I'm allergic to the telephone

Ok. to all my amazingly cool, hilariously funny, super hip, chandler friends and fam. Are any of you planning on going to Matta's tomorrow night? It would be a blast to meet up but I have been reading about an awful lot of sickies lately. So will you all just leave me a little comment to let me know what you are planning, so if it doesn't work out, I can spend my time with this little, cuddly soft, peach fuzzy, cutest human on earth!
Instead of eating tacos alone.
Thanks

Primary Rocks

I had just gotten home from a grueling afternoon of lunch with friends and an eyebrow wax.  I left the kids home alone.  By the time I got home I was a bit irritated at the 7 calls I had had from them asking how long until I would be home.  I finally arrived home and started barking out orders for them to clean up their messes.  There were a few dishes here and there and shoes all over the floor.  Nothing Major, but I was still just a little crabby. Then I walked upstairs to find this.Sidney had folded the laundry I had left on the bed. Leaving behind the service star she had gotten at primary last Sunday. Thank you to the primary presidency for helping me teach my children to serve others. Thanks to Sid for softening my very hard heart and for folding my laundry even though she had to touch the boys underwear which she informed me was very very gross!

Merry Christmas

One more to go

With only one day left before Christmas, I am having a minor ummm... problem. I'm not filled with the Christmas spirit! I'm not feeling all cheerful and gay! I'm not singing Christmas carols at the top of my lungs! ( in fact they are all kind of giving me a headache ). I think I've tried all the spirit infusing tricks. I've read Luke and John with the family. I've made cookies and lots of them. I've gone cover to cover of the December Friend and Ensign. We drove around and looked at beautiful Christmas lights. I got to drive through (as a passenger) an amazingly gorgeous snow storm. I went to and enjoyed our Christmas program at church today. I even set up dinner by the Christmas tree tonight and had everyone share their favorite Christmas memories. It still did not work. I'm not feeling scroogy or too caught up in the commercial aspect. I'm just not feeling it. Or feeling anything for that matter! Any ideas? I'm serious! What can I do? I only have one more day to go!

sweet nothings (please not in my ear)

I have very sensitive ears. I don't like any breathing near them, but that is an entirely different story.

I am about ready to skip Christmas all together. I'm loving the holidays. Don't you worry! It's just that Megan, my youngest sister, just had her first baby. I can't wait to see him. I have a visit to AZ booked on the 28th( his due date ), but now that is not soon enough. I would appreciate it if the world could just quickly fast forward to the 28th. I know, Christmas is all good too. I'm just very impatient ( ask my children ). This is Megan and Reuben. The proud new parents of
Catcher Milo Craghead. 9 lbs, 15 oz, 22.5 inches! Can you believe that? For a first baby? Ouch! Everyones doing awesome, even without me there!

The very, very exciting things that I was busy with in my ever so controversial previous post were; (is that the right punctuation?)

VT Luncheon. Very fun, but at my house, which means there was lots of cleaning to be done.
Girls night at Bridget's house. Hilarious! We did get some very important topics discussed. (Twilight, Blogging, breast feeding in public)
Book Club dinner. Also at my house, which means more cleaning and much more decorating. Super fun!
Chris's birthday dinner with Aunt Sharon. Very nice. Not at my house. Hallelujah! Thank you Sharon!
Teacher presents. Shortbread in pretty packages.
Running a million errands. I did not grab any sphere shaped snacks this time.
Planning Christmas dinner. It's at my house! Crap! Just teasing, I can't wait!

I know everyone has been this busy. It's part of the season. I hope this didn't sound whiny because I really do love it all.

I've been busy, busy, busy! Having lots of fun and I can't think of anything to post anyway, Sorry.

alone, alone, alone, alone

Chris took the kids night skiing tonight. I'm home alone. It is a bit odd, but I must admit I'm enjoying it. I did a little laundry. I had a cookie and a piece of fudge for dinner. I just got back from seeing an adorable movie, all by myself. I haven't gone to the movies by myself in years. I forgot how much love it. I can completely sink into the story. There is no one to notice if you are crying. No one to keep making silly little comments to, and no one making silly little comments. Best of all, now I can guiltlessly blog until my family gets home
.
ps. The movie I saw was Bella. I'm not posting a clip because it gives too much away. Go see it though, it's good!

You know when you are walking out the door in the morning and you have a million things in your hands because you have a billion errands to run?
Well, that was me yesterday morning.
As I was walking out I realized I hadn't eaten anything yet so, I decided to grab an orange from the fridge and just put it on top of my daily handful o' stuff.
Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong Blasted Orange!
I swear he had it out for me.
He jumped right off the top of the pile and started running around my house.
I thought I had him cornered by the dinning table, but no, he kept on getting away.
Of course, I started clumsily dropping all my million other things.
I even caught myself talking to the blasted orange "Oh, you think your tricky do you? Fine I give up."
By the time I arrived home he had disappeared.
but I have a message for all his little sphere friends!

Sid had her first dance recital ever last night! The performance was so adorable! A huge thank you goes out to Miss Heidi! My eyes started misting a little. I was just so happy that Sid got to be involved this. Sometimes she gets put on the back burner, while the boys take center stage(boy, I love lame expressions!)

Dinner last night

Every year for our Christmas enrichment night they ask people to volunteer to decorate a table. I always Volunteer! I love having the opportunity to get creative ( and fine I'll admit it, I enjoy the large audience. Is that so bad?) This was my 3rd year and each year the table decor has gotten progressively mmm... stranger! I wish I had pics of the first two years. I told Megs I would post some pictures this year. Let me just say, I felt really stupid taking photos of my own table at the party so I didn't get the best shots, but I too wanted proof of its wackiness. I was a bit nervous for the reaction and feedback. In fact I forced Darilyn to come with me. If everyone else hated it, I knew I would have one person there to love me. I ended up loving the way it turned out! I don't really think the pics do justice, but at least you get the idea.

The cupcakes were frosted with a pale blue meringue ( you can't really tell in the picture), and the deer heads were a great conversation piece!

Christmas tree farm

Some of you know I live in a bit of a fantasy world. My fantasy this December day looked something like this ... Gather the family all together( we are all dressed very stylishly ), then jump into the car gleefully and excitedly looking forward to chopping down our most beautiful Christmas tree ever. Of course, we are all laughing and drinking our perfectly hot hot chocolate.

Now if we could just erase the kids and the husband from this reality, I might have actually come pretty close to the fantasy (minus the stylish dress and the hot chocolate). The Farm was gorgeous, their trees were perfect. Lots of tall skinny nobles. My favorite! They had a fire roaring outside of their rustic barn. Miles and miles of open fields misted over with light rain. I got to frolic in the mud (that is a good thing) searching for my fantasy tree. Once I found my tree, we loaded it in the back of Chris's candy red truck.

Now, fast forward to me giving the " you really need to appreciate, don't be such whiny, spoily brats, you'll look back on this some day" speech as we drove home! All the kids sulking as we walked inside the house. "Boy Mom, that sure was a lot of fun, thanks."

The amazing tree is now up in our family room waiting for me to.... gather the family(stylishly dressed) around its branches and adorn them with all of our delicate ornaments. We will sing Christmas Carols, drink our homemade wassail, and dance, until the children lay down their sleepy heads with dreamy smiles lingering.


I really think these pics say it all.

And the winner is....

Congrats to Sheri, a very deserving winner! You have have won the New Year's Eve crap(I mean wonderful stuff). I can ship to you or bring it down with me late December. Let me know which you would prefer. Yay for Sheri!

Give, oh, give away

There are tons of fun give aways going on right now and I decided I want to do one too.  I want to share something that is really fun (and also has been cluttering my closet since last year).  So, if interested, leave a comment and your name will be entered into the hat.

I don't want to be one of the 9!

I havn't posted any of my grateful fors yet.  I have a lot of them and this year I have kind of been focusing on the little things.  So as not to be an ungrateful leper, I thought I would express my thanks.

I am thankful for...

bright orange skies

my husband's smile

sunny days

thick, squishy blankets

fast internet

chipping paint

colors so rich you can feel them deep in your skin

running water (after sacrament meeting today)

my children's jokes

gut laughter

homemade meals

ruffles (not the chips)

and the smell of old books

There now, there's a few things I'm thankful for this holiday season.

I'm shaking my fist at all you taggers!

It's not that I don't love to talk about myself and all.  It's just too hard to think of interesting things to say when put on the spot like this.  I'll try it though.

1.  I am always cold!  do not ask me if I need the A/C on.  I assure you I do not.  You can also feel free to always crank the heater as high as you fancy when I am around.  I love 100 degree weather and can't wait for my AZ trips so I can thaw from my eternal OR frost bite.

2.  I believe ice is a dessert and since it is harmless in the calorie department,  I eat it constantly.  My favorite thing about owning my own home is the crushed ice setting on my freezer door!( this may contribute to #1)

3.  I love my hair, and  I will spend a lot of money on my hair products, so there!  My sisters can make fun of me for spending a small fortune on my shampoo, but I know deep down it is all worth it.  Bumble&Bumble for those of you that want fabulous hair.

4. I am not, I repeat NOT a clean freak!  My house is plenty messy, but I do have to have a place for everything.  If I need my house to be clean I know exactly where each little thing will go.  I do have one thing that has to be clean... my washer & dryer!  I don not like dust or trash or lint or coins or anything on the top of them.  And no dirt or sand in all the little crannies either.

5.  Not always, but when I'm getting dressed up or going out for a night on the town,  I do this.  I get dressed in my outfit then do my hair, then I think to myself   "I need to add my crazy"  just a little something to make myself not look normal.  Then I add something.

6.  I am a terrible board game player.  Because of this I do not particularly like to play them.  It is mostly the strategic games I stink at.  My brain does not work that way. 

There you go.  I am not tagging anyone.  These are too painful to spread!

Last night Sid wanted to play computer games.  Her reason for why this was such a great idea  was the games were "edunalcation"!  They must be great games and obviously very educational!

My kids daily dose of torture

Family photos gone wrong! (but still cute)



Don't these kids look miserable? You should have seen their faces before we started. They were threatening mutiny!

Do you ever catch yourself doing very bazaar things?  Lately I've caught a couple slipping out that frighten me a little.

Like...

Boston was singing a classic tune and I caught myself cutting out my Christmas cards to his beat.  The scissors following along with his du du du dum, bu bu bu bum.  Strange.

A few nights ago we were driving down the road and my headlights were reflecting back at me from the car ahead.  They kind of looked like eyes staring at me.  So, Well, I winked at them!  Strange.

I think this happens when I'm spacing it, and not really realizing what I'm doing.  Very appropriate times( I've just realized ), like while handling sharp objects and driving a car!  

Big Congrats!

This is my little brother Ty and his brand new bride, Shanda.

I wish you guys the very best!!!!

Day 2

I'm bored with this story already. I don't think I have ADHD! Here is a fun times in AZ list instead.

Seeing my entire fam (almost).

Being a little too loud in the echoing cave. We call it the kitchen at the church! (sorry)

Watching all the little cousins boogy.

Kas doing the worm!

Hearing my little sister swear at my big sister and then swearing at my little sister for just swearing.(That really wasn't so fun at the time, but it sure is funny now)

Eating grapefruit and pecans right off my mom's trees.

dipping 750 red cupcakes in frosting with my sibs & friends, and then eating like half of them!

Joni trying to force feed me children's Benodryl. Do I look like a 3 year old?This is my kids with Joni's girls.

Laughing my butt off with Meg & Monique. David(Monique's husband) pretending not to listen. Elise where were you?

Talking to Megan in the car in front of me because it was 1:30 am. I was scared she would fall asleep.

Eating pei wei on the green plastic chairs.

Skate park visit. Apparently Emma works at Ford?

Seeing Monique's beautiful new house. It is nice to finally know where my sister lives. Just one more to go, I still need to visit Em.

Breckon and Karsten as shrek and Puss N boots.

My kids being able to play in the water. It was 90 degrees after all.


Cracking sex jokes with my mom, in front of her nurses at the hospital. Did you know too much sex causes kidney stones?(my mom is gonna kill me)!

I know this only makes sense if you were there, sorry!

AZ family

We made it safely back to Oregon with only a little kicking and screaming involved. We had a very fun and very busy trip. (And you all are getting the whole story) feel free to skip most of it if you want.

We arrived at the Phoenix airport at 9:30 am. That means we left our house at 4:30 am. Amazingly the same children I have to drag out of bed every morning at 7:00 am had no problem jumping up at 3:30 that morning. (that is am).
I called Elise(she is always my morning contact) to see who was picking us up ( seeing as how I had forgotten to make actual arrangements). She informed me that my mom had gone to the emergency room that morning, so she got suckered into pick up duty. My mom had a very large kidney stone and was in extreme pain(until they drugged her up, of course). She is fine, but was in the hospital until the day before Ty's wedding (my little brother). If you know my mom, or any mother in the world, you know that she was frustrated to no end that she was not up doing the million things that she had planned. This is where trusty old Merilee comes in ( and my other four sisters, and a couple of brothers, and a sister in law, and one of the brothers girlfriends, and my dad) That is how many people it takes to take over my mother's duties!
That night was Halloween. My parents have the perrffeecctt set up for this. Not a scary set up, but a down home, country time, fall festival, covered in straw set up.
Elise and Megan's contest entries
haride anyone?

We grilled hotdogs by the bonfire, while sitting on hay bales for chairs. Then we went door to door with ten children(5 adults, and one strange vampire, who I later realized was a little friend of my boys), who were trick-or-treating their hearts out. When the children were satisfied with all their loot, we headed back to my parents for the hayride. I have been on many hayrides in my day, but nothing beats my dad's hayrides! It's a fabulous mix of dusty roads, tractor fuel(cough, cough),Did anyone bring an inhaler?, spooky cowboy stories, children dangerously jumping on and off the trailer, and pistachio branches threatening to bludgeon you if you come one inch closer. Thanks Dad, awesome as ever!

This is a really long story. I'm going to have to change my plan to installments. That was Day 1. 

Today is OK---------------------

"Hey mom, why are we leaving the pumpkin patch without getting any pumpkins?"
"well, we need cash here, and I don't have any. Let's just run to the bank"
"OKKKKK!"


"Mom, why can't we get the biggest pumpkin?".
"Becuase we aren't even going to be in town for Halloween, we just don't need the biggest one."
"OKKKKK!"


"Mom, why can't we jump on the bouncy apple today?"
"It is busy season at the farm so they are charging a fee. We'll come back when it's free."
"OKKKK!"


"Mom can we get caramel, and cider, and another pumpkin, and.....
"No"
"OKKKK!"


"Mom can we go on the hay ride?"
"we are going to do that at Nana B's on Halloween."
"OKKKK!"


"Mom, why can't we ride in the back of the truck while we move all these boxes?"
"I don't know, you just can't. It's not safe on big roads."
"OKKKK!"


"Mom, why do we have to drive so far to the Halloween party?"
"Our friends moved, but we still want to go see them, you'll have fun."
"OKKKK!"


"Mom, when are we going to carve our pumpkins?"
"tomorrow evening"
"how about tomorrow morning?"
"how about tomorrow afternoon?"
"OKKKK!"


"Mom, why do we have to take a shower?"
"because you've been playing all day and we have church in the morning."
"OKKKK!"


"Mom, will you ask dad to tuck us in?"
"OOOOOOKKKKKKK!"


Man, I am such a drag!

Boston

I know, I write about Boston a lot. I can't help but love him the most. Last year (5th grade) he was a total flake and I was pretty sure his brain had fallen out of his head for good. Everyone kept telling me that around age 11 boys lose it and don't find it until about 19 or so. I was very worried, but much to my surprise Boston has found his head again! He loves school and is doing quite well. He has found a new love... running cross country. He memorized his primary program part without me having to say a word. That is very unusual in my house. He still does his chores without throwing tantrums about it. He is super nice to his little brother and sister. He still loves to hang out with his Mom and Dad. Yesterday he asked if I would watch a movie with him. I told him I had a lot to do and just to pick one for himself. He said he only wanted to watch with me, so we compromised and watched a half hour of The Crocodile Hunter. Now here is the best! When I returned home from taking Mas to school this morning, Boston had made me french toast! He was already gone for the day, but left a little note "To Mom" sitting right beside the breakfast he'd made me. Is that not awesome? Yes he did leave me the mess to clean up, but Who Cares?

Boston hates to brush his teeth.
He picks obnoxios friends, and
he leaves his dresser drawers wide open!
There, now you all can feel better about your kids.


ps. I don't love Boston the most. That was a joke! Calm down people!

Weekend update

I had an awesome weekend. I dropped the kids with Joyce, and Chris and I had Friday and Saturday all to ourselves. I picked him up from work around 4:30 and we did a little shopping. I got these, and a few other things, but blogger is being lame.

Then we went and checked in to our hotel downtown. We had a corner room on the 5th floor. It was amazing. 2 of the walls were all window. We could see everything. It reminded me of the movie "Lost in Translation". Very cool. Then we went to see Interpol. It was interesting, I'll give em that. It was held at a huge coliseum, but was sectioned off so only like a quarter of the space was full. They had the weirdest opening band ever. They were called The Liars. Avoid at all costs. Actually they were kind of entertaining in a "you are so weird" kind of way. Then Interpol played for 1 hour and 1 minute. Everyone felt very ripped off. after about 10 minutes of cheering for the encore the singer came out and said " one of our guys is messed up. We're so sorry , but this is goodnight. So sorry." and they left. The sad thing is they were very good. They were a Chris pick. I just went with. I'm not a huge fan of theirs, but they were good in a "we are very disinterested and too cool for you" kind of way. I know lame, but there was this very odd but passionate vibe.
After the concert we had some appetizers and dessert at some way up high with lots of windows restaurant. That was fun.
The next day we had breakfast at my favorite little french bistro downtown and hit a few(ok a lot) more stores. We then drove to Joyces and had an awesome time hanging out with the fam. We got home very late last night. Good thing that I got to sleep pretty much all day after church today. Tomorrow normal life starts again.

I swear!!!! That's it, I just swear.

This is my latest project. It is a shadow box(kind of) from my New England trip. Everything in the book is from my trip. I loved this project. I don't know if I should hang it on the wall or just start a bookshelf with vacation shadow boxes. It is not completely finished, but I only have one more thing to add.

My kids are such rock stars!

Mason has been a song writer for a few years now. His lyrics have come a long way. He started out with songs like "I Dropped My Ice Cream Cone". Then moved on to "My life Sucks, but I Don't Care". His latest was my return home surprise. It's called "I Like". I think this was co-written by Boston. It goes like this. It's sung kind of Nirvana-esque.

I like watching the sun set. I like watching it rise. I like watching for the colors of the dark blue sky.
I like, I like, I like these things so much.
Yaa
I like, I like, I like, I like thinking of you.
Yaa.
repeat.

This is kind of short for Mason, but I have a feeling his "mom" was not his favorite topic to write about. I absolutely love it though. Boston and Mason performed it for me when I got home from VT. I might have teared up if it weren't for their nasally, hard rock way of singing. Anyway it was cool. ( yes, I do keep all the lyric sheets, someday they will be needed for the documentary.)

Also, I wanted all those who have not heard yet, to know that Boston won first place in his 1 mile run for cross country. This is his first year running and he loves it. His time was 6 minutes and 30 seconds. I thought that was pretty good for his first race. I was gone, so I can't wait to see his next one.


Sid gets her rock star points for playing football with the little neighbor boy. He's 2 and apparently loves to tackle.

10-12-07

Today was fun. I took the kids, and a friend for each, to their favorite skate park this morning. They were all tearing it up. Then we went to a pumpkin patch for a few. Not too long, they were having trouble with the rules. When we got home Sid and I made cookies for refreshments for some church thing tonight. Then the missionaries came over for dinner. That was fun. One of them lives by Tom & Nat.

Happy Birthday Elise!

Elise is almost exactly 2 years older than me.
Elise was a cheerleader in Jr. High. Can you tell?
In high school she was a witch. OK not really, but some people thought she was!
She was really an arty-farty pants, and she still is.
After high school Elise was my best friend, we did pretty much everything together.( weekend dances, concerts, hanging out, ski trips, beach trips, volleyball, shared a room, shared clothes, share other best friends, like I said everything)
Then Elise went on a mission. She went to Slovenia, and loved every second of it.
She married Steve, and has three hilarious kids.
Elise is still one of my very best friends. I love every second of her!
I hope you have a fabulous day lady, you certainly deserve it! Can't wait to see you in 20 more days.

Just a few moreeeeeeeeeeeeeee

That was funny. My "e" button stuck. I love flawed things, so I'm leaving it. ( ok, if I really loved all things flawed I also would have also left "Me "e" button stuck." I must be reading Chelsea E P's blog too much. They are very in to pirates)

For cryin' out loud can I just get to the point? Here are a few more pics & of course my silly little comments will follow.

A big huge thanks again to Michelle. She was our inspiration for the trip, our tour guide, our landlord, and if you read Darilyn's blog, you know she was also our entertainment! Can anyone guess what this restaurant was called? I had forgotten until I saw this picture.


By the way, if you happen to be looking for Michelle, she is probably by the pamphlet shelves. She has a serious addiction. With Darilyn close behind. I almost got beat up a few times for my maps and info.


This is at the Alcott home. I think this place was most enjoyed by Darilyn. She had some weird tongue issues going on. She could not stop repeating" I love this place" and "I loved reading Little Women as a child".


This is not staged. I pinky swear!

This is for you Sarah S. You must know I love ya, if I put this picture up for all to see. We were thinking of you!