What A Week

So I was gonna blog everyday of trip and then I remembered we were going to an amusement park for two straight days and I would lose brain function every night and be unable to blog. But I am back in Montana where it's 50 degrees & sleeting and I can think much clearer (after my 5 hour nap). For now I am going to be lazy and post a slideshow. Tomorrow I will tell stories--it was a great trip adn our kids are so much fun. I am so grateful to have a family I love to be with!

TO MAKE THE SLIDE SHOW BIGGER: CLICK on the screen, then click the "SLIDESHOW" button on the upper left of the Picasa screen. You can adjust the speed of the slides below the pictures.

Taken By Surprise

My reaction to hearing the following song today kind of shocked me. I forgot what an integral part of my early-twenties mantra it was 18 years ago...punch in the gut!

"I'm nobody's wife and I'm nobody's baby
I like it that way
but then again...maybe.
And I'm nobody's valentine and I'm nobody's pearl,
When you get it right down to it
I always seem to find
Just some girl, singing

There are monsters there are angels,
There's a peacefulness and a rage inside us all
There is sugar and there is salt
There is ice and there is fire
in every single heart
There are monsters, there are angels.

I'm nobody's promise and I'm nobody's chore
And I ain't got nobody that I feel I gotta live for
Nobody to live for
I'm nobody's work and I'm nobody's company
And every time I turn around
I always seem to find
Just me....singing..."

I am so glad I grew up.

Early Bird Gets the Worm...

[but who wants a worm?]
I am up early thanks to my children and to all the voicemail on my phone. I was bummed when the kids were up at 6-on-the-dot, but even more annoyed when the messages on my voicemail got my adrenaline pumpin'. Luckily, just before I exploded a la The Incredible Hulk, my husband used his God-given calming powers to talk me into the shower and get on with my day since there is nothing I can do at this crazy hour. So here I am, waiting for my heart to soften.

And my friend Stephanie provides the heart-softener in the form of this post on Beauty. Go read it, it's great. Especially coming from a woman who survived a deadly plane crash that burned over 80% of her body. She is lovely in every way and she makes me feel grateful for a loving and longsuffering Heavenly Father.

Needless to say, I am more grateful than ever that my cutie hubs wanted to use his tax return to sweep us away to So Cal this weekend! He is awesome. Know what else he did? He refinanced our house at 4.6-something per cent, rolled in the car payment, and took out cash to pay off our outstanding medical bills/ repleninsh savings and our payment STILL went down! We closed on Tuesday and dont' have a mortgage payment til June. Yeah, I love him. We had such a fun date going to the temple last night, listening to back podcasts of Glenn Beck and This American Life, being SO excited to surprise our kids and be together for five whole days...YAY!

8:20 update: it's all good. crisis averted. :)
Also: Souter's retiring? Crud. Get ready for more bloody rounds of confirmation hearings. And pray Ginsberg hangs in there, cuz it's only gonna get more "progressive" from here! YIKES!

***

HAPPY MAY DAY!

It's so beautiful outside today! Mother Nature got the memo...hooray! Here's a song to celebrate (and HERE is the real way I first learned it :))

Rambling...

'positive thinking, positive thinking...'
So it's all sleety outside and stuff. I am trying to be pleasant about it, and I genuinely WOULD be pleasant about it IF it were 55+degrees and a light spring rain. I like rain. April Showers bring May flowers, you know.

My little yellow tulips are so very brave. Their little heads are held high, trying to open even though winter won't go away. All the seeds we started last weekend (meaning 10 days ago) in start trays, planters, and recycled yogurt cups are sprouting. There is hope smiling brightly before us. It will be a bright-green spring!

***
I never told you what made Heidi's bday cake so delicious and frostable, did I? Well, I tried it again last night to make dessert for missionaries' dinner tonight AND May Day cupcakes for a couple of girlfriends. I just made a regular boxed cake mix following the regular directions, but I added a cup of sour cream and a package of pudding. So far I have only done chocolate-to-chocolate, but I want to try banana pudding to yellow cake next. If you try any interesting concoctions, let me know!

As for me and my house, we will take a nap [just fixed up all the new Primary class rooms with Aunt Jen's help, and I started the crock pot with a green-chili beef roast to make shredded beef tacos for said missionaries tonight--still had a headache, deserve a nap!]

Overheard

this morning at 7:52am

[Heidi and Addie were playing with stuffed animals on the stairs--it was Heidi's "Pet Shop" and Addie was shopping for a "polite pet"]

Addie: Oh, I like this poodle!
Heidi: Look, he can do tricks!
Addie: Oh, that trick is NOT polite!
Heidi: Well, how about this kitten! She's sweet, and she does LOTS of polite, AND she can walk backward on her tip toes!

***
I wish Heidi would do lots of polite!

THAT'S What I'm Talkin' About

I've been singing this song in my head all day!

I am so excited for next weekend! We will be surprising our children BIG TIME (so SHHHH!!!) with a 5-day vacation (a super deal with airfare, car, discount Mundo del Mar* tickets--all 5 of us for $600! plus my hotel discount, we're lovin' it). And by surprising, I mean not telling them ANYTHING until we are AT the Airport for their first plane ride...and then making them figure out where they are going with some fun clues presented by the flight attendants. I know, super fun, right? We will fly from Bozeman to Las Vegas, then drive to San Diego on Sunday. Then on Monday we'll go to Sea World in the morning and to the temple/ La Jolla in the evening. On Tuesday we'll do another day at Sea World, then celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Old Town San Diego. Wednesday is beach day, and afterward we will drive back to Las Vegas. We fly home to Bozeman on Thursday. HOW FUN IS THAT!?

So next weekend, it's SO LONG, SUCKAS...this spring snow has got to go! The projected high temperature for the entire coming week is on Saturday, just before we leave, and it's a whopping 49 degrees. We'll probably come home to an 80-degree house, though, cuz that's how Mutha Nature rolls in Montana.

Gotta bail...have a happy Sabbath!

*Mundo del Mar is our code word for Sea World San Diego

Silver White Winters That Melt Into Springs...

When they said "Rain turning to snow" yesterday, I had no idea they meant "20-hour white out!" But just as quickly as it began, the blizzard is gone leaving a foot of snow in its wake. I braved the road to Bozeman round trip TWICE in the past 24 hours (once for Stake Auxiliary Training Meeting, once to replace the $3K battery in the Civic at the Honda dealership) and it was pretty fun, actually. This is how the pass looked out my car window this morning.
Three hours later, it was sunny and clear and snow was steaming up from the asphalt. I took a picture of one of my fave houses in Bozo.

This is the street of said house. It doesn't capture the fabuous canopy-effect of the snowy mature trees, from which blobs of soggy spring snow pelted my car for a mile.

On the way out of town, past a few open fields on Bozeman Trail, there's this great house I'd love to live in. It's only 19 miles away from Livingston...

***

So the car is fixed (on Honda's tab--thank heaven the battery broke under warranty cuz that's an expensive repair) and we had a fun time gearing up for summer fun at Target. I will never, no never, get over the awesomeness of Target. Genius on every aisle (I just noticed they are selling Boots stuff in the cosmetics section--I loved that place over in Europe--Fancy a trip to the apothecary?). Their buyers are brilliant. Daddy is taking us to dinner at Fiesta en Jalisco tonight, bless his heart. I'm too tired to cook, so it's tortilla soup and churros.

It's snowing sideways again.

Yesterday while Rich was home from work, he watched a tivoed Sesame Street with James. This segment came on starring Miles (the son of Susan and Gordon) singing a hip-hop song about the number one while wearing a large blue shirt and a sideways baseball hat.

[Did you know that Miles is TURK'S brother in real life? Fer Real!]

As Miles began his song, James sighed to himself and said, "I like Cody." Rich exploded with laughter when he realized that Miles reminded James of Cody. Here is another song by Miles for your hip-hop enjoyment and HERE is Cody.

***

Today after school Heidi got to open a late-but-oh-so-appreciated Birthday Box that came in the mail...
What a cute elephant blanket!

And another sweet, fluffy elephant.

That was a bright spot on an otherwise bummer afternoon

(we can't play on our new swings because of the blizzard...shucks)

Sunny Tuesday & Keepin' It Real

Yesterday I spring-cleaned the fridge and restocked it with great sale stuff from Albertson's. The girls were so excited about all the fresh fruit, they ate a whole cantaloupe and some strawberries for after-school snack!
YAY! Summer fruits are on the way!
***
After work, Daddy helped Addie practice riding her bike


She obviously inherited my kinetic intelligence, but at least she is learning before she's 8!

(Discussing the braking system on the cul de sac next to our house)

***

And now for a photo essay I like to call

KEEPIN' IT REAL:

snapshots of my everyday world

There's a headless bear carrying soaps on the back of the toilet in my guest bathroom.

This is what Mr. Bear used to look like. Poor bear.

We scored a great $5 lamp for our basement family room at Walmart this weekend.

I am so cheap--there is nothing in this photo over $10 except the ottoman cubes (everything--even the frames--was a bargain, homemade, or a hand-me-down).

Guess who took the last bath in my bathroom?

Cowboys shop at Costco.

Weekend Update

It has been a busy week and I haven't taken many pictures, but here are a few...On Thursday, we went to watch Addie in the first and second grade Spring Program, "Who Pushed Humpty?" Addie was in the first grade chorus (pictured here from across a dim gym)
OOPS, I didn't fix that red eye...but here's Addie singing. It was a cute little show.

***
On Saturday we went to Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman to celebrate Heidi's birthday (her request). So we went to a planetarium show and checked out the new exhibits, did a little shopping, had lunch at Wendy's, and then later went to Stake Conference.

Sure, there's still a lot of snow in Bozeman, but it was a warm and sunny day!

Jame, Heidi, & Addie with Big Mike

Addie the astronaut

Heidi the dinosaur

James doing dino puzzles.

***

We looked at photography exhibits by Edward Curtis and another guy. The Curtis photos made up an ethnography of Native American tribes at the turn of the 19th-20th century and they were beautiful images. The other exhibit was Sheep Herding in Paradise Valley, which we loved because we recognized all our hang-out/ camping spots. The photos were taken around Livingston--at Harvath Flats, along the Yellowstone, up Mission Creek, in the stockyards here in town, etc. They were taken through out the year in 1939 documenting the lambing and shearing seasons, with lots of gorgeous shots of the flocks just feeding and moving around the valley. The kids had a cool exhibit about the mechanics of toys with lots of hands-on exhibits---cams, pulleys, circuits, etc. And each station showed a popular toy taken apart to show how it works. It was really fun! Stake Conference was great, too, but I'll write about that later.

***

For now, it's time to do a bunch of housekeeping and Primary Prep, and take Heidi to school, so I gotta bail.

Happy Birthday

to my beautiful nieces, Kaylee Hamlin (in Michigan) and Sariah Melin (in Texas) !

We love you girls so much!

Heidi's Party

We just had a little family dinner/ cake-n-presents party with our Melin family tonight to celebrate Heidi's fifth birthday. This is the first awesome cake I have ever made--

it was delicious AND pretty cute (she asked for a chocolate dino cake...huh? She and Addie did the polka-dots)
Heidi wanted "a big taco salad" for her bday dinner and mommy delivered!

A fun picture of all the Livingston Cousins after the candle was blown out.

Sweet Heidi with her cake

And her Mary Poppins card that sings "Supercalifragilistic"

And one of her cute new toys...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEIDI!

(thanks for all the cards and wishes!)