Three whiny kids with colds lying on the couches with blankies and juice cups watching Nick Jr.
Mommy trying to recover from a very messy weekend (it's not working; this place is a dump)So busy! Dr. @ 2:15 for Bub's achy ear, work at hotel 5-11pm...maybe I can post coherently then!
Just another manic Monday....!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
Please Stand By
...This station is experiencing technical difficulties!
My "big" computer---the one on which we do photog and design--is at the computer hospital right now because it wasn't communicating with its peripherals (like the monitor--it's hard to use a graphic interface when your can't see anything!).
Anyway, I have so much to post--great pix and movies, fun from the weekend with Postums and Uncle Michael (celebrating Jake's 4th bday and Sam's 2nd), and of course some ranting about the frickin' primary election (what the heck!?), American Idol, etc. (I thought the guys were so much better this week--LOVED IT--and Jason Castro and Brooke White just KILLED--I loved their performances!!!! Good riddance to poor Kady robot--sorry Liam!)
And don't forget CANDACE KAY'S birthday!!! Candace, Gramps said you sometimes check my blog and you MUST know that I NEVER forget your birthday, and I would send you birthday greetings if I had your address!!!! And now your birthday is James' half birthday! How fun is that? We even had cake for dessert on your birthday day in your honor (and his). I really miss you, cuz!
Today is my little first-cousin-once-removed's FIRST BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday, Little P!!! It's also my friend Melissa's birthday! She's hosting pre-school today and we're having pizza with pepperoni and olives for "P" and "O" day! She's such a sport...I think I would take the day off pre-school as a gift to myself! ;) Heidi still goes to our little ward school because we chose the 3-days/week program at St. Mary's and they let us choose which three days. I chose Monday (to recover from the weekend), Tuesday, and Thursday. I thought we'd skip Friday so she can hang out with her ward friends and so she can skip going to mass with her class at St. Mary's. I think it's Catholic enough that she has learned to cross herself after morning prayers! ;) It's a really great school and I hope it will help her settle down a bit.
Anyway, I am excited to post videos of James helping me clean up in the mornings--it's so cute! And he is walking now--finally! He's so cute toddling around trying to be helpful. I hope the computer is back soon. Meanwhile, have a great weekend! Don't forget DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME tomorrow night!
My "big" computer---the one on which we do photog and design--is at the computer hospital right now because it wasn't communicating with its peripherals (like the monitor--it's hard to use a graphic interface when your can't see anything!).
Anyway, I have so much to post--great pix and movies, fun from the weekend with Postums and Uncle Michael (celebrating Jake's 4th bday and Sam's 2nd), and of course some ranting about the frickin' primary election (what the heck!?), American Idol, etc. (I thought the guys were so much better this week--LOVED IT--and Jason Castro and Brooke White just KILLED--I loved their performances!!!! Good riddance to poor Kady robot--sorry Liam!)
And don't forget CANDACE KAY'S birthday!!! Candace, Gramps said you sometimes check my blog and you MUST know that I NEVER forget your birthday, and I would send you birthday greetings if I had your address!!!! And now your birthday is James' half birthday! How fun is that? We even had cake for dessert on your birthday day in your honor (and his). I really miss you, cuz!
Today is my little first-cousin-once-removed's FIRST BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday, Little P!!! It's also my friend Melissa's birthday! She's hosting pre-school today and we're having pizza with pepperoni and olives for "P" and "O" day! She's such a sport...I think I would take the day off pre-school as a gift to myself! ;) Heidi still goes to our little ward school because we chose the 3-days/week program at St. Mary's and they let us choose which three days. I chose Monday (to recover from the weekend), Tuesday, and Thursday. I thought we'd skip Friday so she can hang out with her ward friends and so she can skip going to mass with her class at St. Mary's. I think it's Catholic enough that she has learned to cross herself after morning prayers! ;) It's a really great school and I hope it will help her settle down a bit.
Anyway, I am excited to post videos of James helping me clean up in the mornings--it's so cute! And he is walking now--finally! He's so cute toddling around trying to be helpful. I hope the computer is back soon. Meanwhile, have a great weekend! Don't forget DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME tomorrow night!
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Onward, ever onward...
It's MARCH FOURTH! (click)
So, by golly, put your chin up, your chest out and
So, by golly, put your chin up, your chest out andMARCH FORTH!!!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
PS: Idol Thoughts
I just googled the Idol results because I am working and I can't watch the show. I see that Alexandrea, Alaina, Robbie, and Jason Y. got sent home, all of which I agree with, except I think Amanda should have gone home before Alaina.
After last night's performances, Alaina definitely fell out of my top 3 girls. I'll replace her with Syesha. But my boyz are going strong! Micheal Johns' performance of "You Can Go Your Own Way" was so off key on the chorus, it made me sad for him, but he still rocks. Jason's performance made me swoon, and li'l David Archuleta was excellent (he made Paula cry!). What did you think?
After last night's performances, Alaina definitely fell out of my top 3 girls. I'll replace her with Syesha. But my boyz are going strong! Micheal Johns' performance of "You Can Go Your Own Way" was so off key on the chorus, it made me sad for him, but he still rocks. Jason's performance made me swoon, and li'l David Archuleta was excellent (he made Paula cry!). What did you think?
A Thread
Lots of times in my life, I will find "a thread"--over a period of a few days or weeks, I will hear/read/talk about some odd subject several times. Coincidence or divine teaching moments? I dunno. I just wanted to tell you about the latest thread--it really cracked me up.
First, Nie posted THIS about how productive she was when she locked her kids outside for a while.
Second, her sister, CJane, posted THIS about locking kids out (the comments, which are hilarious, seem to indicate it's not that unusual).
Then, like the next day, I dug in to my favorite library book from last week, Dress Your Family in corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. One of the first essays in the book is called Let It Snow, and I immediately wanted to read it to Nie & cjane & all our e-friends because it was so appropos.
Fourthly, my adorable li'l sis, Lisa, called from AZ Sunday night to tell me she had (once again) sent a package to my spoiled children (just because they made her a get well card--I'm serious, these kids are going to have HIGH expectations of the mailman in the future considering the rate at which they receive treats in the mail!!!! BTW, we got it Lisa and they went HOG WILD about it--I will have to make a video of how much James loves that puppy you sent--he hugs it up to his neck and says, "Doggie! Doggie!"). Anyway, Lisa happened to mention that she had kicked her sons out of the house for the evening and I laughed so hard. I told her that locking your kids out is The Next Big Thing, and that when the snow stops, I'm gonna give it a try (in the fenced back yard, that is).
So what have I learned from this thread? I have learned that I don't need to feel uptight about letting my kids outside. I don't need to be pretentious about being a "Good Mom," because many, many good moms need kid-free moments. I've learned that if nothing else, it will give my kids good memories to write about.........AND I learned that I need to DEVOUR all of David Sedaris' books (I have only heard him on NPR and Letterman, and heard OF him from his wacky sister, Amy, whom I love, too). I think there is something universally wacky about growing up in a big family that provides endless comic fodder--it's what makes Brian Reagen funny and it's what makes me love Sedaris.
And now, because I love you (and I am working at the hotel on a slow night), I present most of the Let It Snow essay. Read and enjoy.
The winter I was in fifth grade we got lucky. Snow fell, and for the first time it accumulated….On the fifth [snow day], my mother had a little breakdown. Our presence had disrupted the secret life she led while we were at school, and when she could no longer take it, she threw us out. It wasn’t a gentle request, but something closer to an eviction. “Get the hell out of my house,” she said.
We reminded her that it was our house, too, and she opened the front door and shoved us into the carport. “And stay out!” she shouted.
My sisters and I went down the hill and sledded with other children from the neighborhood. A few hours later we returned home, surprised to find the door still locked, “Oh, come on,” we said. I rang the bell and when no one answered. We went to the window and saw our mother in the kitchen, watching television. Normally she waited until five o’clock to have a drink, but for the past few days, she’d been making an exception. Drinking didn’t count if you followed a glass of wine with a cup of coffee, and so she had both a goblet and a mug positioned before her on the countertop.
“Hey,” we yelled. “Open the door. It’s us.” We knocked on the pane, and without looking in our direction, she refilled her goblet and left the room….We pounded again and again, and when our mother failed to answer we went around back and threw snowballs at her bedroom window. “You are going to be in so much trouble when dad gets home!” we shouted, and in response my mother pulled the drapes. Dusk approached, and as it grew colder it occurred to us that we could possibly die. It happened, surely. Selfish mothers wanted the house to themselves, and their children were discovered years later, frozen like mastodons in blocks of ice.
My sister Gretchen suggested we call our father, but none of us knew his number, and he probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway. He’d gone to work specifically to escape our mother, and between the weather and her mood, it could be hours or even days before he returned home.
“One of us should get hit by a car,” I said. “That would teach the both of them.” I pictured Gretchen, her life hanging by a thread as my parents paced the halls of Rex Hospital, wishing they had been more attentive. It was really the perfect solution. With her out of the way, the rest of us would be more valuable and have a bit more room to spread out. “Gretchen, go lie in the street.”
“Make Amy do it,” she said.
Amy in turn, pushed it off to Tiffany, who was the youngest and had no concept of death. “It’s like sleeping,” we told her, “Only you get a canopy bed.”
…We chose a quiet dip between two hills, a spot where drivers were almost required to swerve out of control. She took her place, this six-year-old in a butter-colored coat, and we gathered on the curb to watch. The first car to happen by belonged to a neighbor, a fellow Yankee who had outfitted his tired with chains and stopped a few feet from our sister’s body. “Is that a person?”
he asked.
“Well, sort of,” Lisa said. She explained that we’d been locked out of the house and though the man appeared to accept it as a reasonable explanation, I’m pretty sure it was him who told on us. Another car passed, and then we saw our mother, this puffy figure awkwardly negotiating the crest of the hill. She did not own a pair of pants, and her legs were buried to the calves in snow. We wanted to send her home, to kick her out of nature just as she had kicked us out of the house, but it was hard to stay angry at someone so pitiful-looking.
“Are you wearing your loafers?” Lisa asked, and in response our mother raised her bare foot. “I was wearing loaders,” she said. “I mean really, it was there a second ago.”
This was how things went. One moment we were locked out of our own house and the next we were rooting around in the snow, looking for her left shoe. “Oh, forget about,” she said, “It’ll turn up in a few days.” Gretchen fitted her cap over my mother’s foot. Lisa secured it with her scarf, and surrounding her tightly on all sides, we made our way back home.
First, Nie posted THIS about how productive she was when she locked her kids outside for a while.
Second, her sister, CJane, posted THIS about locking kids out (the comments, which are hilarious, seem to indicate it's not that unusual).
Then, like the next day, I dug in to my favorite library book from last week, Dress Your Family in corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. One of the first essays in the book is called Let It Snow, and I immediately wanted to read it to Nie & cjane & all our e-friends because it was so appropos.
Fourthly, my adorable li'l sis, Lisa, called from AZ Sunday night to tell me she had (once again) sent a package to my spoiled children (just because they made her a get well card--I'm serious, these kids are going to have HIGH expectations of the mailman in the future considering the rate at which they receive treats in the mail!!!! BTW, we got it Lisa and they went HOG WILD about it--I will have to make a video of how much James loves that puppy you sent--he hugs it up to his neck and says, "Doggie! Doggie!"). Anyway, Lisa happened to mention that she had kicked her sons out of the house for the evening and I laughed so hard. I told her that locking your kids out is The Next Big Thing, and that when the snow stops, I'm gonna give it a try (in the fenced back yard, that is).
So what have I learned from this thread? I have learned that I don't need to feel uptight about letting my kids outside. I don't need to be pretentious about being a "Good Mom," because many, many good moms need kid-free moments. I've learned that if nothing else, it will give my kids good memories to write about.........AND I learned that I need to DEVOUR all of David Sedaris' books (I have only heard him on NPR and Letterman, and heard OF him from his wacky sister, Amy, whom I love, too). I think there is something universally wacky about growing up in a big family that provides endless comic fodder--it's what makes Brian Reagen funny and it's what makes me love Sedaris.
And now, because I love you (and I am working at the hotel on a slow night), I present most of the Let It Snow essay. Read and enjoy.
***
The winter I was in fifth grade we got lucky. Snow fell, and for the first time it accumulated….On the fifth [snow day], my mother had a little breakdown. Our presence had disrupted the secret life she led while we were at school, and when she could no longer take it, she threw us out. It wasn’t a gentle request, but something closer to an eviction. “Get the hell out of my house,” she said.
We reminded her that it was our house, too, and she opened the front door and shoved us into the carport. “And stay out!” she shouted.
My sisters and I went down the hill and sledded with other children from the neighborhood. A few hours later we returned home, surprised to find the door still locked, “Oh, come on,” we said. I rang the bell and when no one answered. We went to the window and saw our mother in the kitchen, watching television. Normally she waited until five o’clock to have a drink, but for the past few days, she’d been making an exception. Drinking didn’t count if you followed a glass of wine with a cup of coffee, and so she had both a goblet and a mug positioned before her on the countertop.
“Hey,” we yelled. “Open the door. It’s us.” We knocked on the pane, and without looking in our direction, she refilled her goblet and left the room….We pounded again and again, and when our mother failed to answer we went around back and threw snowballs at her bedroom window. “You are going to be in so much trouble when dad gets home!” we shouted, and in response my mother pulled the drapes. Dusk approached, and as it grew colder it occurred to us that we could possibly die. It happened, surely. Selfish mothers wanted the house to themselves, and their children were discovered years later, frozen like mastodons in blocks of ice.
My sister Gretchen suggested we call our father, but none of us knew his number, and he probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway. He’d gone to work specifically to escape our mother, and between the weather and her mood, it could be hours or even days before he returned home.
“One of us should get hit by a car,” I said. “That would teach the both of them.” I pictured Gretchen, her life hanging by a thread as my parents paced the halls of Rex Hospital, wishing they had been more attentive. It was really the perfect solution. With her out of the way, the rest of us would be more valuable and have a bit more room to spread out. “Gretchen, go lie in the street.”
“Make Amy do it,” she said.
Amy in turn, pushed it off to Tiffany, who was the youngest and had no concept of death. “It’s like sleeping,” we told her, “Only you get a canopy bed.”
…We chose a quiet dip between two hills, a spot where drivers were almost required to swerve out of control. She took her place, this six-year-old in a butter-colored coat, and we gathered on the curb to watch. The first car to happen by belonged to a neighbor, a fellow Yankee who had outfitted his tired with chains and stopped a few feet from our sister’s body. “Is that a person?”
he asked.
“Well, sort of,” Lisa said. She explained that we’d been locked out of the house and though the man appeared to accept it as a reasonable explanation, I’m pretty sure it was him who told on us. Another car passed, and then we saw our mother, this puffy figure awkwardly negotiating the crest of the hill. She did not own a pair of pants, and her legs were buried to the calves in snow. We wanted to send her home, to kick her out of nature just as she had kicked us out of the house, but it was hard to stay angry at someone so pitiful-looking.
“Are you wearing your loafers?” Lisa asked, and in response our mother raised her bare foot. “I was wearing loaders,” she said. “I mean really, it was there a second ago.”
This was how things went. One moment we were locked out of our own house and the next we were rooting around in the snow, looking for her left shoe. “Oh, forget about,” she said, “It’ll turn up in a few days.” Gretchen fitted her cap over my mother’s foot. Lisa secured it with her scarf, and surrounding her tightly on all sides, we made our way back home.
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!
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!
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 ...
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).
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