For Kristen

KRISTEN (my SIL, aka SPECIAL K) TAGGED ME!!

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning. Each blogger answers the questions about themselves and post the answers on their blog. At the end of the post, the blogger tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged.



1) Where I was 10 years ago:

I was finishing up my degree in English and History at the U of A in Tucson, hanging out with Tom, Lyz, Celeste, Nichole, Ric and the McRae's, watching X-Files on Sunday nights at the condo, living at the G'rent's house--Sam lived there, too, and left on his mission in March 1998.



2) 5 things on my "to do list" today:

Take Heidi to first day of Pre-School at St. Mary's (YAY!)

Get free "Leap Day" McSkillet Breakfast Burrito

Finish Laundry

Play with/ feed kids (pick Heidi up from school)

Work at the hotel from 3-11pm (don't worry--dinner is taken care of)



3) Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
I would, of course, become debt-free, pay off the ranch and build a home out there, off the grid, with wind and solar power and a kick-butt organic garden & food storage; do the same for & share with family; send myself to fat camp; then I'd do all kinds of crazy Oprah stuff with the money, like hand people $100 bills discreetly in the grocery store, walk into the museum and hand them half a million dollars, make it so the Bishop's storehouse had tons of totally free food & clothing & medicine for the needy, mail everyone in Livingston a Book of Mormon with our family's testimony, pay off student loans for talented grads, send lots of people to college and on missions, etc...

4) Three of my Bad Habits:
biting my lip
talking too much/ too dorkily
nose picking/snot rockets (that's only in the shower, but it's still kinda gross)

5) 5 places I've lived:
Tucson, AZ
Weatherford, OK
Provo, UT
Pinehurst, NC
Livingston, MT

6) 5 Jobs I've had:
Donut finisher
Nanny
Deli Girl (queen of the salad bar & party trays!)
Liz Claiborne rep at Macy's
Writer for MLM nutritionals company

7) Something Most People Don't Know About Me:
I have to really talk myself into leaving the house (it could be anxiety-related-???). I would really be perfectly comfortable spending the rest of my life in my house or yard, and often don't leave the house for 3-4 days straight.

People I am Tagging:

Jill
Jenn Claar
Deb Holm
Sara
Mom

For Brent: How Ya Like Me Now?

Cousin Brent was singing the praises of my state on Super Tuesday because we gave Ron Paul a quarter of our vote. I thought you might like to witness the great lengths Montanans will go to show the RP love... High on a cliff over I-90 West, east of Bozeman, what's that I see?...
Ron Paul love!

(This is the first in a series of sightings I will try to record photographically)

For Jill: Decorating To-Do List

Dear Jill,

Here is what the downstairs family room looks like right now:As you come down the stairs you see the bookcases and the table in the "craft corner" (aka: messy corner); everything on the window sill except the paper trays and everything on the table and chair is going to a new home (one of the bookcase cabinets or the shelves in the laundry room)
Here's the messy corner and the door to Heidi's room, taken from my bedroom doorway.
Here's the new seating arrangement-- the walls a screaming for a warmer paint color and some more artwork, so we bought a nice warm Ivory color (two shades lighter than the tan on the stair wall) and I am going to order some enlargements of some fabulous Rich Melin photography in black frames for the walls).
Last but not least, the new telly. I hope it will not look so barren with new paint and a new artwork grouping (we are going the hang our big Jesus picture--the one now hanging in the messy corner--to the left of the TV and hang the two fancy-matted frames [The Living Christ & I Am A Child of God] to the right. All the family pix and landscpes will be in black frames on the walls above the couches). Why don't you come help me PAINT!?! I hate painting, but I LOOOOVE the results! Next we will be re-doing Addie's room (the guest room) and she wants a periwinkle or mauve-ish color. I will have to look at IKEA bedding and see which color we pick, and then I've been meaning to refinish that whole old bedroom set we got from Rich's Grandma (darker, cherry-ish finish instead of the Scandinavian gold). EEK...it's giving me flashbacks to three years ago! And don't even get me started on my plans for the yard! I even bought my work gloves and seed starters on Tuesday! Come join in the fun!

Recent Pix

At The Children's Museum of Bozeman (2/23)James playing trains
Heidi digging in the rice
Heidi in the "Doctor's Office" looking like a mad scientist ...

The Museum still needs a lot of stuff to get where they want to be. I have an idea for a donation drive brewing in my silly head. It would be a great service project (Debbie, are you reading this? It would be a great 10-hour project to collect some wish list donations from Livingston businesses and ward members, don't you think???) or Eagle Project. I'm gonna get crackin' on it.

***

Addie's "Big Teeth" last week during dinner

***

Valentine's Day Breakfast

We had whole-grain Eggos with strawberries and whipped cream for our sweetheart breakfast. Here are the girls posing wiht their stuffed animals from Daddy...
...James got a bear w/ chocolate hearts from me and the girls
Here we are enjoying our yummy breakfast
(you can see my "fondue for two" pot on the counter and the terrible psoriasis that just busted out on my eyelids).

A Brief Howdy

The snow just now finally stopped falling after about 12 hours! I knew those sunny warm days last week were ushering in winter's last hurrah (it seems we get most of our good snow in March--at least that's how it's been ever since I moved here!) What a cruel joke for my tiny red-and-green tulip shoots!


We had a nice weekend at Stake Conference in Bozeman. Rich had so many meetings on Saturday that we just got a hotel and stayed over to attend the 8:50am Sunday meeting all together. So he went to meetings on Saturday and I took the kids swimming, then Grandma Rosalie joined me to take them to the Chidren's Museum of Bozeman to play (we bought an annual membership there, so YOU can come, too, next time you're up here). Then we all met at the Stake Center, including Uncle Mike, and we ate a picnic dinner. Then Mike took the kids back to play and swim at the hotel, and I joined Rich and Mom & Dad Melin for the adult session of Stake Conference.



The Saturday Night session focused on reverence, family reverence--as an attitude and a feeling, not just folding our arms and being quiet. One of the best talks compared Sacrament meeting to a funeral or a memorial. The speaker asked the congregation how people look and act and dress at a funeral, and why. Of course we talked about the hushed and reverent attitude people display at a memorial, how people usually wear their best black dresses and suits to show respect for the dead. He pointed out that Sacrament meeting is really a memorial of the death of our Savior and should be treated with our utmost reverence and respect. I thought that was a great way to teach reverence and respect to kids. He also used some Carl Bloch paintings of the crucifixion and entombment and focused on the attitudes and expressions of the people in the paintings mourning Christ. It really helped me to adjust my perspective and to be more reverent myself.


Our downstairs family room TV died last week, so we bought a new LCD flat screen this week and have spent FOREVER rearranging the family room. The beautiful entertainment center that Rich built for me is going into storage at the ranch (we pushed the two bookcases together and put them on the other wall near the girls' room to hold games, books, DVDs and my scrapbooking stuff). The flat screen shares a wall with the laundry room, so Rich built some shelves in there to hold the satellite receiver/DVR and the DVD player and got us UHF remotes (the remote and the receiver don't have to be in the same room cuz UHF is radio), so the only thing in the viewing area is the TV. It's pretty awesoem, but now I am re-doing all the decorating, too--we have two new little brown leather ottomans, so I am thinking a new area rug, more pictures, and some paint on the three white walls. SHEESH! It's almost like moving! Tonight after FHE, we plan on working late to get eveything moved and put away whiel the younguns sleep. CRAZY!

By the way, here's a fun thing for FHE: sing "Book of Mormon Stories"; use the pictures from your gospel art picture kit and give a brief synapsis of the following four stories to the kids. Then print out the game from THIS LINK (page 15...there's a cool thing on page 16, too) on cardstock, cut out the rhymes and the pictures; then have the kids guess what rhyme goes with what picture. My girls glued the rhymes next to the pictures on another sheet of paper and hung them in their rooms so they can learn about Samuel the Lamanite, Enos, Nephi and the broken bow, and Mahonri and the Shiny Stones.

I think I have some fun pix from the weekend--I'll have to find the camera and upload them. But the family room project comes FIRST!! Have a great week!

I Couldn't Resist...

...just one more Beatles song! Pretend it's a late Valentine from me (this song has always made my heart skip a beat--it's so sweet--and now it reminds me of my cute little brother's first dance with his wife after their wedding--***SIGH**). ENJOY!

PS: I finally saw "Across the Universe" last weekend on the way to Billings. I liked it and it made me want to bust out the Beatles CDs, but it wasn't as awesome as I thought ot would be. I think it would be breathtaking on Broadway, though. I liked how it started with "Oh Girl," and I loved the use of "Hey, Jude." Man, when you stop and think about it, even if you don't like them, the Beatles were AMAZING. I can't believe I got to see Paul McCartney buying artichokes at the ranch market in Tucson. Living legend in the produce department. I love them. There are "Dear Prudence" lyrics painted on my kids' playroom wall. I can't live with out at least the 20 Greatest CD...it's time for my kids to learn to sing along!

S. A. D.*

[*Seasonal Affective Disorder]

Today felt like April. The sun was blazing when I took the kids to the park at 3pm. I didn't wear a jacket and I could almost hear my skin singing the Hallelujah chorus. The fuzz in my brain went away with the winter blues as I watched my kids romp through yellow grass, slushy puddles, and mounds of crusty snow. It really does make a difference, I thought to myself...The sun really matters.

***

Today is MY DAD POST'S BIRTHDAY, which he shares with my nephew, Sam Post. Happy Birthday, Post Boys! Hope you had a great day! Dad, I'm sorry I taped over your Hard Day's Night video tape in 1988. Here's a little something to make up for it...

And so I give you The Official Song of February, courtesy of Sweet George Harrison.

Uninspiring (Idol Remarks)

American Idol was kind of boring last night, huh? I think I set a personal record for fast forwarding the DVR. I also think I set a personal record for agreeing with Simon! Seriously, there were three or four vocals that really truly sucked--very weak musicianship--and I was surprised that Randy wasn't all over them for "pitchiness!!!" I think most of the girls could have done better and the song choices were boring. Ramiele did a quality job; Brooke was fun; Alaina was better than I thought she would be, and I think the rest were worse especially Carly and Amy and Alexandrea (oh, so off-key!). Oh, and Kady--what the heck was that robotic freaky performance? And I like Amanda the rocker, but she needs to CHILL and use her voice to sing instead of scream.

I watched the results show tonight in about 10 minutes with the fast-forward on. I think the people voted off were excellent choices--that Leif Garrett guy was creeping me out, and so was Colton (good call, Jill!), and I think Amy's and Joanne's performances were the weakest of the girls (Hey, did you notice how much that one guy looks like Orlando Bloom? Freaky!) I'm glad Chickezie Eze (?) stayed just so we can say his name some more.

So here are my TOP SIX...

David from Utah
Jason Dred (was he not STUNNING in the "Top 24" video on the results show? I didn't realize how good looking he is!)
Micheal the Natural

Alaina the Youngun
Brooke the Washing-Up Liquid Mormon
Ramiele Tiny Girl Big Voice

What the Freak?

So I got the mail as I was leaving to pickup Addie from school about 30 minutes ago. There was a stack of 10 (TEN) bills from Park Clinic. I wondered what the heck happened, so I started opening the bills. Each one had a form letter explaining that a third party company was now handling the billing and SIX of the bills were for little itemized charges LESS than $3 (like my three charges of $1.44 for my monthly blood work--apparently it costs me $1.44 per vial, and we couldn't put that on ONE piece of paper?!). WHAT THE FREAK!?!?! Each bill came on an 8.5 X 11" paper in an envelope with a window envelope inside and pre-paid first class postage. I'm willing to bet that we coulda skipped the billing on half of those and called it even! CRAZY! (and don't worry--when I took them to Rich, he'd already made out a check for the clinic--it all adds up to about $75 for Bub's broken arm/ ER visit and my Grave's maintenance, so it just LOOKED expensive).

Also, I gave myself a paper cut on one of those envelopes, then came home and started cooking Spanish Rice. I stirred in the chilies with my index finger--the one with the paper cut. AAIIIEEEEE!

All that in the past 30 minutes. That's just the kind of week it's been.

How's your week going? Happy Hump Day...


PS: Oh, I forgot to list my american Idol predictions--well, I guess they're not predictions as much as pronoucements--Jason Castro, David Archuleta, and Michael Johns are my top three favorite dudes. I also think they might be the only heteros ("not that there's anything wrong with that..."). I dont' know about the ladies--there are too many blodies this year and I can't tell them apart this early, but that Irish Carly and the little Ramiele are surely going to rock it, and don't forget that totally Mormonish girl form Mesa...I'll let you know tomorrow.

"The Spirit & The Body are the Soul of Man"

Our weekend was lovely and not long enough (can I take a "sleeping vacation"--where I just sleep? And then somebody feeds me totally healthy, organic, fresh foods and I sleep some more? My body is screaming for more sleep and better food and I am not quite meeting its needs!)

I'll write more later, but I just wanted to post THIS link. It really made me think about how respecting, loving, and truly caring for my body will indeed bring me closer to Heavenly Father (the link is from a blog I read about four years ago--the author and I communicated a bit and lost touch, then I came across a link to her again today. Hmmm! Her story is downright CRAZY, her past is incredible, her insights are often inspiring).

I had (well, HAVE) a terrible debilitating headache today (right now it is masked by drugs--Excedrin Migraine, I love you) and I can't wait to get adjusted tomorrow and try another whole food cleanse (strange things are afoot along my digestive tract). Too much info? Sorry. I'll check back in when I feel better and have more to say! :)

PS: More fun links from a recent search for reviews of Annie Dillard's latest book, a novel (shucks) called The Maytrees (I was hoping for some more natural non-fiction...but I will be re-reading For The Time Being to get my fix of Annie's deep thoughts). Here is an actual review of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek from 1974 (!!) written by Eudora Welty--yes! Eudora Welty, as in The Optimists Daughter and The Wide Net--WOW! Also, here is one of my favorite parts of Seeing, quoted within an essay question (I loved the story she told of hiding her own pennies to surprise strangers--something I totally did all the way through college with any coins I might have handy!).

Speaking of Sweethearts...

Seven Years Ago (on Sunday) I Married Mine!We're off to Billings for the weekend to celebrate!!!

(sans children--can I handle it? I think so! Thanks, Grandma Rosalie, for taking care of them!)