- all those noisy, rambunctious, curious, energetic kids. Friday as I took a few pictures of my kids at an end-of-year party we were invited to by one of Conner's soccer friends, I realized just how much my kids have grown since last August and I had to go searching for the first day of school pics from the beginning of the school year. As each day melts into the next, I don't realize after a month or more how much they've really changed, accomplished, and grown. Looking back at and comparing these photos, it's been an awful lot this school year!

They've accomplished great things this year academically, but they have grown up so much too. I really think they need to stop growing, so much time has already gone by since each of them has entered our family and each moment is becoming more and more dear to me as I realize how much closer they are to leaving our home. Luckily, that's still quite far off, but not nearly far enough.

it's that time of year again

2010-05-17T14:44:00.013-06:00

...when all we do is dance. Not me personally, my girls. I just watch. And take pictures. And pay for it all. LOL

Every year Ted complains and makes me think they should quit, and then I watch them at competitions and their year-end performance and I just can't do it because they just keep getting better and better and they love it so much. Last year with their Dream lyrical routine, he agreed with me. He said it was the best dance they had ever done. And it was. It was beautiful and won 1st place every single time and a few other overall awards. So they stay in dance. And we continue to fork out a fortune for it.

Anyway, they've attended 3 competitions so far, with 2 more to go - Stars regionals next Saturday and then nationals in Vegas in June. These 2 are the most important ones for the studio owner, as the teams are part of a franchise. The girls have done well so far. We had to leave the compeition early last weekend so Savanna could attend a birthday party, so I'm not sure what the results were, but I thought they danced fabulously. Another mom who was there from a completely different team came up to me after their big entire team show number and saw me talking to Syd and put her hand on Syd to turn her around and look at her face. After she did, she told me, "She is such a little show-stopper, this one. I couldn't take my eyes off her!" LOL We get this a lot. Unfortunately, I think it may be going to her head a bit and she needs to be humbled some. LOL But she is too cute and puts her all into it. They both do. They work hard and it shows.

Anyway, their routines this year are a lot of fun. Syd's jazz routine is a character piece called "All For The Best." I'd never heard of the music before. Apparently, it's from an older musical called "Godspell." Anyway, their costumes are all just a bit different and they're supposed to be orphans. They do so cute and all of their facial expressions are just hilarious. Sadly, as far as competing, the judges don't seem to like it that much and they keep taking 2nd. However, I think they do darling and they have fun, which is what matters the most anyway.

Savanna's jazz piece is Michael Buble's version of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." I love it!! It's so dang cute and they do awesome. They keep changing it though. Every competition it's been just a bit different. The first 2 competitions it was an intermediate routine and this last competition they bumped it up to an advanced routine. Poor Savanna about had a nervous breakdown when they made the changes for that. She cried that night after practice, but we talked it over and I hope I helped her understand how to deal with change and challenges. I think so because she hasn't had a problem since and said subsequent practices have gone much smoother. They must have, because their routine looked great on Saturday!!

Their lyrical routine they're in together and it's called "It can only get better." It's so pretty and so are their costumes!! The first time I watched them perform it, I was floored. They all do so beautiful. As I was watching Syd at one part (which is the hard part of having 2 girls in the same dance -- can't watch 'em both at the same time!!) her facial expressions were incredible. She looked like her heart was breaking, that's how into it she was. I wish my camera that videos still worked so I could post it on here (or maybe we'll eventually get a Flip or something). You'll just have to take my word for it!

Their "show" routine this year is a Bollywood piece and it is so cool. I wasn't sure about it at first when they announced that's what it would be, especially the costuming, but it's fabulous. I am so grateful my girls go to a studio where I don't have to worry about inapproproiate movement or costuming. The director chooses great costumes that are still modest and also choreographs routines that are on a competitive level yet aren't full of suggestive moves or other such things (like other routines and costuming I've seen). The price of the costumes about killed me and they have more elaborate make-up for it, plus a traditional bindi, but it's a fabulous routine. I like the music too. It's fun and different! I thought it would be from "Slumdog Millionaire," but it's not. I need to figure out what it's called so I can download it on the iPod for workouts. It's very upbeat and energetic. There are lifts and tricks and just a ton of cool moves in this routine. The girls even taught *me* how to do one of the cool turns in it! I'm not sure how well I execute it, but it is fun!

So the next month is all we have left of this busy dance season. If you can't find me or if I'm late for something, there's a pretty good chance that it has to do with dance!! :D

katie's quilt

2010-03-23T13:57:00.004-06:00

Last fall I got the idea to make a quilt for the baby I was carrying. We knew it would be a girl and we had started remodeling. The girls had been moved downstairs into their own room and now it was just trying to come up with what to do for Conner and the baby's room upstairs. At Swiss Days I'd seen a beautiful red and white quilt that I'd fallen in love with, but it was about $60 so I debated about purchasing it. It was one of the first booths I'd gone into and I wanted to see what else there was before I bought it. I went back before I left and lo and behold it had been sold. I was so sad. I thought, oh well, my loss. Then I thought I'd just make one. Then I thought, no, I'll just see if I can buy another one from the lady who made that one. I had the card from the booth and emailed them. The email was for a different gal in the booth who'd made pillow dresses, as several of them had shared a booth. She replied that she'd forwarded my email to the gal who made the quilt, but I never heard back from her.

So I decided to just make one myself. I went to a local fabric/quilt shop one day when I saw they had 15% off (which is a good sale at this particular place, even though JoAnn's and others have 40-50% off coupons). I tried and tried to find red and white patterns that I liked that would go together and just couldn't make it work. I spent at least an hour there trying to do it. They had so many beautiful fabrics; I just couldn't make the red and white combo I wanted work, though. I had found a pattern there that I liked (it was actually in the window on display, so that's part of what drew me to that shop in the first place); I just needed to find the fabric. I finally was drawn back to the front of the store to some turquoise and brown fabrics. So I decided those would be what I would use and if it didn't match with what we got for Conner, oh well.

I went with a mix of cotton and flannel fabrics for the quilt front and then the incredibly soft minky for the back. I did NOT want the little bug or turtle the pattern showed (while cute, just not what I wanted for the quilt). I also decided I didn't want the circles. That made it a whole lot easier to make. Once I had the fabric cut, it was really so easy to put together. I was surprised how fast it came together. The one snag came with the ric rac. I had bought 3 different colors, to make up for the lack of the bug, where the pattern only called for 1. I thought I would just fuse it on and that would be easier than trying to sew it on. Nope. The fusing stuff only worked here and there, so the ric rac was lifting off in many places. So I thought I would just sew it down to make it stay. Nope. My sewing machine didn't like it AT ALL. My thread was all over the place in clumps and missed stitches; it was just a mess. I thought I needed a stronger, heavier duty needle, so I tried that. Nope. Finally I just ripped out all the stitching, pulled all the ric rac off, and headed back to the fabric store for more ric rac (luckily it's fairly inexpensive). The problem? The fusing stuff. You can't sew through it. It's not meant to be sewn through and was just a mess. (I also realized this would also explain the problem I encountered while trying to sew Conner's Super Why cape several years ago!!) So once I just sewed the ric rac on in the first place, it came together perfectly fine!!

Then I had to figure out the quilting part. I'd asked at the fabric/quilt store about who did their quilting for their display quilts and they gave me the list. When I asked the lady at the store what she thought a baby quilt might cost to have quilted, she said $75. I about passed out. I'd already spent over $50 on the fabric!! See, I KNEW I should have bought the red one at Swiss Days. LOL I thought about just doing it myself and just sewing around each block, but I really liked the idea of having the quilted patterns and I wasn't sure how easy it would be with the minky, having never worked with it before. So I took the quilt to show my mom and ask her about that and binding since I'd never made anything other than a tie quilt before and I'd never even bound those (my mom had always finished them off). My mom had never bound a quilt like this before either, so she said she'd ask a friend. I don't think she ever did. She'd called a store in Layton she goes to and she said they were reasonable, but they couldn't have it done for 10-12 weeks. She finally came and got the list from Brooks (the fabric store) from me and called the ladies on it price it out. She found one gal who was the cheapest and finally took it in for me, as a gift for Katie, after she was born.

Well, with Christmas and a new baby and my mom helping with my grandma and other things, it took a while to first of all get the quilt in and then to get it back. Once it was done, my mom asked me what I wanted to do about the binding and I said I had no idea how to do it, but I'd thought about looking it up on the internet. She said the gal who quilted it had offered to do it for $10, and my mom said that would be much less of a headache and took it right back to her to finish off. So, finally last month my mom brought the quilt and here it is. I LOVE how it turned out! I'm so excited that I was able to make this by myself for my daughter, even though the quilting and the binding were done by someone else!

do you ever.....

2010-03-02T10:51:00.003-07:00

.....babble on someone's voice mail like an idiot while leaving a message? I do, all the time. In fact, I think do it every time I leave a message. And while I'm doing it I KNOW how stupid I sound and laugh out loud at myself while leaving the message. I think, "What on earth am I saying?!!??!! These people must think I'm a fool." Yet I keep right on babbling!!! Ugh, I hate that! LOL Oh well. I can only hope that everyone else does it too so that when they get my babbling, idiotic messages, they laugh right along with me and know I'm really not that scatter-brained!!

smile

2010-02-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

This beautiful little smiling face just absolutely makes my day!

2009 in review - part 6

2010-02-08T16:39:00.009-07:00

Nana took all the grandkids to the Treehouse Museum one day. It's a fun museum with tons of dress-ups and other interactive things.

Nana entertaining the grandkids with storytime around the campfire.

Ted shaved Conner's hair this summer. At first he wasn't too sure about it, but then he really liked it and kept asking when he could have it shaved again!

All the princesses!

My girls are forever putting on plays and dance recitals at home, so when the museum had an actual stage and costumes, they of course had to put one on there too! They even recruited a few other girls there and attracted a few extra audience members.

They all loved playing school in the little room set up to look like a pioneer schoolhouse. They took turns being the teacher and students. When it was Syd's turn, she was Ms. Beadle (from Little House on the Prairie or "The Horsey Show," as it's affectionately known at our house, only because of the horse and wagon shown at the very beginning of the opening credits of the show - LOL).

Nana took the kids to some Radio Disney event in SLC at one point in the summer where Sydney won tickets to the Stadium of Fire at BYU in Provo. Ted had wanted to go to Bear Lake that weekend (the 4th of July); however, as the main act was the Jonas Brothers, the girls were not about to miss the show, especially when we had 4 tickets we didn't have to pay for!!

When we got to the stadium, we immediately went to the souvenir stand to buy T-shirts, which the girls had brought their birthday money to buy. While they were choosing them, we heard some screaming and later found out that the bands had all been doing mic checks on the stage and that we had missed the Jonas Brothers walking not very far from us into the Cougar Club (like about 20 yards away) for their fan club meet and greet. We waited around to try to see them come back out, but alas they tricked everyone and went around another way. We did however see SHeDAISY (shown above in that crowd) and then later Glenn Beck (below - which was really the whole reason Ted finally gave in to go).

The girls' cute patriotic hairstyles. I got the idea here.

Waiting oh so patiently and, can you tell, with just a little bit of excitement, for the Jonas Brothers.

The lead pilot of the F-16 formation that flew overhead.

Blackhawk helicopters which also flew over. The big flag was retired later that night.

This is a really bad photo because it's dark and blurry, but what it shows is Savanna's excitement because the Jonas Brothers were taking the stage at that very moment.

What this photo is missing is the sound effects. Sydney and all the other little girls and teenage girls and probably some girls a little older than that too were all screaming their little hearts out.

After dark, my camera wasn't taking very good pictures of the stage with all the lights and everything, so I took a few shots of the big screens next to the stage. LOL Of course, I probably could have gotten better shots if I knew how to manually adjust the f-stop and all those other settings.

They had a retirement ceremony of the big flag from the picture with the Blackhawks up above. It was very neat. The military men were servicemen from Hill Air Force Base, who had been invited to the show with their families to sit on the field for free. We were told that it had to be incinerated as is protocol when a flag is retired; however, it was later reported that it was not really incinerated on the field that night for safety reasons.

We had parked in a big field across from the stadium and while we waited to leave afterwards, the girls elected to do gymnastics on the grass. They put on quite a show for all the other people waiting to leave. Some even put in requests for tricks for them to try. Savanna kept working on her back handspring and Sydney was trying for her aerial. They also had headstand contests and were just plain being silly!!

My dancers getting ready for the parade on the 24th of July here in town. The 24th is a holiday here, called Pioneer Day, celebrating when the pioneers entered the valley in 1847.

The boys watching the parade. Conner dutifully has his bag to hold candy.

My niece being all patriotic with her flag.

My girls are somewhere in there.

Our little crowd watching the rest of the parade. I had to hoof it about a mile away to get the girls after they were done and then back. Syd had blisters from her shoes and had taken them off and of course her feet were swollen and the shoes wouldn't go back on, so I ended up giving her a piggy-back ride all the way back. Not really a big deal, except that it was really hot and, oh yeah, I was 4 months pregnant. LOL

more captain jack

2010-02-05T19:37:00.002-07:00

So just for kicks tonight I thought I'd check the Internet Movie Database to see if a 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie had ever gone farther than the Fountain of Youth teaser at the 3nd of At World's End, and apparently it has. The working title is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Johnny Depp is signed on to return as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush is tentative as Barbossa, and the story will indeed relate to the Fountain of Youth and also New Orleans - interesting. The release date is supposed to be summer 2011 and it's supposed to start filming in the next couple months (springtime). As much as I loved the first 3 movies, I really hope the writing team of Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio hasn't run out of good plot, characters, dialogue, wit, and more for this one, especially as Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom have apparently opted out. I hope they're just written out and not portrayed by new actors. I really hate that, when other people take over the roles. It just doesn't seem right, you know? Anyway, I'm sure I'll see it, although it's kinda anticlimactic nowadays that I can find all this stuff out on the internet way ahead of time instead of just finding out when there's a trailer for the movie on TV or at the theater. LOL

i {heart} chocolate

2010-02-01T12:15:00.003-07:00

I really do. It's delicious!! I love it in all its forms - dark, mint, milk, semi-sweet, hot fudge, cookies, brownies, ice cream, cakes, hot chocolate, muffins, York Peppermint Patties, Mounds, Almond Joy, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, whatever!!! I also love mysteries and cooking. This book promises to combine all 3 into one! I've read the 1st book in the series and am on the waiting list at the library for the 2nd. This is the 3rd and it comes out soon or may already be out! I'm hoping to win a copy. You can visit the author's blog here. You can read the 1st chapter and even buy it here. The 1st book (Lemon Tart) was a fun, fast, easy read (it's our book club book this month) and it had about 6 recipes that sounded so yummy in it. I haven't had time to try them out yet, but when I do, I'll let you know if they were as good as they sound! Let me know if you read any of this series and like it or if you try the recipes and like 'em, and which ones so I know which ones to try too!! :D

2009 in review - part 5

2010-01-13T11:53:00.008-07:00

This spring Conner played T-ball. As he was also playing soccer, there were a few conflicts of rushing from soccer to T-ball, so he played some games in his soccer shorts.

Ted really got into helping him. It was so cute. T-ball is really laid back, just getting them to understand the concepts, but he still really liked it and keeps asking when he gets to play again.

My darn cute boy also turned 5 this year!!

Then I did something shocking -- I danced again. My high school drill team advisor "retired" last year (she's back teaching again this year), and for her spring concert she brought back alumni and their kids for a couple of pieces. It was so much fun to reconnect with gals I haven't seen in a long time and meet some new friends and to show my girls where mom used to dance and the type of dance I did and that I still could (sort of). I really wish I was able to do it more. I loved it and had a great time!!

Bonnie made a big impact on my high school experience. I learned a lot from her, and not just about dance, although I loved the movement. She taught us about taking care of our bodies and being healthy, but she also taught us how to connect dance to other aspects of our lives. My senior year, her thesis project was our spring dance concert and the theme was Envirodance - she was very "green" in 1992 before it was cool here in Utah. She also made guys like dance. You know all those jocks who are too cool for just about everything? She got them to move and to love it. I was in her lift class with the guys and it was so cool -- my favorite dance class.

There were 2 alumni pieces - a jazz and a modern. I elected to do both, although the first few weeks it about killed me. My muscles were so incredibly sore, I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry!! But I kept at it and spent my Saturdays for a couple months at the dance studio at the high school practicing.

Looking at these pictures, it makes me realize I'm not a teenager anymore. LOL

Savanna had the opportunity to be bumped up a level at dance for one routine. She worked so hard and really shone in this routine. It had some tricky and more difficult choreography in it, but she grew so much as a dancer last year and kept up with all her friends on this team.

The girls were both on the same team otherwise and it was the first year they competed with a lyrical routine. It was such a pretty routine and they won top honors with it every time they performed, including winning the top overall Small Stars routine at the National competition in Las Vegas. That category included both of their routines plus the one Savanna competed in above. It was so beautiful, and each and every girl on their team was so elegant in this routine. We have it on DVD if you want to come watch it anytime. LOL

The 4th graders participate in a Mountain Man Rendezvous each spring. Savanna had been waiting for it all year and had asked both Ted & I to help out months before it came. Ted grudgingly accepted. He helped with the archery and I just followed Savanna's group around and helped them with their rotations. This is Savanna being excited about getting to catch a fish with her bare hands.

You might not be able to tell, but this is Savanna no longer being excited about having to catch a fish with her bare hands. Ted thought it would be funny to tease her and scared her. She subsequently burst into tears and could not be coaxed into catching one after that.

Conner graduated from preschool. He loved preschool. It was only 2 days a week, and he was always disappointed when it wasn't a preschool day. At his graduation ceremony, he managed to coax Ted up to do the "A To De Ta" dance. If you don't know what it is, you don't have little kids!!! LOL Ted wasn't about to get up there to do it and kept trying to get Conner to chose Nana or I, but he wanted Dad, so Dad finally gave in.

We planted a garden for the first time in many years. I think it was mainly an excuse for Ted to play on the tractor, but we really got a ton of food from it.

Syd turned 8 this year. I love this shot. It totally shows her personality, not to mention that of my sister sitting next to her. :D

Turning 8 means getting baptized, and she was so excited for that day.

June is national dance competition, so we headed to Vegas for that. We left the boys at home and went with Nana this year. It was plenty hot, but 2008 had been over 110 degrees at times, so *only* 100 degrees didn't feel so bad.

We headed to the strip one night for dinner at our favorite restaurant on the strip - this Chinese place inside New York New York.

Ever wondered what it's like at a dance competition? Probably not, but I'll tell ya anyway. This is what it looks like in the practice gym. This school has a pretty small practice gym, so to crowd in about 20+ teams (spread out over different times) is not very easy. I took this picture actually the morning of all the big shows, so this shot is mainly our team.

The girls had to layer costumes for the show this year. You can see all the layers here. They started out in their travel suit, then took that off to the green jumpsuit, and then lastly down to the show costume, a flight attendant-like outfit.

Sydney also danced in an extra routine this year. She and her friend helped out the younger girls because they didn't have enough girls to compete. I love this shot because it totally shows Syd's personality and her showmanship.

For her birthday this year, Savanna was treated to getting her ears pierced. She was so excited.

We took her to the mall to get it done. Ted had totally built up how much it would hurt, so she was nervous. Then she got it done and was like, "Oh, that wasn't so bad. Dad!!!!" LOL Unfortunately, last week we noticed that her piercing on one ear was all screwed up and had slid to the bottom and almost all the way through her earlobe. So, we've elected to let them grow back in and try again this summer.

2009 in review, part 4 - disneyland paris

2010-01-12T16:06:00.010-07:00

You might think I'm crazy, but I'm a Disney freak. I love the man and his movies, not to mention his theme parks. He's created an incredible dynasty and I love it. I started collected Disney movies before we had kids. I get positively giddy when I go to Disneyland. My mom knows all of this. In preparing to go to Paris, I actually looked into how much it would cost to go to Disneyland Paris. But I left it at that. I didn't want to ask my mom to spend that kind of money and I didn't know that I had enough to pay for it myself. My mom was the one who brought it up, and so we went.

By this point in the trip, I'd realized I was probably pregnant. However, it was the Easter weekend and all the pharmacies in Paris seemed to be close in observance of the holiday. My mom tried to find me a pregnancy test in Disneyland Paris. FYI, in case you're ever in this situation yourself, they don't have any. LOL

Belle's castle.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. My mom opted not to go on this ride, after we'd already been in line and she'd given up her Fast Pass or I could have done it twice!!!

Pirates of the Caribbean - the ride itself is basically the same, but the outside is this cool-looking castle/fortress. We ate lunch at the Blue Lagoon inside the ride. The menu's different than the
Blue Bayou at Disneyland, but it was really, really delicious.

Of course I wore my favorite T-shirt!!!!

The obnoxious, interactive Stitch show in Discoveryland.

Me tackling the Buzz Lightyear ride/game.

Space Mountain

Exhausted on the train back to Paris.

We spent so much of our time in the subway that I had to take some pictures of us in it.

This guy in the subway was wearing gold shoes. I just had to take a picture for proof!!

Our hotel.

At the airport getting ready to head home.

This is at home. I always leave my shoes in the hallway and I had kicked them off. I thought it was so sweet that Conner had put his shoes right up next to mom's. His little way of saying that he'd missed me and was glad I was home.

2009 in review, part 3 - paris

2010-01-12T13:08:00.012-07:00

We took the train from Brussels into Paris and arrived at Gare du Nord, where my mom tried to get information from the guy at the information booth about a place to stay, the subway, etc. He was very rude and not at all helpful. Great start to Paris. We finally figured out the subway and just took it into the main part of town. We popped up out of the subway and this was what I first saw, the Seine River. I was so relieved to be there but was tired and, I will admit, ornery. Then I turned around and saw this:

Le Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris!! It doesn't look quite so imposing from this spot, but it was so cool. My mom then went to a travel agency and finally found us a hotel room. I was exhausted and wanted to go straight there, so we did. We went back down to take the subway to our hotel. I decided I hated Paris then (I later changed my mind) because the train was jam packed and I almost didn't get on. A subway guy literally had to push me from behind to get inside the train because it was starting to close and beeping. Keep in mind we had all of our luggage we were dragging around through all of this - I don't do so well with that stuff. It totally stresses me out. I crashed in the hotel room and didn't venture out into Paris again until the next day. LOL

It was rainy and we tried the Louvre, but everybody tries the museums when it rains. LOL We ended up at the Musee d'Orsay, which was way cool. A ton of people were there too, but we figured we had a whole week and by the time we'd walked from the Louvre to there, we weren't walking back. LOL

After the Musee D'Orsay, we went over to the Jardin des Tuileries and then walked down the Champs Elysees to L'Arc de Triomphe. Holy cow was that ever a walk!! Anyway, we of course had to hit The Disney Store because I figured it was the only store on the Champs Elysees that I could actually afford to buy anything in. LOL

I stumbled across this cool sign and because it was about Thomas Jefferson I snapped a picture to try to translate later. I still haven't translated it. My French is plenty rusty. I only barely managed to speak French a few times while in Paris. *blushing*

This was inside a store on the Champs Elysees. There were a couple different of these funky cars in there. It was so odd but cool. There was really loud music playing and strobe-like lights, very modern.

We finally made it to Place de L'Etoile. We're still across the street from the Arc de Triomphe here, so I don't know if you can get an idea of how big it is. You have to go down underground through a tunnel and then back up to get there. The round-about around the Arc is so incredibly busy and there are no crosswalks, hence the underground journey.

That night we ate at a little Thai food restaurant across from our hotel. It was my first time eating Thai food. My mom couldn't believe I'd never had it. It was delicious. I wanted to go back every night after that, but we only ate there once.

We traveled by train out to Chateau de Versailles, a huge palace. The line for tickets was really long, so my mom told me to go check out the gardens (which are free) while she waited in line.

My self-portrait with the timer.

Looking up at the palace from down in the gardens.

Looking down out onto the grounds. Can you believe how massive this place is??? I walked through a ton of this as quickly as I could and missed a ton of it still. There are all these hidden gardens off to the sides. The entire place was so incredibly massive. I took so many more pictures inside the palace and outside in the grounds.

Don't I look incredibly touristy here? I have my backpack, my video camera, my digital camera, and of course the headphones for the guided tour. Oh yeah, and a map.

The next day we went down into the catacombs, where I wasn't supposed to take pictures. Oops. It was kinda creepy but cool at the same time.

We went back to Notre Dame to tour it. I went up inside the 2 towers, but my mom opted out of that one. She had had foot surgery not long before our trip and she was having a hard time doing a lot of the walking sometimes. The line was quite long, but I thought I might as well do it as my chances of ever going back are slim to none. There was a cute little family in line behind me and as I watched them I thought, they have to be LDS. We got to talking and they were. The parents were about my age, but they adopted me as part of their family for the next few hours while we waited in line and then went up inside the towers together.

It was a very beautiful view of the city from up top. I like this shot I got with Sacre Coeur in the background. This gargoyle looks so peaceful and pensive.

And then there's this gargoyle. Much more macabre and gothic!

To go up to the very, very top you have to wait and wait and wait because there's not much room. There was this really grumpy, older lady who should not have worked there with her attitude. LOL

After coming down, I couldn't find my mom. It was my brother's birthday, so I turned on my phone to text him and wished him a happy birthday. I wandered around inside twice before I finally found my mom. It was Good Friday and they were getting ready for mass, so my mom had decided to sit down, mainly because that's where she could sit to rest her foot but also because she'd been to Catholic services before and thought they were interesting. So we stayed for part of mass. It was actually really cool and I was able to follow along (they gave us a printed program) and understand what the service was about. I sang some of the songs the congregation was supposed to. We left early so we could have more time to see things, but it was really cool and I didn't realize that it was still a functional church. I thought it was more of a landmark or a museum, like the Louvre.

We hit the Eiffel Tower at night. When we walked up out of the subway, it was right there and the lights were flashing different colors. It's quite pretty. It's also hard to get a picture of. The line was incredibly long, but, again, I wanted to go up as I might never get the chance again and I didn't want to regret it. It actually went faster than it looked, but the tickets sold out for the top floor as we were about there, so we missed out on that. But it was still really neat. My mom called my grandma to say hi to her while we were there.

A subway ad. I loved the ads in the subway. They were so cool. Everything from Minute Maid to "The Lion King" and the Zac Efron movie "17 Again."

The next day we hiked from our hotel up to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. It was one of my most favorite spots in Paris. We sat on the steps leading up to the basilica and listened to this guy sing songs.

He sang songs like "California Dreamin'," "What's Goin' On," and "Imagine" plus some U2 and tons more. I loved it. It was relaxing for me. My mom got restless though, so we moved on after a while, but we sat there for probably 20-30 minutes.

As we wandered around Montmartre, we came across this cafe, where we ate lunch - French onion soup, fries, and l'eau (water), with a Nutella crepe for desert. This was one of the few places I was able to speak an entire conversation in French. LOL It was really good food. I loved Montmartre, wandering through the touristy shops and all the artist stalls.

The next day we finally hit the Louvre. First item of business was the Mona Lisa. It is a madhouse around that thing. I managed to make my way to the front of the throng and then finally got someone to take a picture for me. After that I'd lost my mom. For about an hour. Inside the Louvre. A massive palace full of so much artwork and other artifacts that you can't possibly see them all in a day let alone a week. Lost my mother. She didn't have her cell phone on. I finally found her, back by the Mona Lisa where we'd separated in the first place.

Here you can almost get an idea of how many people are constantly packed into this room that houses the Mona Lisa.

That night we went on the boat tour of the Seine and afterwards went to where Princess Diana and her boyfried Dodi Fayed were killed at Pont de L'Alma. This replica of the flame from the Statue of Liberty was there long before the accident, but the bridge itself and the flame have turned into a memorial for her.

2009 in review, part 2 - belgium & holland

2010-01-12T11:09:00.011-07:00

In March my mom gave me 2 weeks' notice that she wanted to take me to Paris. We flew stand-by and were lucky enough to get business class both ways. I highly recommend it!! LOL Because we flew standby, we couldn't take the direct flight to Paris from SLC because of black-out dates (it left the next day and I couldn't fly that day, only my mom could), so we flew to Atlanta and missed that flight to Paris flight because of weather. In order to get me out of the country before the trip was blown, my mom looked into other options and we flew to Belgium.

I absolutely fell in love with Belgium. We stayed in Brussels and it is so quaint. Off the main square there among the labyrinth of side streets is this store, La Cure Gourmand. If you find one on your travels, you must go in. They give you a free sample of their cookies and they are so yummy!! Every time we saw one (3 times), we went in. We actually had to look it up on the internet to find the one in Paris so I could buy a tin to take home! They also have some chocolates and lollipops. Love, love, love this store!!

This is about the only good nighttime picture I got in Brussels. It's in the Grand Place. I watch Rick Steves on PBS all the time and had seen this on his shows but never expected to actually be able to go there.

My mom and I took 3 tours while we were in Belgium, one of them to Amsterdam, Holland. It was incredible. So beautiful.

We missed the tulips. We were too early. But there were still beautiful flowers all over. While tulips are my absolute favorite, daffodils are my second favorite.

I don't drink, but I had to take a picture next to the Heineken brewery for fun. This picture really doesn't show how massive this building is. I'm standing next to the canal quite far away from the building and it is really, really tall.

This was my absolute favorite sign I saw in Europe. I got the giggles when I saw it. And how cute is that windowsill and vase??

Our main objective in going to Amsterdam was to go here, the Anne Frank House. We had about a 45-minute wait to get in and were cutting it close time-wise to get back to our tour bus, but it was absolutely worth it. So sobering. The space they lived in was incredibly tiny and so dark. It was such a humbling experience.

This is in Ghent, Belgium - another beautiful old city full of absolutely incredible architecture. This is an old castle there.

I couldn't resist adding this picture. We were walking around Ghent on our own, trying to find the way back to where the bus was, and I was snapping pictures of the buildings and these cute little old European men chatting in their doorway was adorable, and then the one just waved to me and I caught it. I love it!!

Our self-portrait of us with our ice cream in Bruges, Belgium. We ate a lot of ice cream on our trip. It was a yummy and cheap treat.

Bruges is another beautiful old city, although it's totally packed with tourists. There's a canal and several old churches, where there's a statue by Michelangelo.

There's also this big beautiful lake that we passed on our way in (we had to walk in from the tour bus).

We ate pretty good on our trip, considering we tried to eat cheaply. This was a little fast food restaurant across the square from our hotel in Brussels. French fries are pretty big there. Of course, they eat them with mayonnaise, which isn't at all like American mayo. Blech! Luckily they do have ketchup for us tourists! :D

This is the Atomium, which was built for the World's Fair in 1958, representing an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It's absolutely huge. We rode around on the Hop On, Hop Off tour bus the last day we were there to see the sites around Brussels. It's a very cool way to do it. We actually rode the bus around twice - once to see everything and listen to the tour, then the second time we did the hop on, hop off thing. There was so much that we saw - a palace, a Chinese garden (where we ate our packed lunch), the European Union headquarters - just tons and tons of stuff that I took pictures of but won't bore you with here.

This was a bookstore next to where we caught the Hop On, Hop Off bus. I loved that I had read 6 of the books in the window. So, this is for my book club friends, as we read 5 of the books here for book club!

This was a street performer in Brussels (he's supposed to be Van Gogh). I took a picture of him and then he told me I had to have a picture with him and, oh yeah, I had to tip him - LOL

More good food. We saw this little crepe place a ways off the Grand Place in our Hop On, Hop Off tour and decided to go eat there, so we managed to find our way back there later that night. It was incredible. So, so good. This was our desert - apples with caramel - divine!!!! We had 2 different ones for dinner (mine was chicken with pesto and mom's was chicken with mushrooms). We thought we'd made a really great find. Rick Steves already found it before us. LOL

2009 in review, part 1

2010-01-12T10:13:00.005-07:00

Savanna and Sydney performed at a Jazz game during half-time.

I hosted book club in January. We read Gone With The Wind. Can you tell?

On the way to California with my dad, we stopped in the middle of the desert to eat at one of my most favorite restaurants.

We went to California for my grandpa's funeral. He passed away suddenly, although he had been suffering from Alzheimer's for several years. I learned a lot about my grandpa at both funerals (one in California and one in Utah). For instance, although my grandpa wasn't LDS, he was a BYU fan and was at "The Miracle Bowl" game in 1980 with some of my neighbors. And my grandparents had a wonderful love story.

My grandpa is buried here in Utah. Because of his military service, there was a military presence at his graveside service. It was beautiful.

The grandchildren and great-grandchildrean with Grandma, except for my cousin Ryan and his family. They attended the service in California but weren't able to come to the one in Utah as well. I was actually the only grandchild at both services and had to speak at both.

About a month later, Ted's grandmother passed away. We actually were very lucky when we were married that all of our grandparents on both sides were there. We even have a picture in our wedding album of us with all of them.

wishing you....

2009-12-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from our house to yours!

by popular demand

2009-12-18T12:26:00.002-07:00

Here are Katie's first photos, from the hospital. I love these 2 the best. Everyone thinks she looks mad in this first one, and she does a bit, even though she wasn't at all, but I love it.

And there is so much that I nitpick about this photo, but I love it too.

she's here...

2009-12-10T13:34:00.004-07:00

...and she's beautiful. Of course, I'm biased, but she is. She arrived December 1st at 5:58 p.m., and she's my biggest baby. She weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 inches in length. We were all shocked. Sydney was my biggest at 6 lbs. 13 oz. before this and that's about what I expected this time. Nope, 7 lbs. 8 oz. Of course, that does somewhat explain my weight gain and horrible hip/pelvic pain.

And can I just mention how painful natural childbirth is?? Oh...my...freaking...heck. I guess I should amend that and say how painful natural labor is because I did cave and get an epidural at the very, very last possible moment. I mean, literally. I know now that I was ready to be pushing and that I was in the middle of transition because of how hard and fast and just one right on top of another my contractions were. My doctor was tricky on that one, though, and made me think that I still had a long time until I'd be ready to push, but I really should be grateful to him because I was not doing well at all with it mentally nor physically. It hurt. It hurt so bad that it brought to mind an awful lot of words I shouldn't say let alone even know. I never said them nor did I scream or curse or say bad things to Ted. If anything, he was all I wanted. I wanted him to hold me. I wanted him near me. I wanted him to just touch me. I wanted him, just him. Looking back, I really probably could have done it and my sister was doing her best to help me focus and Ted tried, but as I watched him cry at one point, it really broke me because if he couldn't do it, neither could I. (Dang, I'm crying again about it, and I already cried about it the other day when I was writing it in my journal.)

We had a delivery room full of family - my sister, mom and dad, and even one of my friends. We actually had intended for it to be just Ted and I, but everyone just sort-of came and there you go. The kids would have been there if they could I'm sure! But guess what? The ban on kids under 12 because of H1N1?? Lifted that very day I went into the hospital. So, after my delivery and by the time we finally arrived to the postpartum room and my new little princess was done in the nursery and back with me, in trooped my other 3 kids with my in-laws. It was so great. Totally made for a perfect end to a long day.

And she does finally have a name. It took us forever because we just couldn't decide and we thought we'd know when we saw her, but things just didn't fall into place. In the wonderful little bit of time when it was just Ted, the baby, and I in the delivery room for this incredibly awesome bonding time we had, he looked at me and said that he thought she did look like a Maren, which was about the closest I could come to being decided on a name and I still wasn't 100% sure about it. We really should have just named her then and there, and no more worries about it, but we didn't. Then the next morning my mom called after picking Conner up from school and he said that he thought we should call her Katie. So, for a week we sat and debated between Maren and Katie and it's finally been decided. She's Katie.

labor

2009-11-30T22:12:00.002-07:00

I thought I was going to the hospital Friday night/Saturday morning. I really did. I thought that was it and she was coming! However, it turned out not to be. So, instead, I suffered through about 4 hours of fits of very painful contractions and minutes of sleep from about 11:30 p.m. to somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m. Then I was finally able to fall asleep and stay asleep, not waking up until probably 8:30 or 9 a.m. Last night, Sunday, I had another good hour of pretty painful contractions, again thinking it might be time, but they stopped too. Today, only minor, nothing much to write home about contractions. Tomorrow is my weekly appointment, so I'm hoping that there will be such a huge amount of progress from all those contractions that he'll send me straight to the hospital to deliver like he did with Sydney, when I was dilated to 6 cm at my weekly check-up. I'm trying not to put too much faith in that hope so the disappointment won't be too hard to take when he just sends me home. LOL

I went swimming at my parents' this afternoon. It was nice (the swimming and the absolutely divine turkey lettuce wraps my mom made for lunch). It's gotten harder though. It used to feel so wonderful to just float weightless in her pool, but when I was doing my laps today, it was really hard. This baby has dropped even more and so it was harder to do my laps. I got through all 10 of them (only doing 2 at a time and taking breaks in between, so don't think I'm superwoman or anything!!!), but it was harder than it used to be, when I could hardly tell my belly was underneath me, but today it was like my belly was trying to make me sink!! Backstroke was still good, so I probably should have done more of those than regular swimming, but I have a routine (1/2 lap front, 1/2 lap back), so I stuck to it, stubborn me. LOL Even walking up the steps to climb out of the pool when I was done swimming, I immediately started to feel the pain in my hip/leg joints coming back. The nice part about being in the pool while pregnant is that weightlessness. It just sucks that as soon as I climb out of the water, the pain and weight come right back.

Oh well. Soon this will be over and, while I will have a beautiful new little baby girl to hold and nurse and coo at and smell and love, I will totally miss feeling her move inside of me and the wonder and amazement that the miracle of all of this is!

comfortable

2009-11-25T01:09:00.002-07:00

Well, I'm certainly not. But this baby is. Apparently, she's decided she's in no hurry to enter this crazy world and much prefers to simply exist in her mother's womb. So, there she's staying! Today at my appointment, the doctor said I was "between 3 and 4 and still thick, " which I took to mean about 3.5 cm and still 50% effaced. I forgot to ask about station (the -2 number from last week). Oh well. The good thing again this week? No weight gain!! Yippy!! I love that, especially when it offsets the 2-pound weight gain the week before. LOL

So, no new progress and I get to have all the old ladies at church tell me how miserable I look and ask why I haven't delivered yet and give me those looks like "you really have THAT much time left until you're due?" in church yet again on Sunday. *sigh* Well, if I make it to Sunday that is, which I'm betting I probably will at this point. LOL I've stopped having as many Braxton-Hicks that I had been having a lot of since mid September. I get a few, but nothing like I did before. Now, when it matters the most, they go away!!!!

My mom has predicted December 1st. Conner said something about December 2nd the other day. And, of course, my doctor said last week (although he didn't mention it today) that he'd "get me delivered on the 3rd" if I hadn't already on my own by my next appointment. That isn't a bad date in and of itself, except for the fact that the very next day my daughter is performing in her school Christmas choir (organized by Jon Schmidt and his wife) and she has a special part of her own (she's singing "When Christmas Comes to Town" from The Polar Express in a small group). I do NOT want to miss this. It is an absolutely INCREDIBLE performance that they put on, so I'm really hoping to deliver anytime from November 27th to December 1st so that I can figure some way to be there and NOT be in the hospital. My brave girl did a solo ("Suzy Snowflake") last year and I was so proud of her. It just makes my heart ache to think about maybe missing it!!

I have also decided I'm going to try yet again to have this baby natural (I tried with Syd and Conner and just couldn't do it). However, this time I've talked to a few people who've done it to find out what to do, what not to do, etc., and have hopefully prepared Ted for the fact that he will need to do more than just BE in the delivery room, he will need to be DOING things to help me through it. We'll see how it goes. This is for financial reasons and also for personal reasons. I've heard good things about how you feel afterwards (without the lingering effects of the epidural), plus I figure if my birth mother can deliver me and her other children naturally, then I should be able to too. Again, we'll see. One thing that would be nice to have for this?? An iPod. I'm listening to Jon Schmidt's music on his website right now and thinking how relaxing "Jessica's Theme" is and that it would be nice to have in the hospital to listen to, along with some Enya and whatever else relaxing I could find to throw on there. I've been eyeing one at Costco but was saving it for Christmas. That plan may have to be stepped up just a bit. LOL

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this weekend!!!

little farther along

2009-11-18T00:38:00.003-07:00

Today was another check-up with my doctor. After waiting for well over an hour to see him and eventually having to hop off the exam table to ask the nurse if I could pee yet again if he wasn't coming in the next 30 seconds, it was finally my turn. He must have been behind when I got there from a delivery or something -- I didn't ask -- which is fine, if they would just TELL me that up front (which they usually do - weird). I had to call my mom after I'd already been there an hour to ask her to pick Conner up from kindergarten. Luckily she was home and could.

Anyway.....I am now 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced, with baby girl still at -2 station, which means that she hasn't descended much yet, still towards the top of the birth canal. Basically, she needs to be at +3 station to deliver, so still a ways to go there.

I have been having contractions. I had a ton on Sunday. They seem to come mostly when I'm sitting down (like at church, watching TV, working, etc.). If I get up and move around, I may have another 1 or 2, but then they go away pretty much. I had some pretty painful ones today, but nothing consistent enough to worry about. I really don't mind all these because hopefully that means I get more dilation done now than when I'm in actual labor and delivering. With Sydney, I was at 6 cm when I went in for just my regular check-up and he told me to go directly to the hospital. I didn't - LOL. I went downstairs to my dad's office to tell him, call Ted and a few friends, basically just took my time. By the time I did get to the hospital, the nurse who greeted me was like "Where have you been? We've been waiting for you!" (in a nice way). And Sydney was born about 3 hours later. Not bad. So, as long as these painful Braxton Hicks contractions are at least dilating me and getting me farther along, then I'm fine with them.

I do feel like she's dropped because there isn't this pinching, tight, uncomfortable section at the top of my belly anymore. It's a nice sloping belly with some room to breathe now. Anyway, she apparently has not dropped enough, but there is some movement in that direction anyway, which is progress I'll take.

I actually am OK if she doesn't come until after Thanksgiving, but once that hits, then she better start working her way out! My doctor will be out of town the week of my due date and having a strange person instead of the doctor I've had for the last 20 years and who has delivered all my 3 previous babies plus helped me through a miscarriage is not something I want to deal with at this stage of the game!! He did say he'd get me induced on the 3rd of December if she hasn't come, but I don't want to be induced either. LOL I know, I know, I'm certainly demanding, but, hey, it is my body and my baby!!

I have plenty of stuff on my "things to do before baby arrives" list and now that we're pretty much all back to normal, I can get going on them again!! I started packing a hospital bag and have a baby quilt I'm in the middle of sewing. Now to get the wallpaper remover stuff so we can repaint the room for Conner and the baby. We probably won't be getting new carpet at this point (which that room needs desparately), but at least we can get it painted and then put the crib up and also Conner's new bed.

I spent several hours this afternoon going through the old baby clothes at my mom's house that I'd given to my sister and sister-in-law. It was nice to revisit some of the old things my girls wore and also nice to say what needed to be sent to the DI or to Kid to Kid (I'm proud of myself for that, by the way). There was also quite a nice bunch of stuff from my sister's little girl that is newer and nice. Plus, um, yeah, I did break down and buy a few things for her myself. I figured this little girl deserves a brand-new "coming home from the hospital" outfit. I looked for a long time for something until the stores finally had their winter stuff out and did finally find a real darling dress at Old Navy that was on sale! Not dirt cheap on sale, but still on sale. Now to find a place to put her clothing, since all the dressers in this house are currently being used by the other 5 people living here!!!

progress

2009-11-12T00:49:00.003-07:00

Well, there's not much. I went in for a doctor's appointment the other day and was told that I am 2 cm dilated but 0% effaced, so a little progress, but not much, which is fine since we're all still sick. The really good news? Zero weight gain!!!! Woohooo!!!! Of course, I attribute that to the illness. LOL

We're all still pretty much down with this thing. Savanna hasn't had it hit her full on yet, but I think it's starting in on her now. Today she looked pale and tired and has been coughing for a few days. Syd's asthma, while she's recovered from the gunk otherwise, has flared up and she's coughing a ton, but I can tell it's more her asthma than the leftover flu. She may have been the sickest the hardest for those 5 straight days, but once she recovered, she recovered. Conner, Ted, and I keep going up and down - feeling better (not 100% but better) and then crashing again. My head is still full of gunk and I really wish I was lucky enough to stay in bed 24/7 like Ted has since he's had it. Not that I want to be sick anymore, but since I am, I just want to stop having to be in charge of every other sick person in this house and trying to keep the house in some decent order and work and everything else. I would love to just be able to rest!!! Considering the upcoming birth I need to prepare for, I don't think that's too much to ask!

Anyway, stay tuned for next week's progress report and hopefully we are all truly over this flu by then because as much as I wanted to deliver early like I always have, now I really don't want this baby to arrive until this crap has cleared out of our house!! Still 4 weeks to go and hopefully we're healthy next week so we can get back to our regularly scheduled lives and baby preparations!

sick

2009-11-04T14:30:00.004-07:00

It's not fun to be sick at any time, but especially not when you're 8 months pregnant and also have 2 other sick kids. Bleh. Conner is actually doing better and wasn't all that sick to begin with, just had a bad cough, so we kept him home for a few days to be on the safe side.

Sydney on the other hand has been really sick. I woke up sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. early Monday morning to hear her in the bathroom throwing up. She hasn't kept anything down since then. She perked up a smidge yesterday, only to go right back to being miserable and weak. This morning she was weak and tired but had slept all night long and hadn't thrown up in about 12 hours. She did finally throw up this morning but has kept down Gatorade, although she has slept for several hours after watching some cartoons this morning. I'm hoping she starts keeping more down so we don't have to do the IV thing. Ted told her that we might have to and I think it scared her this morning.

Now me, I have this not-so-lovely cold. I was fine most of the day yesterday and even managed to can 2 quarts of tomatoes (not much, but it was the last of our crop) and 4 quarts of grape juice (and that was only half of the grapes; I was planning on doing the rest today; they'll now have to wait). In the afternoon I started feeling the sore throat coming on. By the time I was supposed to work, I was starting to feel pretty miserable. I finished up right at the end of my shift instead of working any extra, which I generally do. I tried to go to sleep, but it didn't happen. I tossed and turned and fought chills for most of the night, taking trips to the bathroom frequently from the sips of cold water I kept drinking, and dozing for only a few minutes here and there. I finally fell asleep sometime after 4 a.m., only to wake up at 6 a.m. to doze off and on again until 7 a.m. I napped for probably an hour this morning and just have that icky feeling that comes with a cold. Yeah, this really sucks. Luckily this little baby in me keeps kicking and moving around, so I don't have to worry about her.

If I'm so miserable, why am I on the computer? Because I'm bored and couldn't stand to be in bed any longer. I checked my email and a few blogs and now will go back to bed because I think I need another nap and to go check on my sick princess.

countdown

2009-10-28T18:11:00.002-06:00

OK, so I'm 33 weeks along. I have no idea how much time I have left because I have delivered anywhere from 1 week to 4 days to 3 weeks early. Yeah for early!! My official due date is December 10th. I have no idea where to find one of those cute countdown things for my blog. I tried searching and didn't find any that I liked. If you know of a cute one for me, point me in that direction and I'll post one!

I had a checkup yesterday and it went fine. However, looking back, I realized that most of the conversation my doctor and I had was about The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, which I had brought along to read during my wait (which was actually really short, apparently due to the bad weather of SNOW we had here yesterday morning). My doctor and I have been discussing books at the last several appointments because apparently we've read a lot of the same ones. So, he'll see what I'm currently reading and comment on it. I just thought it was funny that the majority of my doctor's visit was spent discussing a novel. LOL We heard the hearbeat, he measured my stomach, checked my blood pressure (slightly higher than last time but still well within normal range), weight (not as much weight gain as last month, but I really can't wait to see that number go DOWN instead of up!! LOL), and urine, and said to come back in 2 weeks. Other than that, since I was actually farther along in the book than him (the other books we've discussed, he's already read), he was telling me what part he was at and asking me where I was at and if there were any other references to Joseph Smith and the LDS Church (there were 2 total in the book). I didn't have any questions this time around and the Braxton Hicks I've been having have lessened a lot since my last appointment, so we're good for 2 weeks, then hopefully the real "fun" begins when I'll know what progress I'm making. Woo hoo!!!

Now.....I wonder if he's read Midwives, the next book I'm going to read, for book club. Hmmmm......

rockets

2009-10-23T11:37:00.004-06:00

Conner started kindergarten this year and Fridays are early-out day. When I arrived to pick him up today, the line of cars to pick up the kids wasn't hardly moving and some of the parents and kids were even standing next to their cars looking towards the field. Then there were a ton of older kids and parents outside on the field next to the school. Something was going on.

Pretty soon Conner came running out from the door (where he has to wait until he sees me pull up and then his teacher dismisses him) and starts yelling "Mom, Mom" as he gets closer. I roll down the window and he says, "Those people are shooting off rockets. Can I watch?" Sure! I thought. Why would I deprive my precious 5-year-old boy of the oh-so-boy thrill of watching rockets, even little ones, being launched? So, needless to say, we stayed at school for a while (probably 20 minutes or so).

Conner ran around on the hill right by the school driveway (I told him that's where he had to watch the rockets from) with his friends (all boys) jumping up and down and yelling things like "Cool!" "Awesome!" "Whoa!" as they watched one after another of the 6th graders setting off their rockets. I sat in the car in my scroungy clothes, no make-up or hair done, and no bra on either (*gasp*), watching the joy that he was having. He turned around at one point and yelled to me, "Mom, this is awesome!!" And for him it totally was. He had a big thrill when one mom walked by with one of the spent rockets. He and his friend Joshua ran up to her and wanted to see it. She stopped and took the time to show it to them. Conner asked how it worked, and she patiently explained it to them. They were soaking it all in.

As I watched this, I couldn't help but think, "Why, oh WHY don't I have my camera with me to record this??" The absolute pure joy and thrill on his face, him interacting with his friends, my little guy thrilling in discovery and being little. *sigh* Oh well. By writing this down now, I hope to always be able to remember it when I look back and read these words, especially down the road when he's grown up and breaking my heart by being grown up and losing his 5-year-old innocence. *sniff, sniff*

At least I managed to get a cell phone picture of him standing next to the Lambourghini (*swoon*) we found parked next to our car yesterday!!

it's a..........

2009-08-06T01:11:00.003-06:00

GIRL!!!!

OK, so that totally threw me for a loop because I was totally thinking boy and we had only a boy name picked out (Oliver) and had also just recently finished a bedroom downstairs for the girls and figured it would be perfect for 2 boys to share a room upstairs and were planning to remodel that room with a boyish color scheme. Now we have no name for a girl and Conner will now have 3 sisters and will still have to share a room with a girl and not a boy. Poor guy. His poor little face when he found out it was a sister and not a brother.....it just broke my heart. Savanna, of course, gloated because she's said girl all along. Sydney was like aw, man, for just a minute because she wanted a brother too, but she got over it pretty quickly and is fine with a girl. LOL I even think Conner will be fine, just that initial letdown. I felt for the poor little guy!! Ted even said this morning on our way to the ultrasound that he just had a feeling when he woke up that it was going to be a girl and not a boy. I hate it when he's right like that and I wanted it to be the opposite. LOL Oh well. The ultrasound lady didn't spend near enough time trying to find out, in my opinion, and then even said she'd go back and look some more after she was done with all the measurements and never did, so I'm not totally satisfied with her "I think it's a girl," but Ted is, so there you go.

I will admit that I was disappointed like Conner at first. I wanted my little Oliver really bad, especially since Ted says this is absolutely it, no more kids, ever, ever, ever, so I just figured 2 girls and 2 boys would be perfect for our little family. I guess we just don't get what we want and Heavenly Father knows we need this little girl. Ted had to stop to buy dog food on our way home, and I stayed in the car and was looking over the ultrasound pictures and just had this feeling come over me of love for this little baby girl and that it's OK she's not going to be an Oliver. She's supposed to be ours. It's hard to describe, but it was just a wonderful feeling.

They provided a DVD of the ultrasound for us, so that's how we told the kids. They gathered around the TV with us (and my mom and one of Savanna's friends were there too) while Ted and I were talking about all the things we were seeing and pointing them out so they could see them too. The tech would type each part on the screen (which she printed copies of for us too) -- face, fingers, feet, girl, etc. So, when the girl was being typed on the screen the girls went nuts, but poor Conner had no clue since he can't read yet. He loves his big sisters and I know he'll love his new little sister too and be an awesome big brother. Poor little guy (and his mama) just had his heart set on a brother!!

tragic

2009-07-30T00:52:00.003-06:00

If you live in Utah, you may have seen this on the news. I didn't, as I try not to watch the news, only for the weather and sports! So, I missed this story. I did hear about it though from my in-laws and later watched the news clips online from all the local channels, read a newspaper account online, and even listened to the 911 call that's posted online. I was shocked, apalled, speechless, saddened, and in utter disbelief.

My sister-in-law and her family live in Bluffdale and this happened down the street from her house to one of her neighbors to whom they are very close. Normally, it probably wouldn't affect me emotionally as much as this has, but I know her neighbor too. Why? Because he is super-friendly and has gone out of his way to be nice to us, and we don't even live there. He ALWAYS waves at us and says hi when we drive by if he's outside. He stopped my sister-in-law's car when we were in it with them and chatted with us in the middle of their street for about 5-10 minutes one evening. My kids have been to his house with my niece. My in-laws are all close to him and just think the world of him. He's the kind of neighbor they feel comfortable asking to borrow an egg from and who notices when their dog has run out of their yard and brings her back home for them.

So, as Ted and I were weeding and watering the garden a week ago, he told me that Dave had been shot. I looked at him and said, "What? Shot?" I was confused and shocked. Well, here's what happened. As I've said, Dave is very, very friendly and really watches out for his neighbors. Another one of their neighbors is the neighborhood homeowner's association president. There have been some thefts in the neighborhood and, as it's a newer neighborhood and with the poor economy, there are houses sitting empty, so there have been vagrants living in the empty houses, along with the burglaries. So, they've been patrolling on a neighborhood watch to try to prevent more burglaries.

Well, one night late last week they were driving around doing this and came across some girls out walking. Dave tried to strike up a conversation with them, possibly leading to asking them if they had seen anything suspicious, but they just ignored him, probably nervous of them. Later as they were driving around, the same girls had left home and were driving in a car, which apparently matched the description they had been given of a vehicle possibly involved in the robberies, so Dave and the other guy decided to follow it, not knowing who was in it. The girls recognized them and freaked out, so the one girl went and told her dad, who, unfortunately, decided to take matters into his own hands.

He got a gun, took his daughter with him so she could point out the car, and, when they came across them, he came upon them very fast and then drove around them and cut them off, slamming on his brakes and jumping out of his car. He was extremely aggressive towards the men and had brought along a gun, which he pulled on them right away. Dave has a concealed weapon's permit and also had a gun on him. He was apparently telling the man to wait while at the same time trying to take his gun and throw it away so that the guy knew he wasn't trying to be aggressive, but the guy just opened fire and shot 2 or 3 times. Dave was struck twice, one bullet entering his shoulder and severing his spinal cord, paralyzing him. The guy who was driving panicked and was trying to open his door to get out and run, but his door was jammed.

It's all so tragic and it all could have been totally prevented, had this dad, instead of overreacting and taking a loaded weapon with him, with his daughter right there, to confront someone, just called the police and given them the description of the car and let them investigate, leaving him and his daughter safe at home. I totally understand wanting to protect your child, but this is just so tragic that it turned out this way, for all 3 families involved. My brother-in-law says the guy with Dave has been so shook up by it that his wife drives their car. This dad has now been charged with attempted murder and 2 counts of aggravated assault. His poor family has to deal with that. And Dave is paralyzed from the waist down. The lives of 3 families all changed because of this one rash act.

My in-laws went to visit Dave in the hospital a few days ago and said he was doing OK. The neighbors had talked about all getting together and building the ramps and other necessary modifications his house will need when he's finally able to come home, but apparently there's a program for victims of violent crimes that will do all that for him. However, I know the neighborhood will rally around Dave and his family to help them out in any way they can.

The night this happened there was a big neighborhood BBQ/party. My brother-in-law was too tired to go, so my sister-in-law stayed home with him and told the older girls they could go if they wanted. Just the 2 of them went and when they got there and Dave saw they were alone, he told them to come over and hang out with him and his family. My nieces kept saying how they were just with him 2 hours before all of this happened.

From what my in-laws have said, Dave is doing well. When they went to see him and they asked how he was doing, he said, "I'm paralyzed" and asked how they were. While they were there, he said he was hungry for pizza. His wife told him he couldn't have any and he said that he knew but it just sounded good. LOL I don't know him well enough to go visit in the hospital or anything, but I feel like I should do something for them. When he is able to come home, probably not for several months, I want my sister-in-law to let me know so I could help her take dinner to them or something. I don't know, but my heart just aches from the tragedy of all this.

oh.........my..........word!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-16T15:17:00.005-06:00

I'm a fan of the show So You Think You Can Dance. I don't always remember to watch it, but I love it. Last night I actually remembered to watch it, and, boy, am I glad I did. However, I do wish there had been one of those little parental warnings flashed up on the screen that this dance might not exactly be appropriate for my kids to watch, but I loved, loved, LOVED it!!!! If only I could move like this still......Wow. Their timing, their chemistry, their movements - so beautiful.

ETA: So, I had it embedded here, but apparently YouTube has removed the embedding feature on this video, so it disappeared from my blog. However, go here to check it out.

Edited again: So, the original link has disappeared completely. Just go to YouTube and search for Jason, Jeanine, SYTYCD, and If It Kills Me (or a combination of any of those). I still think it's incredible and worth watching.

fancy do's

2009-07-02T10:11:00.008-06:00

So I've been trying to be better about doing my girls hair "cute." You know, doing something fun with it instead of always just letting them pull it back in an awkward ponytail or just letting it go wild like they're little orphans. LOL OK, so they still do this often, but when we're going someplace instead of just hanging around the house, I'm trying to make sure we have time for cute hair. This is hard at our house because we never seem to be on time to anything let alone budget enough time for everything we need to do before we go. LOL

Anyway, I have a gal from my church whose girls always have perfectly done hair, always. And what gets me the most is she has FIVE GIRLS!!! FIVE!!! OK, so the last one is a newborn and doesn't have hair yet, but still four girls' hair to do before church every Sunday and school each day (she does have one boy too, also with perfectly styled hair, in a handsome, manly way, of course - LOL). Holy cow. I go crazy with just the two I have!! LOL Anyway, I complimented her once on their hair and said she needed to teach a class on how to do it. She brushed it off and said it wasn't a big deal. She called me a few days later and said that she'd forgotten, but the gal who taught her how to do the hairstyles was doing an enrichment night at another ward on doing hair if I'd like to go. So we did!! Some of it was basics that I did know (basic braid, french braid), but I did learn how to do a reverse french braid and the corkscrew twist. Then she did show a few more fancy things and gave us a handout with some reminders of the hairstyles she showed and a few blogs she'd found with cute styles. Since then, I've been brave and attempted a few fancier styles.

Sydney was baptized in June and on her baptism day, I just did french braids (it's easiest that way when it's wet and it can still look cute after the baptism for the rest of the service and then time with family at our house). I then took the 2 french braids and made a little flip thing with the two ends together at the back and tied it with a bow. I didn't get a picture of the back of her hair like that, but I'll put one here anyway just 'cuz she looks cute, all proud to be baptized!!

However, for Sunday I did her hair a little fancier. I did a simple french braid across the front and then curled it. So pretty and yet simple. I got the idea from this blog, and I just LOVE how it looks on my girls. I've done both Savanna's hair and Syd's hair this way now. So pretty. Here's Syd's hair on the Sunday after her baptism.

Then, for our trip to Vegas for dance competition, I did some fun hairstyles. Syd's was a bit of a pain and, although she didn't complain once while I was doing it, she said later that it hurt to have done. However, it does turn out cute!! I've done it again and it went faster the 2nd time once I knew better what I was doing and what not to do that I did wrong the 1st time! LOL I got the idea off this blog. Syd's cross-over ponytails are a lot thicker than the gal's on her website, but it still looks cute. If I do it again, I think I'll only do 3 sections across instead of 4 because by the time I get to the 4th, there's not much room left and it just blends in with the messy bun anyway. Here's how it turned out both times:

Front view

Back view

Here's Savanna's hair. I pulled this one out of my own noggin, although I'm sure someone somewhere else has done it before. I did a bunch of the little corkscrews and then straight pieces. It looked too plain the 1st time but still cute. The 2nd time we curled the rest of the pieces and then made a messy bun out of it. I didn't do a great job on her messy bun, but it still looked cute. I try not to do the really complicated hairstyles on Savanna because she does complain and LOUDLY!! LOL

Front view

Back view

Then for competition this year, their director wanted to try a new hairstyle. Apparently the high school drill teams are using it. Anyway, it's pretty easy and I like it. I like it a lot (said in my best Jim Carrey Dumb and Dumber voice - LOL). It's the same braid I did above across the front of Syd's hair for her baptism. You don't french braid the whole section, only to about the ear and then the rest of it is a regular braid and then all slicked back into a ponytail (for Syd's baptism, I didn't braid the end of it, just put an elastic in at about her ear and then curled the end so it blended in with the rest of her hair). I hope they do their hair this way for dance for a long time because I like how easy and fairly fast it is to do!!! Here are both my silly girls with their hair like this. You can't see it all that well, especially with those silly faces, but you'll get the general idea!!

So, there are my most recent attempts at making my girls look less like orphans and do fancy hairstyles!! LOL A lot of gel, hairspray, wet hair with the spray bottle, some mumbling on my part, and a lot of "Ouch!!" from Savanna, then voila - fancy hair!! :D

memorial day weekend

2009-05-29T11:48:00.005-06:00

We didn't go anywhere for Memorial Day weekend. We just stuck close to home. That's unusual for us. Anytime it's a holiday weekend (excepting Thanksgiving and Christmas) Ted thinks we need to leave home. LOL If it's a holiday, he thinks we need to pack up and go somewhere, whether it's camping or just go somewhere. In the summer, especially for Pioneer Day, we used to always be at Bear Lake, but since his parents have rented out their cabin for the last couple years and his brother no longer lives there, we don't go. Memorial Day and July 4th are camping holidays, and when I say camping, we don't tent camp, we trailer camp. LOL Ted was planning on going camping, somewhere, but he said no one else was going, so we didn't go. It's OK with me. I like to stay home on holidays now and again!!

So, this year we had a sleep-out in my in-laws' backyard on Friday night. Even my in-laws slept outside!! Ted's brother Mike was in St. George with friends, and Ted's brother Chris and his family were camping with his in-laws, so it was just us, my in-laws, and Ted's sister's family. I wasn't sure how it would be, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!! My father-in-law did go into his own bed at about 5 in the morning. And the BIRDS!!! Oh my goodness. Aren't they supposed to sleep at night?? LOL I kept hearing them in my sleep in the very early morning hours. Everyone else complained about them that morning too. They must have liked the tree we were sleeping under. Anyway, it was fun!

Ammie laughing, I think because Conner had just whacked Jim on the forehead. Jim mercilessly teases, tickles, tortures, and torments Conner to no end all the time, and he just thumped on the forehead in retaliation. LOL

My sister-in-law and the grandkids piling in Grandma Hanne's cozy bed.

The tree we slept under. The one the birds must really like. LOL

The next morning the adults hung out and visited, after we had a yummy breakfast. While the kids were waiting for the parents to go get swimsuits for them so they could swim, the girls all decided to choregraph a new dance. We kept hearing the same Beach Boys' song over and over in the backyard, but it kept them busy. We finally went out to watch and, oh my gosh, was it ever cute!!! The 2 younger girls are my girls and the 2 bigger girls are my niece and then her cousin (on the other side of their family). Here's what they came up with:

Sunday was Sydney's birthday. We had chicken cordon bleu, rice, and salad for dinner because that's what she wanted. Ted thought it would be fun for her to have a friend sleepover, so he called one of her friends and asked her dad if it would be OK. He said sure, so they went to pick her up and Syd had her first friend sleepover!! I wasn't up to baking a cake (her family party is actually tonight, so we're having cake tonight). So, instead I made homemade hot fudge sauce (which turned out to be pretty quick and really easy!!) and the kids had ice cream sundaes. Trying to get them to go to sleep was an entirely different story, t hough. LOL They were having way too much fun. Ted made them beds down in the playroom area and they had watched a movie, but then were just talking and talking. I think they finally fell asleep sometime just after midnight. I thought they'd wake up late, but nope, they were all awake by 8 a.m.!!! I made them blueberry pancakes for breakfast and they played most of the rest of the day.

I have to work 3 holidays a year and Memorial Day was one of my holidays this year, so I worked a few hours in the morning/early afternoon, then after Syd's friend went home, we went birthday shopping. Wow. I haven't been shopping in a VERY LONG time and I know I spent way too much. LOL We hit Old Navy, which was pretty slim pickings by Monday, but I did find some good deals. Then we hit Justice, where I only found a few things, mostly for Savanna. At The Children's Place I wasn't nuts over much of the stuff they have right now and they didn't have any great stuff on sale, but I did find a cute swimsuit for Syd, a skirt for San, and a dress for each of them. Then I saw the big sale sign at Gymboree and thought, what the heck. Yikes!! That's where I spent the most! LOL Way, way, WAY cute stuff though. However, I got shopping done for both Savanna and Sydney's birthdays, so when it's time for Savanna's here in a few weeks, I won't have to go again!! Other than presents from the kids and I need to find a cute purple shirt to go with a skirt I bought her. Plus she'll get to go to the mall for her BIG surprise present, which I'll post as it gets closer just in case any of you decide to spill the beans to her. LOL

So, that was our Memorial Day weekend. Spent close to home but still a lot of fun. I hope yours was nice too!!!

viva la story

2009-05-27T00:29:00.002-06:00

Because I have watched/listened to this YouTube video many times and because my little Syd is friends with Jon Schmidt's daughter and because Jon Schmidt and his wonderful wife Michelle brought Savanna out of her shell and gave her a solo in the school Christmas choir concert they put on at our elementary school each year, I am sharing this. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?? If you've never heard of Jon Schmidt, I'm shocked (LOL - just kidding, he's pretty well known here in Utah, but I'm sure not everywhere). If you like Taylor Swift and/or Coldplay, and even if you don't, you will love this arrangement. And this isn't even half as amazing as a piano player as Jon Schmidt is. My kids tell me he plays the piano upside down and even with his toes (they've seen it at the assemblies he does at our school). But just watching him play the piano and hearing what he does with music, it will blow you away or, at the very least, mesmerize you. So, turn off my blog music at the bottom, then push play and sit back and enjoy.

neglected blog

2009-05-21T13:47:00.003-06:00

Yes, I've neglected my blog for MONTHS now. So sorry. My problem is this, it takes me forever to type up a blog post because I read it over and over and edit it several times, and it has to be just so before I post it. So, I've stopped posting because I know I don't have time to do it exactly how I want. LOL

Anyway, we are all still well at our house. Well, except for this little thing that happened to me called PREGNANCY!! Yeah, if you haven't heard yet, I'm expecting again. Our 4th and final baby. At one time I wanted 5 and then I finally accepted that 3 would be OK (though after my miscarriage 3 years ago it took me a long time to get to that point). So, this pregnancy, while being unexpected, is still fine. My kids are thrilled and debating amongst themselves if they want a boy or a girl. Savanna's firm for a girl, Conner's firm for a boy, and Sydney says a boy because then she doesn't have to play cars and trucks with Conner anymore -- LOL. He's a good brother to play Polly Pockets with her, though, so I think she can play cars and trucks with him sometimes too. LOL I'm pretty much past the sick stage, although I don't get morning sick like most everyone else. I just get nauseous and totally exhausted. I have, however, this time around been more nauseous and have thrown up 3 times (that's a lot for me, LOL). This baby is supposed to be here by December 7, 2009, so first trimester with this "morning sickness" should be about over. I've never made it to a due date yet, though, so hopefully that still holds true this time around as well.

The girls are getting ready for their final dance recital of the year in 3 weeks and then off to Vegas for their national competition the next weekend. Ted's adamant that they're taking a break from teams next year, but it just breaks my heart. They love it so much and the team classes are SO MUCH better than the regular classes, and Savanna has come so far this year that I really hate for her to lose that. We'll see. It is so much work and time commitment and money, but it is so good for them too. I'm still trying to fight Ted on it, but I know it would help us out financially if they're not on teams.

Conner has played soccer and T-ball this spring and has loved it. He's so cute with it and has gotten so much better at soccer than last fall, actually scoring goals in every game this time around and sometimes more than one!!! Little stinker turned 5 last month, so he'll be off to kindergarten in the fall and just graduated preschool on Tuesday (the 19th). He loved it, loved his friends and his teachers, loved learning and playing there, but he is so ready to move on to kindergarten. The morning of preschool graduation he asked when he'd find out who his kindergarten teacher is, so I'm hoping they'll have it posted the last day of school so he doesn't have to wait all summer to find out too.

Well, see, this little post has already taken me over 20 minutes to type and I wanted it to be a quick one!! LOL

to an elf

2008-12-30T15:00:00.002-07:00

Christmas Eve, after returning from the festivities at my brother-in-law's house, we found some gifts on our front porch, all of which we assumed were the usual neighbor gifts, including a plastic ziplock bag containing 3 humungous candy canes, each addressed to one of our kids, and a wrapped present addressed to Conner. All these items were labeled as being from "An Elf." I assumed it was from Conner's primary teachers or a neighbor. As it was late, we picked up the packages and deposited them on the kitchen counter, sent the kids to bed, and finished wrapping all our presents. There this package stayed until Christmas morning, after we were finished with seeing what Santa brought and unwrapping all our gifts. The kids and Ted were getting dressed to go visit Ted's parents, when I saw the package in the kitchen. I called for Conner to come and unwrap it. As he was unwrapping it, he said, "I hope it's not coal." LOL

As he finished unwrapping the paper and I saw what was inside, I was speechless, while Conner got excited. Then I yelled for Ted. Inside this small package was an iPod. Ted and I stood there in shock wondering where on earth an iPod for our 4-year-old had come from. Not only had this elf given him an iPod, but they had loaded it with 15 kids' Christmas songs. He literally rocked out to them all the way to my in-laws' house, even at one point hollering, "I've got the Chipmunks on here!!" LOL

He totes the thing around everywhere and is so disappointed when the battery power runs out and we have to recharge it. As I'm not very iPod savvy yet, my brother was the one who showed us how to use it (turning it off, etc.) and was able to lock the volume for us so Conner can't turn it up full blast. Eventually we'll figure out how to load new songs on it, but as he's perfectly content with the ones already on there, we're not in a hurry.

Who would be so generous as to give it to him? After I got over the shock, I began to get a suspicion but will keep that to myself as I am sure this elf wishes to remain anonymous. However, I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and for making my Conner's Christmas.

what conner wants for christmas

2008-11-26T00:28:00.002-07:00

So, my girls have been making their Christmas wish list for weeks, or more like months. They were discussing it while we were driving in the car the other night. Savanna tends to be quite bossy and she apparently was dictating to her younger sister what she could ask for for Christmas and how many of each item. For instance, they were allowed to ask for 5 Webkins between the 2 of them (according to Savanna; I made no such stipulation), and Savanna was trying to tell Sydney not only how many but which ones she could ask for. I finally got so tired of the bickering that I told them to be quiet and asked Conner what he would like for Christmas, to which he replied, "An iPod, a Mack for Chick, and a Mack for Mr. The King." Mack being, of course, the diesel that hauls Lighting McQueen from Cars, his favorite movie. Last Christmas he received the actual Mack, but he thinks that there is one for Chick and one for Mr. The King; there's not. Anyway.....an iPod???? For my 4-year-old??? So, I asked him, "What's an iPod?" and here's his reply: "Well, it has an apple on the back, it doesn't fold like a phone does, and it has buttons on the front that you push." OK, so we now know what it looks like, so I asked him, "Conner, what do you do with an iPod?" He replied, "You put the things in your ears and listen to music on it." Alrighty, so my 4-year-old knows EXACTLY what an iPod is and wants one for Christmas. LOL Too bad neither he nor his sisters (nor his parents) will be getting one!! LOL :(

books i've read, august through october

2008-11-05T01:13:00.002-07:00

The Second Time Around by Mary Higgins Clark
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (book club)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (previous book club selection I missed)
Nighttime is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (book club)
Tribute by Nora Roberts
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Cindrellis and the Glass Hill by Gail Carson Levine
Persuasion by Jane Austen
For Biddle's Sake by Gail Carson Levine
The Fairy's Return by Gail Carson Levine

Looks like a lot, but 3 of them were books Savanna read that I thought I'd check out and read in less than an hour each. Cute books for little girls. They're classic fairy tales retold with a twist. Fun, fast reads, although it took Savanna longer than me to read them. :)

Persuasion actually took me a long time to read. I've been a bit obsessed with checking out Facebook and busy with life, so that cut back on my reading time, plus it was kinda hard for me to get into, although I did like it. I mean, how can you not like a book with lines like this:

"Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly anybody to love."

and

"'I cannot possibly do without Anne,' was Mary's reasoning; and Elizabeth's reply was, 'Then I am sure Anne had better stay, for nobody will want her in Bath.'"

Classic Austen wit. Love it.

The only other book I'll comment on here is Austenland. It was my first time reading a book by Shannon Hale. With the Austen theme, I'd hoped for great things, and it was alright, just not fabulous. It's a fun, entertaining, fairly fast read, perfect for women who are obsessed with not only Jane Austen but Mr. Darcy, specificially Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy. *sigh* :)

Oh, I will comment on the The Thirteenth Tale, which was a book club selection. I didn't like it too much until the end when the twist was revealed, then I wanted to go back and re-read it because I knew I had missed all the clues leading up to the twist and it was so much more interesting and GOOD then. Even though I didn't initially like it, until the end, I would still recommend it.

I've started Ice Bound, which is this month's book club selection and so far it's interesting and I'm liking it. I'm very curious about learning about the South Pole now. I also can't wait to get back to reading some of my favorite just-for-fun authors, but with the holidays and stuff coming up, I'm not sure how much reading I'll get done, especially as I still have to read last month's book club selection (Three Cups of Tea) that I didn't get around to reading because I couldn't get it from the library (the wait list was too long), the book exchange didn't have it, I forgot to check half.com, and I'm too cheap to pay full price for it. LOL My sister bought it, so I have her copy and will read it when I'm done with Ice Bound.

I also joined GoodReads. I love seeing what my friends have read and others' reviews of books. If you're a member, I'd love to add you. If you're not and would like to be, I'd love to add you too!

I have tons of pictures to post and things that have happened to post about. Maybe I'll get around to it eventually. LOL For me, blogging takes a lot of time because I re-read and re-write everything, plus I tend to have a lot to say, so if I don't have time to sit down and blog, then I just skip it. I need to be better about that.

kids photo shoot

2008-10-14T00:09:00.006-06:00

My girls have a team dance picture taken every year. This year they did each person individually and then they'll do a montage of all the girls. I am so LOVING this idea because we were in and out of the studio in less than an hour. It was AWESOME!! In the past we've been there for 3+ hours and by then my girls' hair has lost all its bounce and curl because they've been playing around, they're bored, starving, and so on. I hate having to sit there and wait and wait and wait for the group shot, especially when we don't have the girls' individual pictures done. I'd love to and I did used to. The photographers are great and the shots always turn out awesome; they just cost a bloody fortune.

They do a make-over package, but after watching their stylists do it for a few years, I figured I could do the hair and make-up myself to save moolah, so I have. It was a bit rushed after school today to get them home, dressed, and hair all curled, but we did it. For Savanna's hair (because she has so dang much of it!!), I actually recruited my sister's help. It went so much faster with 2 curling irons and both of us doing it!! I will definitely remember that for the future. Thanks again Melissa!!!!!!

When we were done getting their photos taken so fast and since the girls were dressed up, with fancy hair and make-up, I decided to take some shots myself. We stopped at Main Street here at home and took some shots, which we were also done with in an hour, mainly because Conner wasn't too keen on the whole idea and it was FREEZING!!!! I took just over 100 shots in about 45 minutes. There are quite a few good shots and plenty of not so great ones, so here are some of both. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: My girls love to pose. I actually had to tell them to STOP posing their own ways and tell them to look here, tilt their heads this way, etc., etc., to try to get the shots I wanted. They all love to ham it up for the camera once in a while, so I threw some of those in 'cuz they're fun. On top of that, I'm still playing around with camera settings (even though I've had the camera for well over a year, still learning, sorry!!), so some of these are a bit blurry. I would love to get Photoshop and actions and all that, but for now, these will just have to do.

The first shot of the night.

All 3, still happy.

Silly girls.

Gotta get them to do something to lighten up. This always works.

Such hams!!

I LOVE this one!!

One of the few good ones of Conner.

Conner thought it'd be funny to try to get in the shot of just his sisters.

The resulting giggles.

The last good shot of the night.

look what i did!

2008-10-03T02:19:00.004-06:00

Peaches I canned all by myself!

Peach-Mixed Berry Jam

RIP jam

I canned jam and peaches. Lots and lots of them. One week my mom I did 7 batches of jam over 3 days, but then she took half of it. :( LOL Tuesday (9/30) I finally finished up the rest of the peaches from my grandma's trees (which come on later than my mom's) and ended up with over 30 jars of peaches and I forgot to count the jam. I did one more batch of jam on my own. Let's see, 7 jars in a batch x 7 batches = 49 divided by 2 = 24 + 7 = 31. So I got over 30 jars of jam too! Yum!!

I learned something with my jam this year - Costco has big bags of berries in their freezer section for around $10!!! Very nice. I'd bought them for smoothies but didn't think about using them for the jam. My mom came up with that one. They don't have just plain raspberries, though. They have strawberries. They have blueberries. They don't have raspberries. What they do have is a raspberry-marionberry-blueberry mix, so we used that. I had actually bought fresh raspberries from Costco and froze them, so I used those up first (the redder jam) and then the berry mix in the rest (the deeper-colored jam). Blueberries don't mash up well with cooking, so you either have to do it yourself during the cooking process or, on the last batch I made solo, I dumped the berry mix in the blender first (with a bit of peaches already blended or it doesn't blend well 'cuz the berries are frozen). Turned out wonderful! We still have a bottle of the apricot-pineapple jam open that I made earlier, so as soon as we finish that jar up, we're opening the RIP jam!!! (Check on this post for my recipe.)

I'm thinking of attempting pears. We've been very blessed to live on the old "farm" and to have access to all the fruit trees my grandparents planted ages ago. We have apricots, peaches, apples, pears, plums, and prunes, plus grandma's grapevines. My kids are really good to just go out and pick fruit. They actually pick the apples as soon as they're big enough to even think about eating. The blossoms come and go, the apples start growing, and they start eating them. I don't like 'em green, but everyone else in my house seems to. Crazy people. The apples are almost ripe now too, so maybe I'll tackle some applesauce and apple jelly too. Could be interesting!! Of course, I used up all my pints with jam, so I'm on the hunt for those at the DI now! I got oodles of quarts though, so why not fill 'em up?

15 years

2008-09-24T00:25:00.003-06:00

Yikes! It's starting to freak me out that I'm getting older. I mean, I FEEL so young still. Like I could go right back to high school and fit right in. OK, so I really couldn't, but I FEEL young!!! LOL I'm reading a book called Tribute right now and I read a quote the other night that REALLY started to freak me out. The guy in the book starts getting freaked out because he realizes he's like 9 years away from being 40. Well, that got ME to thinking and made ME realize that I'm only 6 years away from being 40!!!! ARRRGGHHHHH!!!!! How on earth did THAT happen???? Hopefully I will stop thinking about it soon. LOL

Anyway, back to the 15 years title of this post --- Last week Ted and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. Crazy, huh?? He was working up at Bear Lake all last week but did manage to come home the evening of our anniversary, which I had to work. He was actually supposed to be gone until Friday, so, in my defense, that's why I didn't ask for it off. Plus, with it being a weeknight, it's just too hard to arrange stuff for the kids. My mom brought us dinner from a local hamburger joint, where we went all the time when I was growing up and which used to be really good food. However, we decided that night that it isn't any longer. My mom couldn't believe the price she had to pay and then when we opened up our burgers, we had these lovely HUGE buns, with an extremely tiny portion of meat. I am not exaggerating when I say the meat was half the size of the bun. Horrible. The only good thing still was the Rainbow drinks - which is a slush with soft serve ice cream swirled together. They are fabulous!!! I always, always get peach. It is their best flavor ever. It is also my favorite in their Astro Bars, but I will settle for lime or grape if I have to. However, Rainbows have also gotten very expensive. Sadly, we probably won't be going back again any time soon and then most likely only for Rainbows. I actually thought about calling them and complaining about the poor food and cost, but they're a local institution and unless no one goes there anymore, nothing will be done about it, I'm sure.

Friday night we made it out to dinner for our anniversary, although we almost didn't. Well, let me phrase that as we almost didn't make it out ALONE for our anniversary. And I don't mean that we almost had to take the kids with us, I mean we almost celebrated with all my in-laws!!!! As much as I love my husband, he loves to do anything and everything with his family. I had to really pout to get my point across that that was not how I wanted to spend our anniversary. The point of celebrating an anniversary is to be together alone, right?? He finally got it.

So, we ended up eating at a steak house in Sandy called Carvers. We went there once before with his sister and brothers and their spouses. I wasn't impressed that time actually, so we almost didn't go this time. We actually went to Texas Roadhouse first, but the wait was an hour. We drove across the road and Carvers sat us immediately.

First, they brought us a fabulous round loaf of sourdough (Ted's favorite bread ever). We each ordered soup instead of salad (very rare for Ted, but I do order it occasionally -- and their salads aren't like garden salads like you'd get at other places, so with Ted a picky salad person, he opted for the soup). He got the clam chowder; I'm not a seafood person, so I got the beef with barley (I would have gotten the french onion if it was an option, although, in retrospect, I probably could have asked if they'd give it to me if we paid the difference). The beef with barley was DIVINE!!!!!! I have never had such fabulous beef with barley soup before. Totally blows the Campbell's kind out of the water!! It had huge pieces of steak with plenty of veggies. The broth was very thick and soooooo flavorful!! Ted made fun of me because I could not stop raving about the soup. Then he said that his family has always joked for years that when I get a plate of really good food, to watch out, because I become totally focused on it and (pardon me, but this is what he said) make love to my plate. LOL (I mentioned this to my sister the next day and she agreed that I do, so now I am self-conscious, sort-of, about eating really yummy food). Although I don't like seafood, I will admit that Ted's clam chowder looked fabulous. It had humongous chunks of potatoes and big pieces of bacon in there. If they made clam chowder like that without the clams, I would be all over it.

For our main course, we each ordered the ribeye. OH MY WORD!!!! I have NEVER had a ribeye melt in my mouth like that!!! And I got it medium well. I'm usually a well person because most places at medium well are too pink/bloody for me. This was not at all. It was incredible. The fun part was that when we asked for A1, they brought us each our own miniature pitcher!!!! Very nice. No fighting over the A1!!!! Ted got the baked potato and I got the garlic mashed -- I highly recommend the garlic mashed.

After we had gorged ourselves on incredible ribeyes and potatos (leaving leftover ribeyes to take home), the waitress brought by the dessert tray to tempt us. As we were winding up eating, Ted mentioned that he needed a really good chocolate cake. I had seen the other wait staff carrying around the dessert tray and hadn't seen any chocolate on it, so I was worried. Indeed, when our fabulous waitress (Konnie) brought the tray over for us, there was no chocolate cake. There was a small chocolate torte thing and some very yummy-looking cheesecakes and carrot cake. The clincher for us, though, was when she said that they had other desserts that were not featured on the tray and proceeded to describe the warm fudge brownie with 2 scoops of ice cream (along with some others which we forgot as soon as she described the brownie - LOL). We'll take it!!!! She brought us 2 spoons and we devoured the fabulous warm fudge brownie, which was topped with 1 scoop of vanilla and 1 scoop of chocolate, which were both covered with a thin layer of a white sauce and then decorative chocolate sauce. Ted declared that the brownie was better with the vanilla ice cream, so I very happily let him eat the vanilla while I devoured the chocolate. LOL

If you get a chance to eat there, I highly recommend it. I also recommend Konnie as your waitress. She was friendly, made great recommendations, and was just plain good!!

I think we actually enjoyed our anniversary dinner at Carvers more than we would have at Texas Roadhouse, because that place was LOUD. We were able to have a much more intimate dinner and conversation at Carvers. Ted has hearing problems anyway, so at Carvers he could hear me and we didn't have to yell or repeat things. We will go eat at Texas Roadhouse when it opens here (it's almost finished), but for an intimate anniversary dinner, I think Carvers couldn't have been beat.

she started it

2008-09-17T01:15:00.004-06:00

OK, my friend Heather posted this post on her blog and I started typing a response and then could have kept going and going but realized it wasn't MY blog. ROFL Here is what I started with.....

ROFL - at your Oreo post and at Lilian's BYU/Utah comments. OK, I come from a long line of Utes. I am even an alumna. I'm always glad when the Y wins, unless they beat the U. LOL I don't get how come Lilian doesn't get that. LOL

Anyway.....I only eat Oreos if the stuff is colored. I don't know why, but the seasonal colored ones DO really taste better than the white ones.

Now, if I don't sing the U fight song, my grandpa will literally roll over in his grave. I wish I was kidding, but he really will!

I am a Utah Man, sir, and I live across the green,
Our gang it is the jolliest that you have ever seen.
Our coeds are the fairest and each one's a shining star,
Our yell, you'll hear it ringing through the mountains near and far!
Who am I, sir,
A Utah Man am I!
A Utah Man, sir,
Will be 'til I die.
Ki-yi!
We're up to snuff, we never bluff, we're game for any fuss.
No other gang of college men dare meet us in a muss.
So fill your lungs and sing it out and shout it to the sky,
We'll fight for dear old crimson for a Utah Man am I!
Ki-yi!

I decided I could keep going about school rivalries. My high school was the Viewmont Vikings. The cross-town rivals were the Bountiful Braves. Big-time rivalry, even though the schools were rated differently (4A vs. 3A, although now 5A vs. 4A). Being an extremely loyal Viking, I was not a Braves fan ever, ever, ever, even though my dad was a Brave (but only because Viewmont wasn't built yet - *wink*). Over my 3 years there, I was in the pep club, a JV cheerleader, and then on the dance and drill team, so I cheered a lot for my Vikings and yelled "row, row, row" a lot (Viking ships, rowing, get it?? - it's said slowly and rhythmically and is often done with students sitting in a line along the track around the football field). I was at every football game and every basketball game, plus some soccer and baseball games. I have very deep Viking pride (even though I consistently dated guys from other schools - Bear River and East)

Fast forward to last fall.....Ted decides he wants to go to some local football games. He wonders Bountiful or Viewmont. I look at him like, "Are you serious? You're asking me to choose between Bountiful and Viewmont?? Gee, hmmm....which one will I choose??" ROFL I voted for Viewmont. Guess which one we went to? Bountiful. Know why? Because a guy in our ward was playing there and it was his senior year. This wasn't just any guy in our ward. This was a guy we taught in Primary when he was Savanna's age and he mowed our lawn for us last summer. That is the ONLY reason I gave in and went to a Bountiful Braves football game. OK, we went to 2, but don't tell anyone..... hee hee

yes, I do blog

2008-09-01T11:56:00.004-06:00

....just not much anymore. I have so much to blog about and no time or desire to do it. Odd for me since at one time I thought I would grow up and be a famous author. I lived for my creative writing class in high school and was crushed that the college of my choice didn't offer any such major. Anyway, lots has happened at our home this last month -- school started, soccer started, dance tryouts (which I have very mixed emotions about at the moment), and lots more.

I did finish Breaking Dawn and I did like it, much better than the other 3 books in the series. I'm a bit disappointed that now Stephenie Meyer will not be finishing Midnight Sun due to its being leaked, as I would have loved the entire series so much better from Edward's perspective. Just a caveat about the series - It is supposed to be geared towards young adults. The first 2 books I think were. However, starting with Eclipse, I do not think it is appropriate for young adults. The scene in Eclipse is very minor and wasn't a big deal to me, so that one is still probably OK. However, Breaking Dawn, while very tastefully done, is, in my opinion, not appropriate for young adults. I will now make sure my girls are much older before I give my permission for them to read the books. They're 9 and 7 so like they care right now anyway. LOL I don't want to scare anyone away from reading the books, because I think they are fine for us married moms who enjoy them. I just wouldn't want my daughters to get any wrong ideas, even though, like I said, Stephenier Meyer wrote about it in a very appropriate manner. I would post more about my feelings about the book but don't want to spoil it for those of you who expressed an interest in the series and haven't yet read the books. I do believe that you should experience them for yourself and not know what happens beforehand. Stephenier Meyer expressed this in her interview about Breaking Dawn and I completely agree. I felt the same about the Harry Potter books. I hated knowing when someone was dying in a book, even if I didn't know who it was, I still hated that I knew it was coming for someone. Hence, why I stay away from anyone reading the books or the internet until I've finished it for myself.

As a quick note, I have to share a really cute Conner story. I am easily stressed out. My patience is tested very quickly and I have a short temper. My kids, as much as I love them, really try my patience and I yell at them often. Well, one night last week my sister was here (I think it was Wednesday the 27th) and we were outside sitting on the porch swing while my kids took turns pushing her baby in the stroller and ran around on the grass. It was nice because they were getting their energy out and it was almost bedtime. I'd given them a warning that they had 5 minutes left before it was time to go in and get ready for bed, then 2 minutes, then 1. They didn't listen. My sister could see that I was starting to stress out. I put my head down in my hands and groaned a bit. Sydney came skipping over to the porch swing and Melissa told her that they needed to go inside and do what they were told because mom's head was going to explode. Sydney gaily skipped back to her siblings and said just as gaily, "Mom's head's going to explode!" My girls understand that that's not something literal. However, as I looked up Conner had walked over and was looking at me with the most concerned look on his face. Poor little guy really thought mom's head was going to explode. Melissa and I got a good laugh out of that, which lightened up my mood and I was able to deal with my disobedient children much better. However, Melissa thought it was such a funny story that she has shared it with my entire family and now the family joke is to ask me how my head is. LOL

And because I finally got to see Mamma Mia! the movie a few weeks ago, I've changed my blog music.......enjoy!

holy CRAP!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-04T09:30:00.002-06:00

That's all I have to say about Breaking Dawn so far. It's beyond words and I am not posting spoilers because everyone MUST read it for themselves to find out what happens. Of course, I'm sure most everyone else has already finished the book while I'm still on p. 452, but OH MY HECK!!!!!! I so did not expect ANYTHING to go this way in the book. I'm stunned. I'm shocked. BUT I'm LOVING it!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait to see how it ends.............

heaven, souls, and dreams

2008-08-01T16:09:00.002-06:00

I've read a LOT of books these past few months. During the months of May, June, and July I read 14 books. That's a lot to me. Some people I know can read more than that, and I envy them. LOL Among all the books I read these past 3 months, 3 of them really stood out to me. Their subjects are the title of this post.

The first is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, which was the book club selection for June. A couple gals didn't read it because they'd heard it was disturbing and just didn't want to deal with that. I LOVED it. It was difficult at times because of what happens to the girl at the beginning and the subject matter of the book, but it was so well written and the imagery so well done, that it was just fabulous. I borrowed it from the library, but one day when I went to the DI to try to find a tie Savanna needed for Activity Days (a program for girls ages 8-11 in our church), I went to the book section, which I always check, and there were a couple copies of the book for around $1. I grabbed the one I thought was in the best condition and have added it to my personal library. I'm pretty good about taking books to the local book exchange to trade for new ones and only keep certain books and books by certain authors. (I also read mostly paperbacks. I have very few books in hardback.) This is one I decided to keep. It was just so fascinating the way she developed and told the story.

The entire story is told from the perspective of a girl who has died. She tells how she died and then she proceeds to watch over her family and other people she knew. She also describes what her heaven is like (and explains that it's different for everyone). For instance, her heaven smells like skunk. When I first read that, I was like, "Gross!!!" But then a few days later as we were driving I smelled skunk and I realized why her heaven smelled like that. It's a summer smell and as a faint smell it's not all that bad. It's a very memory-triggering smell and a very distinctive smell. The book was so thought-provoking to me and made me think what MY heaven would be like if I got to choose. I could so say much more about the book, but I don't want to spoil it in case you want to read it.

The next book I fell in love with was The Host by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Bella/Edward vampire books. Now, I've already admitted I'm not as in love with these books as everyone else seems to be, but I did really like them and I am so excited for Breaking Dawn to be released tonight at midnight to find out what happens with Bella, Edward, and Jacob and I'm excited for the movie to come out on December 12th and have watched all the previews already. But The Host I loved. It just grabbed me and took me into the world of Melanie and Wanderer. It was so easy for me to visualize everything and was so fascinating to me. Loved it, loved it, loved it!!

The last book was The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Incredible. I'm so overwhelmed with emotion about this book, that I just can't say more than that. It is a book I would love to buy for everyone I know. It was that good. I cried many times during it and also when I watched the ABC special on him the other night. He's now who'd I like to be like when I grow up, to have his attitude and determination and spirit. The world's a better place for having had him here and we're poorer after his passing. My heart goes out to his family. I finished this book on Saturday the 26th only to find that he had passed away the day before (from pancreatic cancer). I read somewhere that they said this on TV: "He was a man who found out he had 3-6 months left to live, so what did he do?....He changed the world." I still haven't finished watching the actual lecture, but from what I've seen of it so far the book follows along with it pretty well. If you read and liked Tuesdays With Morrie, you will like this book. The chapters are short and he just has so much wonderful advice and insight. I had to go pick up my own copy at Costco. I'm giving it to my father-in-law for his birthday. I'd give it to my mom for her birthday too, which isn't until October, but she already borrowed my copy! LOL I told Ted he had to watch the special and he was even touched by it. He's not much of a reader, so I doubt he'll ever read the book, but he was impressed by Randy Pausch and his philosophies.

So, all that said, here is my book list from May through July 2008:

Chill Factor by Sandra Brown
A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich (May book club)
The One That Got Away by Naomi Rand (book from the dollar store)
Midnight Rain by Holly Lisle
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (June book club)
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Small Steps by Louis Sachar (a followup to Holes)
The Broker by John Grisham
Morrigan's Cross by Nora Roberts (book 1 of the Circle trilogy)
Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts (book 2 of the Circle triology)
Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts (book 3 of the Circle triology)
Hurricane Hannah by Sue Civil-Brown
Daddy's Little Girl by Mary Higgins-Clark
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (July book club)

abc primetime tonight

2008-07-29T18:37:00.003-06:00

You must watch ABC's Primetime tonight, and I really do mean must. Here's why: An incredible man passed away last Friday, July 25, 2008. He lived longer than doctors told him he would. His story has previously been on TV on various shows, including Oprah and ABC's Good Morning America. Tonight they are doing a tribute to him. If you want to be inspired and touched, you absolutely cannot miss this show. If you want some background, visit here. Then you will want to read his book and watch this on YouTube. I'll warn you now that it's about 90 minutes long, but it will be time well spent and you will not be disappointed.

rain

2008-07-23T00:29:00.003-06:00

YEAH!!!!! Bring on the rain!!!!! It's about 12:30 a.m. here and it started to thunder probably 5-10 minutes ago and now it's RAINING!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!! I so love the rain and we so desperately need it here with the hot, dry weather. It's been over 40 days since we last had any measurable precipitation, so I think it's about time!!! However, tomorrow evening (or technically later today) is the Bountiful Handcart Days Parade, which my girls are in for dance, so I hope that it's not raining but at least kinda cool for them!! Savanna is marching for the first time and Sydney is riding on the float. Savanna has mixed feelings about marching. She doesn't want to march because she doesn't want to walk that far and be tired, BUT she gets to carry a prop and she likes the choreography, so there ya go. LOL Despite Ted's recently announced aversions to parades, he WILL be going. It's for the kids mainly anyway, so come on.

Now I'm off to bed and I'm sooooo excited to go to bed too because we'll have our windows open listening to the rain and I just love that, not to mention the fabulous smell that accompanies it. Nighty-night!! *Ü*

quotable conner

2008-07-21T21:17:00.004-06:00

So, my darling son has been saying more cute things and I want to get them down before I forget them.

Last month after we returned from Vegas, we were all outside on the porch, enjoying the porch swing, eating popsicles, and coloring with chalk on the sidewalk/porch. Conner was drawing pictures and then started writing letters. Now, he's 4, has never been to preschool, and can't consciously spell, but he spelled first the word "to" and asked me what it spelled. I was so surprised but told him what he'd spelled. Then he added the letter "p" to make it "top." He did this all on his own. I promise. The girls and I were so excited and were congratulating him on his letters and that he'd spelled 2 words!! After that, he started writing some numbers (1, 0, 10, 11). It was so fun!! I tried to take a picture of him with it the next day, but Ted had washed it all away!! I was so sad!! He hasn't written any words since then, but he loves to practice letters and numbers. He's still learning and has a long way to go, but he's slowly learning. It's so fun to see my baby grow up, although if I think about it too much I get sad. So I try not to. LOL

Anyway, that same night someone (I can't remember if it was me or the girls) mentioned that we could hear the crickets chirping. Conner stopped his drawing/writing, stood up, and said, "Crickets only speak at night." I was like, "Yeah, they do!! Where did you hear that?" To which he replied, "I don't know" and shrugged his shoulders. LOL Conner had some hives/rash on his body from Vegas and that night after the porch episode while the kids were getting to bed, we noticed that they were back again (he'd been treated with Benadryl and they'd pretty much go away with that), so I decided to walk him up to have my dad check them out (he'd stopped by earlier, but they were "in remission" - LOL - at that time). As we were walking up my parents' driveway, I tried asking Conner again about the crickets. Again, he said, "Crickets only speak at night" and then he said "Like this," and made a chirping sound. It was so cute!! He still said he didn't know where he'd learned this. I wondered if maybe it was on Barney or some show, but he couldn't tell me. (P.S. We never did figure out what was causing the hives/rash, but it finally disappeared a day or two after that night.)

Then last Saturday (July 19th) we'd been out to our friends Greg and Ashley's for dinner and visiting. It was also Draper Days, so afterwards we headed over to the Draper Park to check out the fireworks. On our way there, Ted decided that it was almost time for the fireworks to start and that it would be too hard to find a parking space and walk there in time to see the fireworks, so he said we would find a place to park by his sister's old house and watch them from there (because we'd seen them from their lawn 2 years ago and had a nice view). The kids asked why we couldn't go to the park and I said that there were too many people and it would be too hard. Conner said, "But we can just say excuse me and ask them to let us through." It was so sweet and just makes me smile that my little boy is so polite to think of this. We did go to the end of his sister's old street but ended up finding out that his parents were at his cousin's house on the other side of the block, so we drove over there. We made it before the fireworks started and had a killer view. We were so close, in fact, that Ted and I both felt the ash/fall-out from the fireworks at the end of the show. The only drawback was we couldn't hear the music that accompanied the fireworks, but they were spectacular!! Keeps us looking forward to Bountiful's parade and fireworks in 2 days!!

NO!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-18T01:14:00.002-06:00

I literally shouted this tonight as I watched the results of SYTYCD. I was so upset that Gev was voted off, and I voted for him last night!! Sadly, I wasn't able to vote as much as I would have liked because I was working, but I did pick the phone up and vote probably 20-25 times? Anyway, my SIL and I were texting back and forth through the results show, starting as soon as they announced Gev was in the bottom 2 guys. I was watching it in the bedroom and my phone was in my purse in the front hallway. As soon as they announced Gev, I heard my phone telling me I had a text message and immediately knew it was Jen. We text during Jazz games, American Idol, and now SYTYCD. Here's how our text conversation went tonight:

Jen: Oh my dang heck. Are you watching?
Me: Aarrrgghhh!! Yes!
Jen: Lol. I know!
Me: Please let it be Mark!
Jen: I totally agree!!
Me: Did you vote?
Jen: Only a little. Did you?
Me: Only a little too 'cuz I had to work.
Jen: Mark has to go.

During the commercial break before they were going to announce who was leaving.
Jen: I don't know if I can watch this.

As they had Mark and Gev up there:
Me: Here we go.

After Cat said it was Gev:
Me: NO!!!
Jen: Oh my gosh. I am so sad. I can't believe this.

Then we just gave up texting and she called me so we could vent to each other about it. LOL As soon as I heard my phone ring, I knew it was her. I didn't even say hello, just started on a tirade about being sad Gev was voted off (which is one of the nice things about cell phones/caller ID, I can make sure I'm right before I answer and make a fool of myself by going off on someone who has no clue what I'm talking about - LOL). Now, my text responses are from memory and not all there because my cell phone doesn't save my sent messages (only sent picture messages), so I can't remember everything I said, but that was the basic gist of it.

And Gev was supposed to teach the summer boys' hip hop class at The Dance Factory where my girls take dance, but he called Alisha (the owner/director) - before the show even aired - and said he couldn't teach for her this summer. When she asked why, he said, "I can't tell you." She then asked him if he made it on SYTYCD and he said, "I can't tell you." LOL Savanna had the opportunity to attend 2 workshops taught by Sabra (who won last year) but couldn't attend either one of them. The timing of both of them was just off for us. I'm hoping that Gev will be able to do some sort of workshops here locally too.

Anyway, that boy can MOVE!!! I am just in awe every time I watch him. I was disappointed the judges were so harsh on him last night, although Chelsie WAS absolutely incredible. I thought Gev did great with both the contemporary and the jive pieces and, personally, I still think Mark should have been gone (and Comfort too; I'm sad it was Kherrington - the dances she and Mark drew out to do were just not good ones). Maybe I'll be able to get tickets to the tour. Oh man, that would be so fun!!!

Anyway, as a final tribute to the ever-amazing/how-does-he-DO-that??!! Gev, check out these 2 solos from this week. The shirt comes off. He moves around to Michael Buble like you'd never imagine. Oh man, GO GEV!!!!

obsessed

2008-07-14T17:05:00.002-06:00

OK, that's probably a REALLY strong word, but considering how many times I have watched Gev's "Dancing for Survival" solo and the hours I spent going through all his and Courtney's dances on YouTube, I'm just a bit obsessed. LOL We had started watching So You Think You Can Dance at the very beginning of the season when they were showing the SLC auditions. A gal from our church actually made it through to Vegas. I'm not sure why she was cut or when, but she's a former Utah Jazz dancer and also teaches at the studio where Sabra (the winner last year) is from. However, after that SLC show, we, um, kinda forgot about it and didn't watch anymore!!! LOL

It wasn't until last week when my friend Heather had Gev's solo on her blog, that I was reminded that I NEED to be watching this show!!! LOL We went over to my brother's last night for dinner and to watch Miss Universe. We ended up watching several of their recorded episodes of SYTYCD while we were waiting for it to start. Much nicer to watch on a big TV than through the internet. LOL Anyway, my SIL loves Katee and Josh, but Ted and I both agreed on the way home that Gev and Courtney are our favorites. We plan to watch from this week on out and vote for Gev - go Gev!!!!

Gev actually lives in Utah, although he's originally from Kazakhstan. I could SWEAR that Gev taught hip hop at my girls' dance studio last year. I remember seeing his name on the schedule and thinking it was such an odd name and not knowing if it was a guy or a girl. Now I know!! LOL My girls are on competition teams and, as those are pretty expensive, I don't have them take extra fun classes throughout the year, so they were never in hip hop. So, we never actually met Gev before he became famous, but he's sort-of hometown and I'm all for cheering for the hometown contestant!!!

So, just in case you haven't seen Gev's solo, you gotta check this out:

Oh, and for 2 years in a row!!!!! Miss USA stumbled in the evening gown competition!!! Holy crap!!! LOL Oh well. We were pretty much rooting for Miss Colombia or Miss Venezuela at that point anyway (I still think it should have been Miss Colombia). Nothing against our country's representative, just that we thought Miss Colombia and Miss Venezuela seemed to have the cutest personalities. Although, as for who answered the final question the best, we all agreed that Miss Mexico and Miss Russia did. We also all agreed that there was a certain type of woman that the judges seeemed to prefer. Anyone else pick up on that? LOL And, um, that chick and her back-up dancers who performed during the swimsuit competition??? What the???? Enough said. LOL

how you feeling?

2008-06-28T00:18:00.016-06:00

Hot, hot, hot!!!! OK, NOW I'm feeling OK and it's definitely been hot, hot, hot here at home, but it was so incredibly hot in Las Vegas, where we spent last weekend watching the girls compete in their national competition for Stars. We all thought we were going to melt!!! It was around 110 degrees every day down there (according to the TV, although Ted's truck said it was as high as 116). We had a nice time. The girls did well, even if the judges didn't like their show, which all the girls totally ROCKED at!!! We (the moms and the studio staff) were all in shock when it was annoucned that we were 3rd place (out of 3 shows in our category). Oh well. Tonight at their dance banquet their director said that she was upset in Vegas and she knew the girls were too, but that it was a good lesson that being judged at a competition is someone's opinion and they don't always like you, but that she was still so proud of everyone because it was the best they'd ever performed the show. And it was.

First, let me explain. The show is all the teams combined to perform, there is a theme (ours was a party this year), and it's a big, long production, like 10-12 minutes or so (the individual team routines are usually around 3 minutes). When Alisha initially announced the theme this year was a party, I was like, "Huh?" But their costumes were awesome and the choreography was just fabulous. As long as we have been at the studio, the other shows have included Survivor, the news (which took overall honors at nationals that year), and last year was the Big Hair and Spandex Affair, referring to the 80s (which took first place in their category at nationals). There is scenery and everything. This year they had risers (which they also used last year and Alisha says they're not using ever again - LOL) and then a radio with speakers off to the side. The music changes, lots of different songs throughout the show. It opens with the opening song from High School Musical 2. There's a line dancing sequence, hip hop sequence, "It's My Party" (Sydney's section), and of course "Everybody Dance Now," plus more. The show is fun, full of energy, and a lot of time commitment (Ted's biggest complaint with dance this year, not to mention the expense of the competition teams in general).

Anyway, the show is full of tumbling, energy, technique, and fun. The girls have a blast with it and it is always awesome. There is a section where about 15+ girls all do a back handspring at the same time and at the end 95% of the team all do scorpions (which is a type of backbend). And at Nationals, they NAILED everything. The back handsprings were all right on together. The aerials and back tucks were fabulous. The girls were so into the routine and just had a blast with it, as well as being as to close to perfect as possible. It was incredible. When we went into the locker room to change, everyone was so stoked with it. Alisha said how proud she was of the girls. I complimented her daughter (who is Savanna's age) on her showmanship because when she came out on the floor she was so into it and just did awesome. Then another one of the moms/staff praised Savanna to me and said that she was a little rockstar and that at every competition we should pretend it's Savanna's birthday (because it really was that day). Savanna has come a long way in dance this year and I am SOOO proud of her.

Well, the team that beat us is also from Utah and was one of the teams that our studio combined with to perform at a Utah Jazz halftime. My girls (and all of them really) have friends on that team and all our studios really getting along well (I found out at competition this year that apparently the other regions do not all get along as well as we do). So we were excited for Central Utah that they won. Their show was a mall theme and it was very cute and good. They improved throughout all the competitions we attended together. And we were happy for them. We were just so shocked to come in 3rd after performing ours so well.

The great part of the night was the girls' individual team routines. Sydney's team took 1st and 2nd in their dances, which were entered into the same category, so overall top honors for the Mini Stars out of 5 routines in that category. Their 2nd place dance was Hound Dog and their 1st place dance was Happy Working song (from Enchanted), which is so, so cute!!! Sydney is the center of attention in that dance (literally). She loves it. She is lifted up at one point and also "wakes" everybody up at the beginning of the dance and ends it as the center of attention too. She has also really improved this year. Her showmanship is incredible this year (just look at the pics of her facial expressions - sometimes they are so hilarious). I am so proud of her too!!

Then Savanna's routines also took 1st and 2nd, although in different categories. Their 2nd place routine was Dum Diddly, their hip hop dance, which took 1st in every other competition they entered. The team that beat them was the New Mexico Stars and it was a very good routine. Their 1st place routine was Fabulous, from High School Musical 2. It has won 1st at every competition this year and is so cute!!! The routine is full of attitude, just like Sharpay, and they where these darling pink sequined dresses. I wish I could upload the videos here so you could see the routines, but I didn't learn how to do video on my camera until the other night and I recorded them on my regular camcorder on a tape.

All-in-all, it was a fun weekend, although gas about killed us and took more of our budget than I had initially planned on. *sigh* We are now hoping that next Thursday (my payday) comes really fast. LOL

**Disclaimer - I did not take all of the pictures above and they aren't all from nationals. They're from the different competitions/performances throughout the year and some of the show and Hound Dog ones were taken by a photographer at a competition, whom we bought the photo CDs from.

Also, I hope you enjoy the new blog music. I'm sure you were sick of my Idol mix by now! LOL

scattergories is hard

2008-06-24T15:00:00.003-06:00

My friend Rhonda emailed me this and it really was hard!! Give it a try and post the results on your blog!!

SCATTERGORIES...It's harder than it looks! Copy and paste into a new email. When you are done, send it on, including to the person who sent it to you.
*Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...*They have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up.

Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. (WHICH BY THE WAY IS HARD IF YOU ALREADY READ THEIR ANSWERS) **You cannot use your name for the boy/girl name!!!!!**

What is your name...Nicole
4-letter word......nice
Vehicle... Nissan
City... North Salt Lake
Boy name..Noah
Girl name... Noelle
Occupation... nanny
Celebrity..........Nicole Kidman
Something found in the bathroom.......... nail clippers
Reason for being late.......nothing
Cartoon Character... Nemo
Something you shout... NO!!!
Animal... nightingale
Body Part...Nose
Word to describe you... nice

GOOD LUCK TO THE NEXT PERSON

P.S. It's my birthday today. I'm 34 years old!! Yikes!!!! Ted loves it when it's my birthday because then I am older than him for a whole 6 weeks and, of course, he can say he's in love with an older woman. It also means my oldest daughter turned 9 years old 3 days ago, which is crazy!!!! How did she get to be so old so fast??? I remember the day she was born and as a baby and toddler and everything!!!! *sigh* I'll have to post about her birthday and our weekend soon, but my personal computer will not upload pictures and I finally discovered why. The USB ports are shot. Anyone know how to remedy this???? It would help me out tremendously!! I bought a memory card reader to plug into my computer, but, of course, it won't work because the USB ports are shot. I tested it on my work computer and it works great there, so it's definitely the USB ports on this computer. Anyway, I'll get around to that hopefully soon!! I hope everyone's enjoying their summer!!!

for dry, red eyes, clear eyes is awesome

2008-06-06T00:22:00.002-06:00

(Can you hear Ben Stein saying it in the commercial?? LOL)

OK, so I don't use Clear Eyes, but only because my ophthalmologist said never to use Visine, Clear Eyes, or anything like it when I went in a few years ago with my allergy problems and had used Visine -- oops!! Right now, though, my eyes are driving me NUTS!!! Well, mostly just my left one. It always seems to be the worst one every year. It's that time of year for my allergies to flare up!!! Yippy!!! Ok, so I'm not really excited. I'm miserable. All day long my eye itches constantly. I hate it. On top of that is my stuffy/runny nose. I was so excited this year that Zyrtec is available over-the-counter, as 2 years ago I got some samples and it was fabulous. It didn't even make me drowsy, which my doctor warned me it could and why a lot of people didn't like it. I didn't take it last year because I couldn't get samples and couldn't afford a prescription. Anyway, I was just ecstatic that it was now OTC, especially as I'd tried Claritin (which others I know swore by) and it did nothing for me. I dutifully took my Costco coupon and went to buy some. Once there I discovered that I could get 300 generic tablets for $17 instead of 75 brand-name tablets for $27 (with the coupon). Hmmm.....which one to buy?? Duh!! LOL I started taking it over the last week to 10 days and at first I thought it was helping, but this week not so much. I'm miserable. For some reason my allergies are making me tired too. I think the Zyrtec works for a little while, but it definitely hasn't been lasting 24 hours like it's supposed to. I end up taking a few doses of Benadryl until the 24 hours is up and I can take another Zyrtec.

It got worse Wednesday while we were sitting in the movie theater watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The extent of my misery is, I'm sure, in large part my own fault. I sat and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed my eye. The more I rubbed, the more irritated it became, so the more I rubbed.......and so on. I even had my artificial tears with me and used them a few times. By the time we left the movie theater my left eye was completely red and runny with no make-up left. I'm sure I was lovely - one red, runny, puffy eye sans make-up and the other normal with make-up. LOL Ted assured me that with the rain these past 2 days that would let me have a break from my allergies as it would help get rid of some of the allergens in the air. Not so much. *sigh* Hopefully the pollens and stuff will disappear soon, my eyes and nose can recover, and I can go back to wearing make-up again! I can literally SEE the stuff floating in the air when I'm outside. Ugh!!

And speaking of Prince Caspian.........LOVED IT!!!! I thought the first one (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) was just OK, so I didn't have very high expectations for this movie and was NOT planning to see it in the theater, waiting until it came out on DVD as with every other movie, but it just happened (I'll explain later). I do not recommend taking little kids (my kids didn't even see the first one and I wasn't planning on them seeing this one either, but, as I said, it just happened). It's a bit dark at times and also has lots of fight sequences, although not gory by any means (and one of my favorite movies is Braveheart, so I know gory battle scenes - LOL). Conner and Jake (my nephew) were nervous at first, as were my girls, but by the end of the movie during the last battle every time the good guys (and Conner and Jake seemed to just know which ones were the good guys, so funny how they did!!) slashed down a bad guy, the boys were cheering and saying "Oh yeah!" LOL Definite boys, those two. Anyway, go see it. You'll enjoy it. I've heard the movies are better if you've read the books, which I have not, so I guess I need to do that now! :o)

OK, to explain how we saw Prince Caspian without meaning to.....the movie theater here is doing free kids' movies during the summer. My sister-in-law Jen and I took the kids to these last summer, but they were $1 then. We were definitely excited for FREE!! Of course, free movies means movies we most likely own on video or have already seen, although last year there were a few we hadn't. This year we've seen every single one, but we're still going to check them out because the kids love going to the movie theater for a change from being stuck at home while mom works.

Anyway, we started out the morning by going to buy Jake and Conner their soccer stuff (Conner is so stoked to start soccer in the fall, so cute) because the store was having a discount during sign-ups, which end Saturday, so we wanted to buy it now (we saved about $16, so very worth it to me). Anyway, after that we headed over to free school lunch at a local elementary school, where we actually ended up being done earlier than we planned, so we had over an hour until the movie started. We decided to go walk around Costco since it's close to the movie theater and it was raining (otherwise, we would have gone to the park).

We made it to the movie theater at 1:30 and there was a line. We NEVER had a line last year. In fact, there were many times where the theater was only like one-third full. We figured it must have been because it's free this year, although the rain probably played a part too. As we were standing in line, a gal came out and said to my sister-in-law that there were no more seats. We weren't sure what to do, so we just stayed in line to see what they said when we got inside and also because my mom was inside waiting for us, so we needed to let her know if we couldn't get in. As we got closer, the gal working there said that there were seats, but just a few here and there, so no one could really sit together. A lady who had been in line behind us and eventually butted her way in front of us by the time we got to the door complained that they had 8 movie screens and couldn't they show it on another one too (which, um, no, they can't because they have 7 other movies to play on those screens). The gal there was originally telling people just to come back tomorrow as it was showing again two more times. Anyway, we were walking towards my mom and were in line behind the lady complaining and the gal said, "Well, Narnia just started, do you want to see that one?" So in we all went and saw Prince Caspian!!!! I'm sure she wasn't supposed to do that and it probably won't happen again. And the previews had just started, so we didn't even miss any of the movie!

I didn't think about it until we were sitting down that it probably wasn't going to be a real good movie for my kids, especially Conner, but I didn't want to disappoint them with not being able to see a movie. And Conner has been asking ever since last summer when we could go back to the "movie gator." The kids were disappointed we didn't get to see Ice Age, but since we do own that one, I figured they'd survive and we'd make sure to get in to see Ice Age 2 next week (we don't own that one).

I never posted about Idol........yes, I'm sad David Archuleta didn't win, but I'm not at all mad that David Cook won. Pretty early on once the top 12 were chosen I had a feeling that it would come down to the 2 of them and I would have to choose. I ended up choosing to vote for Archuleta and don't regret it. I really feel that he sang better in the finals and should have won for that and his consistency throughout the competition, especially since he sang Imagine again in the finals and I got chills again. To me, David Cook's finals performance just didn't wow me like he had in the rest of the competition. He didn't do bad, he just didn't do incredible. My sister-in-law and I both think there's something fishy about Simon's apology right before the announcement. I mean, come on, why would he do that if he didn't know and didn't want to look foolish?? I agreed with him the night before and throughout most of the rest of the season, but the apology didn't do much for my opinion of him. Oh well. I will most likely end up buying both Davids' CDs when they come out. This year was a first for me. When it came to the finals, I didn't have a definite favorite - I loved them both! I made the ladies in my book club laugh that night, though, when I walked in late and my friend Kelli asked me what was happening on Idol and I said that I didn't know (it was only 7:30) but then said, "If I was 10 years younger, I'd be all over David Cook." They all laughed about that. Until someone said, "I thought you were going to say David Archuleta." To which I replied, "I'd have to be 20 years younger!!"

OK, sorry for the long post. I started out intending to make it a "quick" one!!! LOL

like the rain

2008-05-29T13:13:00.002-06:00

A few hours ago Conner and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch. He wasn't very hungry, so he was kinda wiggling around and not really focusing on eating. At one point he said that he could hear somebody whispering in our house. The fish tank is in the kitchen, so I just figured he was hearing that or maybe the breeze/rain outside, even the cars driving by. A few minutes later our conversation went like this:

Conner: I miss Heavenly Father.
Me: You do?
Conner: (Nods his head.)
Me: Do you remember Him?
Conner: (Nods his head.)
Me: What was he like?
Conner: Rain.
Me: Like the rain?
Conner: (Nods his head.) He was dropping down the rain to us.
Me: Do you remember what he looks like?
Conner: (Sadly shakes his head no.)
(A pause as I went on eating, waiting for him to say more if he wanted to, not wanting to ruin the moment, wondering if I would remember this conversation later to blog about it or if I should grab a pen and paper now.)
Conner: Maybe it's Heavenly Father whispering to us in our house.

OK, so it's not much, but it was such a sweet conversation to me, showing me how close my son still is to Heaven, even at 4, and how he's growing up fast at the same time but is learning in church and at home about Jesus and Heavenly Father.

my life as a mermaid

2008-05-28T23:42:00.004-06:00

I have a lot to say, but I have a headache and am actually tired (considering I'm a night owl), so I will just quickly post this...

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I'm glad I'm Ariel because it is probably my favorite Disney princess movie, although I really do love all of them. It was just that when it came out in 1989 as Disney's revival it was so wonderful. I remember seeing it in the old Queen theater here in Bountiful. It was one of the last few I saw there before it closed in 1994, although I know I went with my sister Melissa to see Pinnochio when it was re-released in theaters because I vaguely remember my then boyfriend working there, although he broke up with me not long after that. Actually, he never actually broke up with me, just stopped calling me, stopped returning my calls, etc. I was heartbroken. I really, really liked him. Jerk broke my heart.

Wow, what a tangent that was. LOL Anyway.....The Little Mermaid is still one of my favorite Disney movies. I know a lot of it by heart, though not nearly as well as I knew The Princess Bride (which Ted REFUSES to watch with me because I just quote it out loud for the entire 98 minutes). The music, the story, the characters - The Little Mermaid is just a killer Disney movie, so I'm glad I'm Ariel. Who are you??

goldilocks starring sydney & a conner scare

2008-05-16T18:53:00.003-06:00

This morning at 10 a.m. SHARP! (that's what our invitation said) Sydney's 1st-grade class had a puppet show of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears they've been working on for the past 2 weeks. We were actually early; you'd be so proud of me!!! (Those of you who know me well know that I have a hard time being punctual to anything, not because I like being late, just that I always seem to be.) The kids all did such a cute job. Sydney's part was about one of the chairs (I think Mama Bear's). Afterwards, they sang 3 songs. Sydney was so cute and came over and asked Conner if he wanted to come with her to sing them. He was shy but went up and sort-of attempted to participate. He knew 2 of the songs but just wasn't sure about all the people, especially people he didn't know. The songs were the tooty-ta song (which is sorta obnoxious but so cute to watch because the kids just absolutely love it), the monkey and alligator song, and the mother gooney bird song. I'd never heard the gooney bird song before, so that one was new. It was cute too, with the kids all flapping their arms and legs like they were birds. Afterwards, we were treated to some cookies. In all, it was maybe 30 minutes (including the eating and visiting).

Afterwards, I took pictures of Sydney with her teacher, her prop for the puppet show (since she was behind a curtain and we couldn't see her when she did her part, just heard her), and one of her friends. Ted needed to leave, so we were trying to hurry out. Sydney had asked if Conner could come with her out to recess, and I had said no because we needed to leave, plus I wasn't sure how the school felt about that. Well, in the confusion of leaving, saying good-bye to Sydney, and all the people around, Conner slipped away and we couldn't find him. We checked out on the playground but couldn't see him. Sydney walked around out there too and didn't see him. Ted looked out front and didn't see him. I checked the playground again and still didn't see him. Ted went out to look in the cars (we drove our Tahoe and the truck so that Ted could leave early to get to work if the program went really long), as sometimes he's gone and gotten in the car and buckled himself in at home, but never anywhere else. No Conner.

At that point, I went into the office and told the secretary. She asked if we'd checked outside and the bathroom and such. Then she immediately got on the PA system and alerted the teachers/staff with his hair color, clothing, age, and name, then she and another teacher went to look for him, telling me to stay by the office because that's where he would be brought if they found him. The secretary went outside and the other teacher looked in the bathrooms, workroom, etc., inside. The principal looked on the camera system for the playground (which I didn't know they had) and used that to scan outside for him. After a few minutes, I called Ted on his cell phone and he had found him. Conner had indeed gone outside to recess, but he didn't go to the playground. Instead, he wandered around on the grass where they have PE and other activities (it's a VERY big grassy area, probably a couple acres of ground), then wandered around towards the front of the building where the parking lot is, but stayed on the grass. He hadn't been out there yet when we'd checked out front. It was a panic moment for me. I was so grateful with how the school staff responded to help look for him and that we were able to find him so quickly. I do NOT like that feeling of not knowing where your children are.

I was so grateful I didn't have a panic attack like I did on our cruise a few months ago. A similar thing happened on the cruise boat and we hadn't even left port out of California yet! We'd gone onboard, checked out our rooms, and immediately headed up to the buffet for food (we were hungry!!! LOL). In the buffet line, Savanna and Conner wandered off and I couldn't find them. I walked around the entire cafe completely panicked and when I couldn't find them and couldn't them, I started hyperventilating and everything. I walked all over the Windjammer Cafe and out around the pool where people were eating and just couldn't find them. My sister walked around with me and tried to calm me down. I have never had a reaction like that before and it scared me. Afterwards, Ted looked at me like I was crazy because they couldn't get off the boat with all the security, but I was worried about, you know, strangers and what a not-so-nice one might do to my kids. Anyway, they weren't gone very long (a few minutes) and had just wandered off to find a table because they were at the front of our family in line, instead of waiting for us. We were just fine after that and I immediately decided I never wanted to have another panic attack ever again!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. The girls are off to the Stars regional dance competition in Layton tomorrow, so that's where I will be from 9:30 a.m. until probably 9:30 p.m. by the time the awards finish. Wish them good luck!!! Their dances are just darling and they have done really well so far this year. This regional competition and the national ones next month are the most important ones, though, since the studio we go to is part of the Stars franchise. Bring on the party, girls!!!!!

moms and more

2008-05-15T14:06:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a Happy Mothers' Day and got to spend some wonderful time with their families. My day was nice. I got to see all 3 of my kiddos up front in church singing Mothers' Day songs. Conner was so cute on the way into Sacrament meeting from Primary. He asked what we were doing (we went in early) and I told him that he got to go sing the songs. He said, "But I don't know those songs." It was so cute. He's only 4 and it's his first year in Primary (he's been in nursery since 18 months old before that), so of course he doesn't know the songs yet, but he got up there next to his sisters and did a great job! He knew the first one a little bit and sang that one, but the second one he just stood there and looked around. He kept looking up at Savanna during the songs. It was just so sweet. My cute kids are growing way too fast. *sniff, sniff*

Speaking of Conner, just in case anyone is wondering about his bruised face in the photo at the top of my blog here, this picture is from Yellowstone last summer. We went with my family and had a great time at my sister-in-law's parents' cabin. We only went into the park one day. The rest of the time we hung out at the cabin, went into West Yellowstone to one of the plays at the Playmill theater there (Annie Get Your Gun, which the girls later recreated for us - it was very cute), played lots of cards, and just hung out. We did go on a horse ride around the cabins on the last morning, which the kids were all totally thrilled about. (I should post pictures of all of this, huh? LOL) Anyway, probably the day before we went into the park the kids were playing outside and running around on the dirt road when Conner tripped and landed face-down on a huge rock, which hit him right between his eyes. He then had swelling and bruising. He so didn't look like my little boy for a while. Anyway, that's why Conner's bruised in the above photo.

So, I was pleased last night that the 2 Davids are competing next week for the finals because they're both good and deserve it. I will, however, be voting just for the hometown boy - David Archuleta - next week (and this week I did too). Originally I thought Syesha should have left the competition earlier, but she kept improving and in the end she deserved to be in the top 3. I still think she needs to head immediately for Broadway and will do fabulous there. And, um, was everyone else as amazed, floored, shocked, in horror of Fantasia's performance??? What the heck was that??? We went to my brother's house to watch the Jazz-Lakers game and had to pick up the girls from dance on the way, so we missed most of Idol. When we got to their house, Jen told us we HAD to watch Fantasia and quickly rewound their DVR so we could. Holy cow. I never liked her, but wow, you know it's bad when you saw Simon's reaction!!! LOL

As an aside, I have TRIED to find more David Archuleta songs for my blog, but they just don't have his recent ones on the Project Playlist. I tried to upload some from other sites I found on the web but couldn't get it to work. So, I'm not trying to play favorites when I'm voting for him to win -- I just can't find his songs!! I'd love "Love Me Tender," "Stand By Me," and "And So It Goes." So, just pretend those are playing. LOL

At least one of the Utah favorites did well in LA last night. The Jazz could have won that game, but there were a lot of factors that didn't go in their favor - some poor calls by the refs, missing shots they should have made, taking shots they shouldn't have, missing free throws, and so on. Oh well. They're coming home for tomorrow's game and hopefully they take advantage of home court again. By the way, the Mothers' Day game about gave me a heart attack at the end, then my sister-in-law made us pause the game during overtime so the men could grill the chicken (which was a fabulous dinner of baked potatoes, teriyaki chicken from Albertson's, salad, and strawberry shortcake). So the game was long over by the time I got to actually watch it. Jen, Scott, and I have this thing where we text each other back and forth during the game if we aren't watching it together. So Jen sent me a text and I wouldn't look at it because I didn't want it to spoil the game. Come to find out last night that she had done the same thing with a text I sent her in the last few minutes of regulation play. They had rewound it to watch it from the beginning (since they were at church) and Scott told her she couldn't read the text until the game was over. LOL We think so much alike it's scary.

Well, since I talked about Yellowstone, I'll post a few photos now (they're not in any chronological order):

One day we went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The kids all loved it, except Jake decided to feed the wolves his sucker.

My brother is the guy on the left. His wife, Jen, is holding their daughter Sophie. The 2 blondes are mine - Conner and Savanna. Their son Jake is with them.

Sydney

Sydney with Ted and Savanna with my sister, Melissa.

Jake, Scott, Jen, and Sophie checking out the gysers.

Our family with Jake.

Nana and the kids checking out the Firehole River.

Just about every night on the way to the cabin (set back into the woods off of Henry's Lake), we would see some sort of wild life. This is a moose in the background. It's quite a bit aways away.

West Yellowstone has these painted buffalos all over. This one's outside the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.

Nana, Papa, and Savanna overlooking the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Getting ready for the horse ride at Meadow Vue Ranch!! The kids were so dang excited. The girls had been before, and Jake had ridden at this place before (it's right next to his grandparents' cabin). They gave Conner the horse he usually rides (Two Bits). Jen and I weren't sure how that would go over, but he was so cute about it. We all had a nice time. Of course, it was just Jen, Nana, the kids, and I. The men decided they were too cool for it. LOL To be fair, they were still trying to fix the toilet that Jake broke by flushing Sally (a toy car from Cars) down it.

Sunset in the park as we were leaving.

Savanna, Jake, and Jen at Old Faithful Inn.

Nana and Papa in front of Old Faithful. Would have been cooler if I'd actually caught it going off in the background. LOL I can't remember if I took this while we were waiting or afterwards. My mom had someone take a family picture on her camera. I think maybe Jen got it too, but Ted wouldn't let me give my camera to the lady. So, I got this cute shot of my parents.

january-april 2008 book list

2008-05-07T15:02:00.002-06:00

Here are the books I've read so far this year:

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (book club)
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (book club)
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (book club)
The Last Juror by John Grisham
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (book club)
The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura (actually read 90% of this last fall, just finally got around to finishing it up)
The Color of Death by Elizabeth Lowell
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
A Train to Potevka by Mike Ramsdell (book club)
Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman

I've already talked about the Twilight series before. I will just briefly mention that I'm not as obsessed with them as everyone else is. So sorry to those of you who are. I didn't really like the series until the end of Eclipse. Bella just drove me insane until then. It was until almost the end of Eclipse when she's having the conflicting feelings and issues with Edward and Jacob that I really began to let go of how nuts she made me and start to understand her and like Edward a bit more. But I still like Jacob better. Again, sorry. I do like Edward better in the online version of her chapter 1 of Twilight from his perspective. I think I would have liked the whole series better written from his point of view. Anyway....I just don't know how Stephenie Meyer is going to end the series and the whole "Will Bella really become immortal?" question, so it will be interesting to see what happens in Breaking Dawn in August. (My copy is already reserved at the library, but I'll probably pick it up at Costco long before it's actually my turn, same as I did with the 7th Harry Potter.) I also have my name on the list at the library for Stephenie Meyer's The Host, which should be out shortly. I'm #127. (Oh my goodness. I just checked the library and I moved up to #53 so it must be out already!)

The Last Juror by John Grisham was probably one of the best of his I've read in a while. It didn't go at all how I thought it would, wasn't as intense and suspensful as some of his others, more thoughtful than fast-paced, but still a really good read.

Wuthering Heights I hated. Again. This is the second time I've read it. The first time was only a few years ago at the recommendation of my foster sister Karen because of a mutual love for Jane Austen, so she also recommended Wuthering Heights. I do not recommend it. The characters are atrocious human-beings. We read it for book club because of the Twilight series connection, so I gave it another try. It wasn't much better. I did like Emily Bronte's style of writing better and how she developed her story; I just canNOT stand Catherine and Heathcliff. Two more horrible people have never existed in literature.

I like fiction and very rarely read non-fiction, so a self-help book is usually not on my must-read list. I read for pleasure, to escape from the monotony, business, hectic day-to-day life I live. However, I read The Proper Care And Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura for my husband. I'm really not a Dr. Laura fan and I did struggle with some of her advice and opinions, but for the most part it really helped me have some insight into my husband and how he thinks. Because of this, I'm considering reading her followup book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage.

The Color of Death was just a fun mystery book I picked up at either a library sale, the DI, or the book exchange. I started it on our cruise but didn't have much time to read, so finished it after we got home.

I love Jane Austen but wasn't too thrilled with The Jane Austen Book Club. I probably will see the movie just to see how they translated the book onto the screen. What I did really like about the book was all the stuff at the back. There's a bunch of quotes from famous people about Jane Austen and also some information about her and her books. I enjoyed that.

I enjoyed A Train to Potevka for many reasons. It was interesting, was written by a fellow Church member, and also mentions several of my most favorite restaurants - one only a few blocks from my house (The Mandarin, which I've mentioned before and is my most favorite place to eat ever - along with Maddox up by Brigham City). Anyway, it was an interesting, "fictionalized" account of the author's experiences as a government agent in Russia during the fall of the Soviet Union. It started out slow with a lot of background and Russian history, but I found it a pretty fast read and very interesting.

Who would have thought you might actually find a good book at the dollar store?? Not me!! So far I've bought 2 hardback books there, but I've only gotten around to reading one of them -- Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman. I really enjoyed it and do recommend it, although with the warning that there are many, many F-bombs, so if you can't tolerate those, you probably better skip it. Supposedly it's been picked up to be made into a movie. It'll be interesting if it is. It's the story of a woman who's brutally raped and then later, after she's become a prosecutor in Florida, in a completely unexpected moment discovers her rapist years later during a case she's prosecuting. It's one of those moral-ethical situations that really makes you think. Good book. Again, except for the F-bombs. It apparently has a sequel, The Last Witness, so I'll be looking for that.

A quick note about Idol -- It really better be Jason who goes tonight. Syesha and the Davids just totally rocked and Jason struggled. He should have been gone weeks ago, so tonight better be his night. And I hope the Jazz come out with a better performance against the Lakers tonight. They can't go down without a fight. One of my brother-in-laws mentioned on Sunday that someone (I think it was Charles Barkley) said that it was really too bad that the Jazz had to play the Lakers in the second round because they were the 2 best teams in the league. Not sure if he actually said that, just what I heard from my BIL. My BIL is usually pretty good at being accurate for these kinda things, though - stats, quotes, info, etc., about sports. He also said that if any team Phil Jackson coaches wins game 1, they win the series 100% of the time (38-0). Not a good statistic right now for the Jazz. But *maybe* they could be the team to make it 38-1???? *sigh* I love my Jazz, not so much Kobe and the Lakers. Would love to have Derek Fisher on our side again this year! So sad that he was booed earlier this season when returning to play as a Laker at the Delta Center. Anyway, tonight will be a tense evening in the Peck household - seeing who goes home on Idol and watching the Jazz and Lakers in game 2.

idol good-bye

2008-05-01T00:59:00.003-06:00

If you've read my previous Idol posts, you know that Brooke was one of my top 3, so I was so sad to see her go last night. I actually didn't think she would win, but I had her picked for the top 3. I was so disappointed YET AGAIN to see that Jason was safe. What the?? Oh well. When it was down to just Syesha and Brooke, I wondered if there was a chance for Brooke to stay but then really wasn't too surprised to see her go, and you could tell that neither was Brooke. I really like her voice and think she's cute, but I do think she's been struggling the last little while. I'm not sure why, but she's just seemed so unsure of herself lately. I was crying right along with her tonight. All 3 of my kids asked me if I was OK. LOL I'm sure there have been contestants who have cried before, I just don't remember crying with them or it being so sad/emotional. (OK, if you DON'T like Brooke -- Lisa, LOL -- then it wasn't sad or emotional for you, but I thought it was. LOL) I thought it was so sweet of David Cook to try to hug her (or rub her back or whatever he was trying to do) for support while she was singing, and then to see her just turn her back on everyone and walk to the back of the stage, it must've been really hard for her. However, I think she knew it, with the last few weeks being in the bottom 2 or 3. And I did vote for her this week! I divided my time between the Davids and Brooke. I really couldn't tell you how many times I voted for any of them as while I was dialing I was yelling at the Jazz game -- and I was yelling at everyone in the Jazz game, the players and the refs - stupid dang refs in the first half. GGRRRR And what the heck were my guys doing last night??? AARRRGGHH!!! OK, back to my regularly scheduled blog post.....

After last night, I picked Syesha and Jason for the bottom 2. I actually thought Jason's "Forever in Blue Jeans" (one of my Neil Diamond favorites) was OK (although we expected him to sing the UB40 version of Red, Red Wine - LOL) and that Syesha sang really well. I just happened to agree 100% with Simon. Oh well. And can I just say that I would buy David Cook's version of "All I Really Need Is You" in a heartbeat. I had chills - loved it. I know you can download them off iTunes, but I don't have an iPod or a computer compatible with iTunes. LOL (I tried to find it on playlist.com, to no avail. I'll keep looking, though!! **Update, I DID find it today, so it's on my blog playlist now!!) Now, I already love him, but that just sealed the deal for me. I really don't think there's a song he can't sing or a song he can't turn into a good rock song or somehow make his own. And for the first time it really made me wonder who the winner will be. I don't know how I'll vote in that final week!!

Now, I also love David Archuleta, but I was slightly disappointed in his Neil Diamond song choices and I'm starting to feel the same way about him as I did Ruben Studdard. He has a killer voice, but he seems to only sing one way - mellow. I must be in the minority because my sister-in-law and brother-in-law told Ted yesterday that they thought David Archuleta did awesome. I did vote for him. I just wasn't thrilled with his versions of the Neil Diamond songs he sang. "Sweet Caroline" brings back major cruise memories and there just wasn't enough umph and fun in the way he sang the song for me. Same with "America." That is classic Neil Diamond song and, while he gave his own personality to the song and sang it well, it just wasn't the same for me. Sorry. Flame me. I still think his voice is amazing, but I really think he needs to sing Josh Groban-type songs and he'll just be incredible.

OK, I'm posting this now since I've sat on it for 24 hours. Enjoy my new blog music and stay tuned for next week's Idol show and my Idol post, because my Idol post is so very important. LOL

books read in 2006

2008-04-29T11:13:00.002-06:00

(Reposting from Yahoo 360)

February books
I've seen a few other gals who post the books they are reading on their blogs and I thought that was a good idea, so here are the books I read in February:

A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute (a book club selection I missed after Conner was born)
Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (for book club)
The Jester, by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

I love my book club because it gets me reading books I normally wouldn't, but at the same time, it cuts down on the library of books I have yet to read. LOL I hope to be able to read more this month!
Wednesday March 1, 2006 - 01:49pm (MST)

March books
Here are the books I finished in March:

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley (for Book Club)
Blow Fly by Patricia Cornwell

I'm still trying to finish up another book I started in March, but since it's now April, I'll just count it with the April books. LOL

Didn't really care for "The Outlaws of Sherwood." It was a Robin Hood story but was really, really slow moving. I can usually always recommend Patricia Cornwell, though this wasn't one of my favorites. It was still interesting, very fast-paced, and good; just not my favorite. The book I'm currently reading is also a Patricia Cornwell.
Monday April 3, 2006 - 01:37pm (MDT)

April books
I read quite a few books in April. I'm quite proud of myself! LOL Here they are:

Trace by Patricia Cornwell
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg (Book Club Selection)
Murder on The Orient Express by Agatha Christie (my Book Club choice for May)
They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie
Spider's Web by Agatha Christie

I LOVE Agatha Christie. She was a fabulous mystery writer. I blogged about her in my Book Challenge blog entry, so I won't say too much more here. May is my month for Book Club and I chose Murder on The Orient Express. It's, I think, probably one of her best well-known mysteries. I debated which Agatha Christie book to choose (since I knew I wanted to choose one), so I started to re-read some of them. After I re-read it and got to the solution of the crime I thought it was a good one. I hope everyone else thinks so!! Since it's fairly easy reading (less than 300 pages), I also asked everyone to chose another Agatha Christie mystery to read (there are many) so that we could see if we solved either mystery (I specifically said they couldn't read ahead - there's one gal who ALWAYS reads the last chapter first because she says she can't stand to read the book unless she knows the end) compare Hercule Poirot (the detective in MOTOE) to Miss Marple or other detectives in her books
say which one we liked better share a variety of books by Dame Agatha (as everyone obviously wouldn't have time to read ALL of them in 1 month!)

We'll see how it goes. Last year I chose Angels & Demons by Dan Brown and only had 4 people come (we have about 15-20 people in book club) and not everyone read the book (whether they came or not). I think a lot of people were afraid of it because of the whole Da Vinci Code controversy. So, needless to say, I'm a bit nervous about my selection this year and hope everyone likes it or at least comes! LOL Oh well, if not, then I think I'll bow out from choosing a book next year and let someone else have a turn.
Tuesday May 2, 2006 - 10:19am (MDT)

Book challenge
Got this off Heather's blog. Thought it was a good idea. (Hope you don't mind me stealing it! )

My 3 favorite books as a child:
From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. Loved it. My copy is very well loved. I read it many times as a kid and again shortly after I got married and they made a TV movie out of it. It's hilarious and has a bit of a mystery in it as the kids run away from home, live in a museum, and try to solve an art mystery.

Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew mysteries. Can you tell I love mysteries??? They so intrigue me and I just LOVED the idea of these teenage sleuths and their friends solving crimes.

Shel Silverstein's poems. They're so funny, off the wall, and entertaining!

My 3 all-time favorite books:
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. It's one of the first books I bought in hardback. I am generally a paperback-only type of gal, but with this class I felt I needed it in hardback. It's such a classic with a great story. I own the movie too but love the book more.

The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I resisted reading these until the 5th book came out because I figured I would wait until my kids got older and read them together as they were "kid's books." Soooo not so. I read all 5 books in 1 month. I could NOT put them down. Then it killed me to have to wait for book 6. I'm OK to wait for book 7, though, because I'm still so upset about the ending of book 6, plus I can always reread the first 6 again!! LOL I only own book 1 and 6 because I borrowed all the others when I read them. These are also books I want in hardback, so I'm slowly collecting them as I find them in fabulous shape at the book exchange.

ANYTHING by Dame Agatha Christie. She is truly the greatest mystery writer of all time. Her plots and crimes are so intricate that I have yet to solve one. If you like mysteries, you MUST read Agatha Christie. Monsieur Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple are awesome characters, each with their own style. I have probably over 40 of her books and they are all (with very few exceptions) fantastic!!

As a bonus here I'm going to include Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's a classic romance and it is funny in it's proper way. I have 2 copies - one my mom gave me as a teenager and another my birth mother gave me as one of her first gifts because it also her favorite book. I absolutely LOVE the A&E version (and own it) but wasn't that impressed with the Kiera Knightley version. I thought Donald Sutherland was a very poor choice for Mr. Bennett and I didn't like the stylistic things they did with the movie and the changes from the book. Some of them, to me, were just too far off what Jane Austen wrote. It was alright, though, and I think I will watch it again (since when we watched it at book club it wasn't a very good copy of the film, it was very dark). Although I did LOVE when Darcy walked up at the end of the movie with that trenchcoat, though, again, not at all like the book and that bugged me. Why did they have to stylize it and go against the book? Sorry, that just bothers me about books made into movies.

3 books I want to read in the future:
These Is My Words by Nancy Turner. I've heard good things about it from Heather and it intrigues me.

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. It was a book club selection I missed because I had just had Conner. My mom raved about it too and my mom doesn't read much, so that says a lot to me.

The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. I tried to read "The Hobbit" as a kid but couldn't understand it. I absolutely LOVED the triology movies and want to read the books. I have all 4 from the book exchange, but I want to read them in order and with the book club it makes it hard, so I hope to be able to do it soon!

I live for reading. I can't not have a book to read. I seriously can't. I go back and forth between genres all the time because I will get bored with a genre, but I love everything from the classics to romance to suspense to mystery to whatever. I've had a lot of fun in the book club reading books I probably would not have chosen myself and really enjoyed them. There has only been one so far I didn't like. I'm also going to go back and read the book club selections I missed. I hope you enjoy my thoughts on books. Feel free to share yours here on your blog too!!
Wednesday April 12, 2006 - 02:36 pm (MDT)

**Since posting the above 2 years ago, I have read These Is My Words (we read it in book club later that year) and Tuesdays With Morrie, but I have not yet gotten around to Tolkien's books. Someday I WILL read those!

idols jazz

2008-04-24T20:26:00.003-06:00

OK, so I was surprised by the bottom 2 last night. Ted and I were convinced (especially after hearing Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber's comments) that Jason would not only be in the bottom 2 but be the one to go home. We also suspected Brooke *might* be in the bottom 2, although I like her voice and want her to stay longer. So, when Ryan said it was Syesha and not Brooke in the bottom 2, we were surprised. Ted had fallen in love with Syesha after her performance this week. Hmmmm...wonder why?? LOL She was sexy and cute and did a great job. I think she belongs on Broadway and should definitely head there after her time on Idol is over. (Oh and, yes, Ted was sad to see Kristy go last week, although he knew she wasn't going to win; he just loves her!) Then we were yet again shocked when Ryan said that Carly was in the bottom 2 and not Jason. What the??? While we didn't like the song Carly sang, we thought she did pretty good and better then Jason. While we also knew Carly wouldn't win, we were surprised to see her go this week. Next week should be interesting with Neil Diamond. We are HUGE Neil Diamond fans in our house, so we can't wait to hear the songs and, of course, see Neil Diamond!!! (I STILL need to talk about our cruise in 2007, the other cruise I still haven't blogged about. LOL There are some Neil Diamond-related stories for that cruise.)

Anyway, I'm just going to say GO JAZZ!!!!!!!!! And now, oh crap, I hope I didn't jinx them. LOL I'm very suspicious when it comes to my Utah Jazz. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I am. Anyway, I have been so totally impressed with them winning the first 2 games of the series IN Houston. As Game 3 is starting right now here at home, I better go check it out. I was a die-hard John Stockton/Karl Malone fan (OK, so mostly John Stockton). They were an incredible team. After they both retired and the whole Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls finals fiasco 2 years in a row (OK, so it was a fiasco for us, not them), I stopped watching for a few years. I couldn't handle it, plus (dare I say it?) they sucked for a while there. The past year or so, however, they have really started to become quite the impressive team again. I'm loving Derron Williams, Kyle Korver, and Carlos Boozer (not to mention AK-47, Memo, and the others). Plus Horny (Jeff Hornacek) is an assitant coach, so it's sorta like the good ol' days. :o)

***Edited: OK, so I jinxed them. Dang it!! LOL There was such great hope in those last seconds with Korver and Memo hitting back-to-back KILLER 3-point shots, but, dang it, what was Derron thinking by not driving to the basket for the last shot?? And, should we mention the LACK of making free throws the entire game?? *sigh* Oh well, at least it was a close game and not a blow-out. Hopefully my Jazz will get it figured out for Saturday night, after Jerry gives them the riot act in practice tomorrow, I'm sure. OK, one more shot and hopefully it doesn't jinx it again - GO JAZZ!!!! LOL

expelled

2008-04-23T13:14:00.002-06:00

Last Friday night was the first time I'd been to see a movie in the theater since Pirates 3 came out last summer. A long time, I know. We usually go to the same theater - Jordan Commons in Sandy. We like the seats and that you can get anything to eat there and take it in with you. We usually get the deli sandwiches with fries and a huge Kosher dill pickle - yum!!!!! Anyway, Ted called me Friday afternoon and asked if I wanted to go to a late movie; I said sure. He couldn't remember what it was called or even who was in it. I really couldn't tell you too many of the movies that are out right now anyway, so I figured it would be something he'd heard about that sounded good.

I drove out to his sister's house in Bluffdale and dropped the kids off to play with their cousins, and then we were on our way. Neither Ted nor his sister Ammie could tell me what the movie was or who was in it yet. However, Ammie started to tell me what it was about. I said to Ted, "So, it's like a documentary?" And he said, "Yeah." To which I gave him a look that hopefully relayed the following message, "You mean we're going to go on a date to the movie theater and pay to watch a documentary when we could go pay to watch something good?" LOL

When we got to Jordan Commons, we got our tickets and customary sandwiches and went in to find seats in the theater. Ted and Jim (Ammie's husband) gleefully told us that before ours, there had been only 5 tickets sold. I'm thinking, "Oh great! We're going to see a movie no one else wants to see either!" However, I think there ended up being around 20 people in there by the time it started (woo hoo!! LOL).

OK, if you're with me so far and missed the title of my post, the movie was "Expelled" with Ben Stein (the Clear Eyes and Ferris Bueller guy). I still wasn't sure what to expect, but now that I knew WHO was in the movie I wasn't quite as nervous, although I still had no idea what the subject matter was. The movie begins with Ben Stein backstage getting ready for a speaking engagement (presumably at a university) and the beginning of his speech. I began to think, "This might not be so bad." And then it got down to the subject matter - scientists holding prominent positions at universities and other scientific institutions who lost their jobs over issues relating to Intelligent Design and also the Intelligent Design versus Darwinism/Evolution debate. I will readily admit it it started to bore me for a while. I've never been very scientific minded in school; English was always my strongest point. It WAS interesting, just kinda slow. Being as it was the 9:20 showing, I started to get sleepy.

However, halfway into the movie Ben Stein moved on to the Holocaust and the theory that possibly Hitler's belief in Evolution and Eugenics played a part in World War II and the Holocaust. It became very somber then and the movie got better from then on. What I find very interesting is that while the movie did talk about the Holocaust, it also talked about the wall in Berlin and related that to being told what to think and the impact of the lack of freedom of speech, religion, and so on. There was lots of footage of the wall, being erected, people trying to escape/cross it, and it coming down.

We actually laughed at some of the scientists' theories (life began on the backs of crystals?? What the heck?????), and by we I mean our group and other people in the theater. There was one point in the film where a prominent scientist (a self-admitted atheist) named Richard Dawkins who throughout the movie adamantly opposed any theory that God or any other intelligent being created life on Earth, in his interview with Ben Stein then proceeded to talk himself in circles and right into the statement that it is indeed possible that some being elsewhere in the universe could conceivably have created life here in Earth. Looking it up on the internet, he admitted on his website only that he meant some highly evolved alien lifeform on another planet not God.

Now, I'm not a political person and, as I said before, not really scientific. I try to stay neutral on issues as much as possible. I hate the whole aspect of politics; Ted thrives on it. I tend to see both sides of an argument when they are presented to me, so I'm definitely not trying to stir up any debate on this issue whatsoever here. I do agree with evolution within species, that animals can and probably have evolved over time. However, I do not believe that humans evolved from apes or anything else. I believe we were created in God's image by Him. In that sense, because of my religious beliefs, I would side more with the creationism/intelligent design theory (if I really had to choose a scientific theory on the subject). After seeing the movie, I looked it up online and found so much debate over it that I just gave up researching the issue. Everyone on both sides of the issue is going to firmly believe what they want to believe and that's really not going to change; it's a never-ending debate. All I'm saying here is that I thought it was a good movie to make you think. IF you want to see it, you can look up where it's playing in your area here.

idol talk

2008-04-11T00:05:00.002-06:00

So, I really like American Idol this year. I have a feeling on who's going to win the whole thing (but I'm not saying who just so I don't jinx it, not that I'm superstitious or anything - LOL). I am absolutely thrilled that there are 2 finalists with Utah connections and they are GOOD!! I LOVE both David Archuleta and Brooke. I am also loving David Cook. That's it. Those are my top 3. No one else has just jumped out at me.

I think the top 10 contestants were great, and the first 2 of the top 12 to go definitely needed to. I'm also going to gloat (along with how Simon did tonight) that I got the bottom 3 this week spot on. However, I completely missed who was going home, and I think America did too. Carly's performance Tuesday night should have sent her home tonight. Although I'm an absolute sucker for a brogue (which goes for Michael's Australian accent too) and think she's cute and has done well on other weeks, I think she's starting to falter and this week was her worst performance. Although I wasn't in love with Michael this week (and actually haven't been for a while), I think Carly should have been the one to go. The last 3 weeks I just wasn't impressed with Michael and didn't think he sounded good. I actually thought his last performance tonight was better than when he did the song on Tuesday. Go figure. Ted was floored and thought that both Carly and Syesha, as well as Jason, should have gone before Michael. Normally, I would have agreed about Jason. H-o-w-e-v-e-r.......I LOVED his performance this week. That version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" by Iz is one of my most favorites ever, and Jason nailed it. It was perfect for him. Although, up until this point, I haven't really been crazy over him or his performances.

Anyway, can't wait to see what's in store for the genre/song selection next week and how each of my favorites does.

P.S. Ted is in love with Kristy Lee and spent a good solid 30 minutes voting for her Tuesday night. I then spent 15-20 minutes (plus) each voting for Jason, David Cook, Brooke, and David Archuleta. Ted now wishes he would have spent some time voting for Michael too. Oh well, like Paula said tonight, someone is out there waiting to give him a contract, so we'll just wait for his CD to launch! Oh and can't wait to see Kimberly Locke on Don't Forget the Lyrics next week!! Someone remind me so I don't forget!!! LOL

rain & worms (another repost)

2008-04-09T12:21:00.002-06:00

In honor of the rain here today, I decided to repost this post from Yahoo 360. I didn't get any pictures and I have never since this day seen that many worms in our driveway, ever!

(Originally posted March 30, 2006, at 1:35 p.m.)

Today is Save The Worms Day!!
So it rained here last night/this morning. Well, the worms came out in droves all over our driveway!! I just hate it when those little suckers die all over the sidewalk and driveway because they can't get back to the grass. So when I went to take Savanna to school today, we spent a few minutes saving worms! LOL Then Sydney and I saved more when we came home. Then we saved some more when I went to take Syd and Conner to my sister to babysit while I volunteered in Savanna's class. By the time we came home the sidewalk was all dried up and I think we'd saved most of them. LOL Sydney had no fear holding them, but I mostly had to pick them up for her. She did start to pick up a few, but it was even hard for me to pick the little buggers up. I tried to get Conner to help. He would hold out his hands and say "worm," but then he'd just throw them right back on the asphalt instead of taking them over to the grass. I seriously think we put 30-50 worms back on the grass. Yeah for us!!!!! LOL Then the lawn fertilizer people came and sprayed the lawn about an hour ago. Hmmmm.....wonder if they killed all the worms we just saved!!!??? LOL

before blogger

2008-04-08T12:50:00.002-06:00

Before I switched over to Blogger/Blogspot, I attempted to blog on Yahoo 360. Eventually I decided I liked the Blogger format better, so I switched over. I love how my blog posts are emailed to my Gmail account so I can have a record of them. So, I've decided to go back and repost some of my Yahoo 360 posts here so I can have them emailed to me just in case Yahoo ever crashes or just decides to close down that blog, then I won't have lost them. Anyway, here is the first one I'm reposting:

(This was originally posted on May 3, 2006, at 5:52 p.m.)

2Peas Blog Challenge
I happened to go to 2Peas today to ask a couple questions (though, sadly, I hardly got any response....), but stumbled across this blog challenge and thought I would attempt it.

The challenge is to blog about someone alive today that I would want to know more about if they were to write a book about their life. I'm choosing my birth mother.

Ted found my birth mother for me as a birthday present 6 years ago, when Savanna was just 1 year old. We talked to her on the phone and then ended up going to California later that summer for my cousin's wedding, which ended up being close to where she lived, so we arranged to meet her. It was a very emotional day for me, so much so that I basically clammed up and didn't talk hardly at all. Ted, my parents, Savanna, and my sister were with us, so they were able to keep things going. Anyway, since then I've exchanged a few letters and presents with her, but as she has told me that her husband doesn't really want her to have much to do with me and especially doesn't want any of their kids to know about me, I have felt a bit rejected and that I should stay away from her. The ironic thing is, she lives in Utah now and has for about the past 3 years.

So, the book would be my birth mother's and in it she would tell about herself growing up and then she would talk about that time in her life which she refuses to talk about, her and my birth father and my birth and subsequent adoption. I admire her because she made the choice to give me up so that I could go to a home with two living parents who would raise me with more advantages than she felt she was able to provide me with. I think this would be so healing for her (and, yes, me as well). I'm sure I need to contact her again because I'm sure she's feeling neglected and rejected by me not responding to her since Conner was born, but in that last phone call she told me how her husband felt about her having contact me with since we were living so close and I just ran away from the whole situation, I guess. Anyway, I'm sure this is not what BonnieRose (scrapladyb) had in mind with her challenge, but it's what I came up with.

one word

2008-04-07T12:07:00.002-06:00

Where I got this from: Celeste
How it was to do without using more than 1-word answers: Hard

1. Where is your cell phone? Upstairs
2. Significant other? Ted
3. Your hair? Dyed
4. Your mother? Florida
5. Your father? Work
6. Your favorite thing? Sleep
7. Your dream last night? Forgot
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream/goal? Stability
10. The room you're in? Basement
11. Your ex? None
12. Your fear? Death
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
14. Where were you last night? Home
15. What you're not? Organized
16. Muffins? Blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? Dyson
18. Where you grew up? Utah
19. The last thing you did? Sudoku
20. What are you wearing? Comfys
21. Your TV? On
22. Your pets? 5
23. Your computer? Ancient
24. Your life? Crazy
25. Your mood? Fine
26. Missing someone? No
27. Your car? Tahoe
28. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
29. Favorite Store? Costco
30. Summer? Love!!
31. Like someone? Sure
32. Your favorite color? Lots
33. When is the last time you laughed? Earlier
34. Last time you cried? Dunno
35. Who will/would respond to this? Whomever

new taste experience

2008-03-28T00:02:00.002-06:00

You would be proud of me. I'm proud of me.

Last Saturday we went to Ted's brother Chris's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt for all the kids with Chris and Jenn and their kids, Ted's sister Ammie and her husband and kids, and our family. When we arrived, everyone was gathered around my brother-in-law in the kitchen. He was cutting, garnishing, and serving something to everyone. As soon as I saw the interesting pink center, I knew what it was. Because I've been watching cooking shows on Create TV, I had seen this particular thing being prepared. It was seared ahi tuna.

If you know me very well, you know I hate seafood. I used to never eat anything that was a fish or lived in the ocean or any type of water at all, with the exception of tuna fish in a can. As I got older, I started eating my mom's crab melts, but only because the crab comes from a can and is very fine and doesn't have that rubbery texture (which is what I can't stand). I still won't eat crab any other way, or lobster for that matter. Ted's other brother Mike convinced me to eat salmon when I was pregnant with Conner. We were visiting them at their home in Bear Lake (at the time) and that's what he'd fixed for dinner. I am truly convinced that if I'd tried it any other way than how Mike cooks it, I probably wouldn't like it as much as I do now. He seasons it and grills it fabulously. We now prepare it that way, when we can find salmon on sale (I'll give you all the recipe some time).

Well, back to Saturday -- Chris had seared the ahi steak, bought some bottled thin ginger strips used for sushi, diced some red onion, and opened up a bottle of fancy dijon mustard (not the Grey Poupon kind) -- as a note, I usually don't like dijon mustard either; plain ol' French's mustard is my cup of tea! Because ahi is expensive, he was serving bites to everyone. Everyone ended up with about 2-4 bites out of the whole steak. Chris had cut the steak in half and seared half at a time, half for the adults and half for the (older) kids. However, everyone ended up having a bit of both halves.

At first, I wasn't really sure if I could do it. I never eat my steaks rare. Well done or medium well for me, thanks. I don't like fish very much and definitely not raw fish/sushi, so I didn't know if I could do it. I had Chris give me the edge pieces, which had a little less of the pink part. He dressed it up with the ginger, red onions, and mustard and I tried it. My first bite actually wasn't an edge piece and it was a bit rubbery for my taste, the raw part, but the done part was fabulous. The ginger was incredible and I hardly tasted the dijon. I was amazed how good it tasted.

Ted's family all knows I don't much like seafood, but they're always after me to try new things -- cooked red cabbage, pickled herring, mushrooms, avacados, seafood, anything they can think of, all of which I still refuse to try. This is one of those things I've tried that I really enjoyed -- add it to the list that includes rye bread with salami and (mild) Havarti cheese (I still won't eat the real heavy, fermented kind), julekake (Danish Christmas cake), frikadeller (Danish meatballs), and such. It was incredibly, unbelievably good. Well, as long as I didn't have to have the real rubbery pieces. LOL

So, are you proud of me yet?? *Ü*

enchanted

2008-03-25T22:59:00.002-06:00

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Savanna. And at Thanksgiving dinner her Uncle Mike and Aunt Kim told her that she needed to see the movie Enchanted because the girl in it was her to a T. Well, her mom and dad never made it to the movie theater with her to see it, but when it came out on DVD, the Easter Bunny brought it to her and her siblings for Easter. They watched it 3 times on Easter and another 3 times the day after Easter (because they were out of school). Now, while her family loves the movie, they don't see at all why her Uncle Mike, Aunt Kim, and cousins all say that she is Gisele. She's really nothing like her. Oh well, it's still a really cute movie; and mom had a fun time trying to find 3 other Disney princesses -- Ariel (Jodi Benson), Belle (Paige O'Hara), and Pocahontas (Judy Kuhn) -- who appear in the movie. And even a former wicked witch (Idina Menzel who played Nancy was the original Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway). Now they all have the Enchanted songs stuck in their head for the next little while and will hopefully continue to live Happily Ever After.

breakfast in bed

2008-03-21T15:01:00.003-06:00

This morning was nice. No school for the kids, so I didn't set my alarm. My body was able to just sleep and wake up on its own. Guess when I woke up?? Well, I woke up when Ted got up to get ready for work and then again when he left for work, so I knew that Savanna and Conner were up. But waking up all on my own without needing to fall back to sleep because I was still tired?? 10 a.m.!!! And I wasn't the last person to wake up in my house. Sydney didn't wake up until 10:30 a.m. She needed it, though. She's been sick with a pretty bad cough. Her asthma inhaler's not helping and neither is the prescription cough medicine. The humidifier does seem to help at night, but activity and being outside during the day triggers her too. Usually this means she needs her inhaler, but, like I said, it's not helping. I'm starting to wonder if she has pneumonia again (she had it when she was a baby).

Anyway, this morning, as I was still reading in bed (I know, lazy.....LOL) when Sydney woke up, I had her come snuggle with me. We snuggled for about 5 minutes and then she said she was hungry, so she got up to go eat. I went back to reading. She came back and asked me if I wanted some cereal too, so I said sure. She came back carrying the table tray with 2 bowls of cereal on it, one for her and one for me. I loved it!! She climbed up in bed with me and together we had breakfast in bed. What a fun way to start the morning!!

cleanliness (or the lack thereof)

2008-03-21T00:11:00.004-06:00

I may have mentioned previously that I'm a perfectionist, to the point where I can't clean if I don't know how to do it or do it right or if it's too overwhelming. Now, you may say that's not a perfectionist, a perfectionist would actually be OCD and spotless. Not according to FlyLady and not according to Oprah on her show a while back, the one where they went to that one lady's house that was so horribly awful with dog feces and clutter filling ever single space, dishes months old in the sink, moldy food in the fridge, and so on. Remember that one?? I do. Because I was extremely thankful that I was not that bad. I keep my upstairs fairly tidy. It's a bit cluttered and I need to do some decluttering (and actually follow the FlyLady emails I get daily), but for the most part I can keep it fairly tidy. Now my basement is an entirely different story. Because it's one big room and we have a hole in the ceiling from water leaking from upstairs and it's flooded twice since we've lived here, I just let it go. It's the home for everything we don't want upstairs and everything I can't throw away. (Man, I can't believe I'm being this honest here. Yikes!!) Anyway, tomorrow the girls are off school for Easter break, so we will be tackling the play "room" (or area of the basement) and hopefully get to some of the rest of it. I know I've needed to do it for a few months now and it does occasionally get tidied up, but I hate cleaning up the kids' toys and they won't do it on their own. So why am I finally doing it now? Well, my dad decided to inform me that he's having an appraiser come look through the property Saturday morning. Um, yeah, more than 2 days' notice (like a month's notice) would have been nice. *sigh*

I will readily admit that I am a pack rat. I hate waste and I hate to throw things away. Just in the last few months, you'd be proud of me -- I have actually given away tons of my girls' baby/infant clothes to my sister and sister-in-law. I still have tons more to give them too. Then there's all of Conner's baby stuff. I probably should find someone with a baby boy for all of that. I'd rather give it to someone I know than the DI, but I really don't want to give away his baby stuff just yet. I just hate the thought of no more babies, but I'm thinking Conner is my last baby and he'll be 4 years old in a month!! The anniversary of my miscarriage was on St. Patrick's Day, 2 years now. Time's quickly passing and I really don't want a baby too far apart from Conner, but I get so sad at the thought of never having another one either. I thought I'd have 5 and I'd love for Conner to have a brother. Oh well. Must not be in the Lord's plans for us.

Well, off to bed to get some rest that I'm seriously lacking in!! Have a great Easter weekend!!!

so glad to be...

2008-03-20T00:56:00.002-06:00

Take the Quiz here!

Of all Jane Austen's books, this is the only one I've actually read (and read several times) so far. I do have 3 others on my bookshelves waiting to be read, which leaves only 2 more to pick up at the book exchange or wherever I can find them. As I was talking the quiz, I was worried I would end up being an Austen character I knew nothing about! So I'm very glad to be Elizabeth Bennet. I love her anyway. The A&E version of Pride and Prejudice is incredible too. And I KNOW there's a never-ending debate over this, but this version is MY favorite. Some day I'll give the Keira Knightley version a second chance. So, which Austen character are you -- Emma? Fanny Price? Anne Elliot? Elizabeth Bennet?

ABCs

2008-03-18T12:35:00.002-06:00

I got tagged a week or so ago by my friend Lilian. So here are my responses!!

A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Sharla (and many other VERY good friends, so don't feel offended if I didn't list you because I love you all!)
C- Cake or Pie: Cake, but I like pie too.
D- Day of Choice: Tuesday
E- Essential Item (s): chocolate, a heated rice bag, toothpaste, a good book, and naps
F- Flavor of ice cream: Any kind, except coffee flavored.
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears, but I like both.
H- Hometown: Bountiful, UT, in about a 1- to 2-mile radius my entire life.
I- Indulgence(s): Cashews, Toberlone, hot bubble bath, girls' night out (because they don't happen very often!)
J- January or July: July only because it's hotter. I don't mind January too much either
K- Kids: 3 - Savanna, Sydney, and Conner
L - Last movie seen in theaters/DVD: In theaters, it was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. On DVD, it was Rendition, although I'm halfway through No Reservations.
M- Marriage Date: September 18, 1993
N- Number of Siblings: 1 brother, 1 sister (plus 3 foster sisters)
O- Oranges or Apples: Clementine oranges, but I love Gala apples too!
P- Phobias or Fears: Running over someone/something with my car. Being on my roof. Hmmm...I'm sure I have more, but those are the only ones that come to mind.
Q- Quote(s): I like a LOT of quotes. I have a couple notebooks full of them. Since I had to do one for a profile of me at work recently, I'll use the one I did for that one -- "Every man dies, not every man really lives." from Braveheart.
R- Reason To Smile: It's almost spring!
S- Season: Spring and fall
T- Tag Four: Wendy, Jolene, Celeste, Theresa Marie
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I'm a perfectionist, although you wouldn't know it to look at my home.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Hmmm...not sure I like that wording because I do eat a lot of meat, but I eat a lot of veggies too!
W- Worst Habit: My lack of cleaning habits. I'm a perfectionist, so if I can't get it done right or don't know how best to do it, I don't do it at all. Hence, my messy home.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I guess ultrasounds.
Y- Your Favorite Food: I'm not too picky. I love a variety of things, as long as there are no mushrooms, tomatoes, avacados, or seafood.
Z- Zociac: Cancer

my sweet boy

2008-03-12T19:18:00.002-06:00

Yesterday afternoon, after being out on a job all morning, Ted came home for a few minutes before heading over to the warehouse to work. Conner was watching Cars and Ted asked him if he wanted to go work with him. Conner LOVES to go to work with his dad, but he said no!!! I was shocked. I went back downstairs to my work and a few minutes later I am attacked from behind by my little guy. Not attacked in a bad way, attacked as in he came up behind me and threw his arms around me, laid his head against my arm, and gave me a hug. It was so sweet!! I looked at him and he had put on his hoodie and his shoes and was ready to go work with dad and wanted to give me a hug good-bye first. It just melted my heart. So he called Ted to tell him he was on his way over and off he went!! He stayed over there for a long time, with some visits home to go potty, get his toy motorcycle, and so on. I'm so glad it's finally warming up outside enough that the kids can play out there! Of course, they loved to play in the snow, but not for hours like they do in warm weather!!

I haven't made it to Costco to get my cruise pictures on CD yet, so continue to stay tuned for those. I *promise* I will actually post them and details of my trip this time. LOL