I am not a sweaty person. It takes a lot to make me sweat. But I have been sweating all day and it is snowing outside. They just came a little while ago to take pictures and a video tour of my house to put online. I have been running around like crazy ALL day today cleaning. My house, right now, is so so very fabulously clean. I feel really bad for the first person who makes a mess in it. Cause I'm tellin' you right now, it won't be pretty.
Ya know, I have said before, I am very sensitive to smells and most scented things give me a headache so I use unscented everything. Well, while I was cleaning, I came across a hand cream thing someone gave me once. It is cupcake scented. I really needed some lotion at the time so I thought I would give it a try. Who in their right mind decided to make some kind of lotion that smells like cupcakes? Like I can go around all freakin' day long smelling cupcakes and not be out of my mind craving cupcakes all day. ALL DAY! I had to go wash it off.
I finally put pictures on the digital picture frame my parents gave me for Christmas. It is so fun to watch it. My kids love watching it too.
Last week I went to a viewing of a man in my ward who passed away. Addison was with me. As soon as we got to the point in the line where she could see the casket, she started saying, "PAPA! PAPA!" and was trying to get out of my arms to go over there. I think she was a little disappointed when we actually got to the casket and she found out it wasn't her papa. It was very sad. Poor baby.
Here are the pictures I put on my digital frame. You can click on it to enlarge if you are interested in seeing them.
I found this picture when I was cleaning stuff out. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing it. It appears to have been taken in Sam's room. So then my question would be, what's up with the pink bunny?
Soooooooooo. What to say, what to say? Let's see, I could do me some thinkin' about a certain topic very much in the spotlight at the moment. Hmmmmmm. Been there done that. If you need a refresher, click here. I will say this. Hmmmm. Maybe I won't say it. Man. I don't know. People aren't going to like it. You know what, what the hey? It's my blog. AGHGHGHGHG! It's pretty deep and......sigh......(chewin' on the fingernail)..........you can't tell, but I have been sitting here for about 10 minutes trying to decided if I want to say it or not. (more time goes by)(a lot more time goes by, accompanied by a lot of talking to one's self)
Sooooo, moving on to other subjects.
I want to talk about the American voting system. I don't like it. I think it is unfair. I think it is unfair that one persons vote is not equal to another persons, just because they live in differing states. I live in a republican state. Which, sure, that's great, I'm a republican and I know that the person I am voting for is going to get the electoral vote for my state. With the last election I tried to make it ok in my mind by saying that I was glad that the republican nominee was able to focus his time and attention and monies on other states, because he knew he had my state in his pocket. I'm not feelin' that way right now. I want someone to feel like they have to campaign heavy and try and win my vote.
I don't think it's fair that voting rules differ from state to state either. Why can't everyone just have all the same rules? That just makes sense to me. And I think everyone should have to use the same kind of equipment to vote with. Please. What century do we live in? Would it really be that hard to get some decent voting machines distributed? (I know, tell Al to divert a little of his Global Warming profit to a "Voting Ballot Equality" cause)(I crack myself up).
And this whole Primary/Caucus thing. I don't like it either.
Let's take the Republican primaries for instance. Some states, the winner gets all the delegates. In some states, they divide them. That's not fair. That means people in one state, their vote counts more than people living in another state.
I don't even understand the entire voting process. Like really, really understand it. I try to. But there are so many.....things....I don't even know what to call them. Stuff. Why does it have to be so complicated? Am I the only one who is confused by the whole thing?
Don't even get me started on the whole superdelegate thing with the Democratic party. What the freak is that about? I have tried. Believe me. So far this is what I get out of it:
1. It doesn't matter how everyday democrats walkin' around on the street like normal people voted, because the superdelegates get to decide the democratic nominee in the end.
2. The superdelegates can vote however they want, they don't have to be the voice of the people.
3. The superdelegates can be bought.
4. If the democratic nominees are trying to "buy" votes from the superdelegates, and they make promises to these people about things they will do if elected to office, well, then, ummmm, I think that would mean that the President of the United States of America would be putting interests of these individuals above the interests of the average American citizen, and who knows what those interests are.
5. I think I heard that something like 1/2 of the superdelegates, I can't remember the exact number, are elected officials. Well, last time I checked this is what the United States Constitution said about that:
" ...but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
Huuump. Interesting. It all seems a little UN-Democratic to me.
Anyway. It's late. I'm tired. I really have other things I should be doing. And I am FREEZING right now. Did I tell you it snowed here today? Yeah, you heard me. I woke up to SNOW this morning. I'm goin' to get in my nice warm bed now.
So it's late but I just finished watching American Idol, and I HAD to come post. I had to. This is the best performance I have seen on American Idol. Ever. And believe it or not, it's a Michael Jackson song. If you didn't see it, you must watch. You know what, if you did see it, watch it again. And again.
So the title for Emily's Birthday Post is Eight Is Enough. I was shocked when my sister said, "Isn't that from some show you used to watch?" What? There are people out there in the world today who don't know what Eight Is Enough is? You're kidding me. It's only one of the best shows ever. Hello. Just hearing the theme song makes me teary eyed. See, hear for yourself:
Every Saturday Night before Easter we color eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide. Well this Saturday before Easter was unlike any other Saturday before Easter we have ever experienced. Steve spent all day working on our new house and my mom and I spent all day cleaning the house we are in. When we were all finished for the day, not only were we too tired to make dinner, but there was no way in heck we were making any kind of mess in the kitchen. So we all went out to eat. I was so tired and all the kids needed haircuts and a bath before bed. Coloring eggs in my clean kitchen was the last thing I wanted to do. I was hoping the kids would forget. We were leaving the restaurant and they started asking if we were going to go home and color eggs. I told them we wouldn't be able to do that this year. They freaked out. Then sweet little Aubrey looked at me with the saddest face that was about to break into tears and said, "But mommy, it won't be Easter unless we color eggs." Needless to say, we colored eggs. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I was glad we did it. On Easter, after church, we went to my mom's house for dinner.
Just in case you didn't see how dang cute my kids are:
Last Thursday Emily turned eight years old. We had a party with her friends. We took them to go see the movie "College Road Trip". That night we went with my mom to eat dinner at a Brazilianrestaurant. The next night Emily was able to go to a Blaze game with her dad. Her favorite part of the game? Yelling offensive remarks at the opposing team.
My dear sweet mother is an angel. She spent ALL day Saturday helping me clean my house from top to bottom. I think we underestimated the project. Several hours into it we both had a hard time going on. We did get the whole main floor done and I have never seen my house so sparkly before. I just finished my bedroom this morning because it is on the second level and we just ran out of time on Saturday. I still have the basement to do. I ran out of time to clean out my office and Steve's office which are in the basement. They are major, majorly messy. It is very depressing and that is why they haven't been done yet. My house is supposed to be up for sale today. We'll see how that goes.
My most favorite new cleaning tool is Steve's shop vac. I will never clean without it again. When Zac and I were cleaning out and packing up his room, I used it to suck all the stuff out from under his bed and behind his dresser and shelf. It's like the best thing ever.
I am going to go out and buy my first mop today. WOO HOO! My mom talked me into it. You see, I have this mop phobia. I think they are nasty and disgusting. I can't bear to get it wet and then have to ring it out, or try and wash it when I am finished using it. I just hate to touch a mop. Period. So I have always used old towels because they are clean when I get them wet, I throw it on the floor, do the little mop-shimmy dance, throw it in the washing machine, voila! It's clean again. It is a lot of work doing the shimmy though, I have no carpet except in the 2 offices downstairs, so I have a lot of shimmying to do. I have been able to get over most of my phobias though, so I am giving this one a shot.
I gave away all my fat clothes and suddenly I have found myself, well, fat again. Oops.
As soon as I finish typing this I have to start cleaning my office. So.....anything else you want to know about? Really. I don't mind. I'll just sit here all day typing if you want me to. I have half a mind to just get a big trash bag and start filling it up. I don't care about anything anymore. I just want it done and over with. I am SICK of cleaning.
Oh, I know what will take some time. Maybe by the time I am done with this Addy will be awake and we can eat lunch. I have a new favorite Idol. It is:
(I couldn't find a video without the intro so skip to 1 minute15 seconds to see the performance)
On the subject of American Idol, I am so glad that:
finally went home. I liked her at first, she kind of reminds me of Janice Joplin who sings my most favorite song ever, but I got really tired of her voice after a while.
And I was also so glad that:
was in the bottom 3. I couldn't stand all the hype she got at the beginning, and I didn't think she was that much better than some of the other contestants.
Sigh. Yes. I married this man. I found this picture in my storage room the other day when I was going through things. I put it on his desk with a post it note that said "my next flashback Friday". He didn't say anything so I figure it is ok to share him with the world. Or at least with those of you who read my blog. This picture was taken when he was on his mission and he just so happens to be standing in the same spot where Aubrey's bed is now. (Our house was his first missionary apartment)(the room has changed a bit). I also found the below Top Gun-ish picture too. Mmmmmm Mmmmmm baby! I'd take him over Tom Cruise any day (and this one doesn't have to wear lifts in his shoes).
Man. Is it already Thursday again? This week just kind of disappeared. We decided to put our house up for sale next Monday so I have been crazy this week trying to get stuff packed up and cleaned out and ready to go. I am starting to freak out a little because there is still so much to be done. I have to get it all cleaned out and packed up by tomorrow night because Saturday morning my mom is coming to help me scrub the place clean. Fun times.
This is going to have to be a quick think because I have a lot going on and I have a birthday party right in the middle of it in just a few hours. (Happy 8th B-day to my Princess Emily!)
On Sunday night, as we were discussing the attire for the following day, Emily told me that it didn't matter if she wore green or not because her teacher said that she was going to give everyone that wasn't wearing green a green sticker to wear because there would be no pinching in her class. Now don't get me wrong. I love Emily's teacher. I wish I had her patience and grace. But really, who gave her permission to suck all the fun out of St. Patrick's day? This is also the class where you cannot bring an invitation to a birthday party for anyone in the class if you don't have an invitation to pass out to everyone. I can understand her desire to keep order in her class room and make sure no one feel left out. But this whole "no pinching" on the day-of-all-pinching got me ta thinkin'.
Every thing you do now a days with kids has to be equal. You have a contest, everyone has to be a winner of some sort. You have a sporting event, EVERYBODY gets a trophy, both sides, because there are no winner or losers. Is that really fair? What about the kids who work really hard and do their very best and put forth a great amount of effort to succeed. Is it fair to reward the kid who did really nothing at all in the same way as you reward this other kid who really tried hard?
I mean I know that there are kids out there who have it hard. Life is just unfair for them from the beginning. I just finished reading a book that is a true story of a woman who grew up in extreme poverty with slightly crazy parents. She and her brother and sisters basically had to fend for themselves from the time they were born. They scrounged in trash cans for food to eat. They have grown up now to be very successful adults. The woman who wrote the book is now a journalist who works for MSNBC. I wonder if she and her brother and sisters, if they were born in a different set of circumstances, would they be the same successful people they are today? If they grew up in middle class suburbia where they really didn't have to work hard to achieve, if they were just handed a trophy because they showed up, would they have learned to apply themselves and really work hard?
Is that the problem with kids these days? They just expect to be patted on the back and have someone say great job, and hand them their reward when they really did nothing to earn it? I don't know. It could be part of it.
Some people say competition is unfair because if there is a winner, they are a winner because everyone else is a loser. And no one wants to be a loser. But, competition is a way of life. These kids are going to grow up and enter a world where they will have to compete in order to get good grades in college and get a good job and keep a good job. You hear about "healthy competition". Is competition healthy?
I really don't know what the answer is. I think there has to be some kind of balance somewhere. I just am not sure what that balance is.
I don't know if this made any sense. I really didn't have a clear thought on what I was going to say when I sat down to type it. It just kind of came out. I really have to go now, but I just wanted to give you something to think about today.
I actually really like this song. I know! I am a 34 year old woman listening to Hannah Montana. But it has a really wicked chorus. (laughing) I just said wicked. In front of people.
Am I the only person who can't make the water come on in the sinks in public restrooms with automatic sensors?
The other day I was saying something to Addy and she looked at me and I swear she rolled her eyes. Steve was right there and I said, "She just rolled her eyes at me." Then Steve said, "Honey, everyone in this house rolls their eyes at you." WHATEVER!
I was talking to Steve after I told the #$!%* guy who was working on our house not to come back. I had been arguing with him about how much we owed him, since he really did jack and charged me a ridiculous amount for it. After arguing with him for about 10 minutes I finally caved and paid him. So I am sitting at the table in my kitchen eating lunch and telling this story to Steve, I said "I'm just not a mean person." I hung up after a few minutes and my sister Lauren who was at my house and was sitting across the table from me, she was just staring at me. I said, "What?" And she said, "You ARE a mean person!" Well, I love you too Lauren.
I am cleaning out my storage room and let me just tell ya. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I have boxes and boxes of Christmas lights. I don't mean boxes and boxes like a box with a single strand in it. I mean a BOX full of lights. Like I probably have 5 boxes with 10-20 strands of lights each. I have know idea where they all came from.
I have learned a trick with Addy. If I want her to move away from me, all I have to do is ask, "What's in your mouth Addy?" She takes off speed crawling in the other direction. Thankfully she is finally starting to walk. Just not a whole lot.
Zac followed me around the house for about 10 minutes with a hanger stuck up his nose. He kept begging me to take a picture of him and put it on my blog. Finally, in an attempt to get him to stop harassing me and to try and avoid a trip to the ER for some type of nasal trauma, I took a picture. I said, Zac, do you really want me to put this on my blog because you look like a dufus. He started laughing and said, yeah, it will be funny.
Sometime during the week before my dad died, he called me to to tell me he wanted to take Emily and Aubrey to see Disney's Princesses On Ice and ask what day would be best to take them. I told him. On the day he passed away, when we were at my parents visiting, he told me that he had bought the tickets that day. I kinda forgot that he told me that on that day. When I opened up the ticket order online the other night to print out the tickets, it was a little shocking to see the purchase date as the date of his death. Back when he told us he ordered them, and he and my sister Lauren were going to take the girls, my mom said, don't you hope he doesn't change his mind and you have to end up taking them? Sigh.....dad, I guess you got out of it after all. We went last Thursday night. It was a little sad for me to be there with the girls and see their excited faces. My dad would have loved to see their reactions.
I have to tell you the story behind this last picture. We had just brought Emily home from the hospital. She is my parents second grandchild and the first granddaughter. We never find out what we are having before they pop out. We like to be surprised. So I had no girl stuff. I knew this would be no problem in the clothing department if she came out a girl. If you have ever met my father, you know why. He likes, liked, to shop. (deep breath in, let it out, no tears) All the sudden this story is harder to tell than I thought it would be. Anyway, I had the crib stuff from when Zac was a baby all set up. It was Noah's Ark, so I figured it was animals, it was pretty generic. Well, we get home from the hospital and take our sweet little Emily and put her in her bed. My dad kept going in and looking at her. Then he would come out and pace around. Then he'd go back in and look, come back out and pace. I could tell there was something bothering him. I asked, "Dad, what's wrong." He said, "Is there a Linen's N Things or a Bed, Bath and Beyond around here?". I said, "Yeah, there is one just down the street. Why?". He said, "I just can't stand it. I can't stand looking at her in that bed with all those dark colors. She needs to be in a pink bed." So he immediately left and came back with more appropriate decor for her bed.
Sorry. Once again it is Friday, but I am going to pretend it is Thursday. I had a hard time yesterday. At the beginning of the week, I knew exactly what topic I was going to discuss in my Thinkin' Thursday. But as the week has gone on, there is something that just has me all riled up and I couldn't decided if I wanted to discuss it or not. I was not going to be political this week. I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about my Thinkin' Thursday. It's not just about politics. I went back and forth with myself all day yesterday and finally decided what statement I would like to make. Unfortunately by the time I had it all figured out, it was time for me to go see a bunch of Princesses skate around on ice. So here I am now. I have decided to cover the topic in a way that is not political. Deep breath. This song has been going through my head all week: (hee, hee, hee. I just looked up the song on youtube and found the most perfect video with it)
A certain governor from the state of New York seems to have gotten himself into a little trouble lately. Now I said I wasn't going to be political. Because if I were going to bring politics into it, I would say things like it is interesting that in reporting this "tragedy" the New York times failed to mention until you got all the way down to the 15th paragraph that he is a democrat. Then I would remind you that when a certain senator from Idaho got himself into trouble of the same type, the media was very eager to report the fact that he was a republican. Or I would tell you that when USA today reported the story they never once, not even in captions, mentioned that he was a democrat but, even though the story was about HIM and his problem, they did mention Larry Craig and David Vitter and said that they were republicans. Or, I would say something like I am sick and tired of hearing about what a "Political Tragedy" this was because he had such a promising political career ahead of him, from all of the democratic commentators. Those same commentators who, when a republican holding office commits the same type of crime call for immediate resignation. Or I would quote the liberal political commentator Alan Dershowitz when he said, "I feel that this is an America-only story that we have to put into perspective. You know, big deal! Married man goes to prostitute. In Europe, this wouldn't even make the back pages of the newspaper. It's a uniquely American story. We're uniquely, you know, pandering society and hypocritical society when it comes to sex." Well excuse me Mr. Dershowitz, but we don't live in Europe. We live in the United States of America. And we have laws and rules that govern our society and those laws and rules are what set up apart from other countries.
This is what I am upset about. Our society has certain "defining roles" that we put on men and women. And I am sick and tired of it. Men are characterized as being pigs, out for only one thing. And women are characterized as being mere objects, with only one purpose. Here I am going to quote Mr. Dershowitz once again, "...because men don't use their brains when it comes to something like this. They think with a different part of their body and that part of the body, the -- the level of brains there are no relationship to the level of brains in the skull, unfortunately, and when people think with that organ of the body they make these kinds of really, really terrible mistakes." What??? You know what, that is the most stupid thing I have ever heard. I happen to be married to a very good man. A man of valor and integrity. And never once has he done anything to make me question his character or morals. And I happen to know plenty of other good men too. Is it fair for our society to label men in this way. I think it is very demeaning.
Just as demeaning as it is to women to label them in the way society does. Look around. It doesn't take long for you to see exactly how our society depicts women. And this whole thing with Spitzer just enforces it.
And what is up with his wife? And not just his wife, but other wives of politicians who have stood in front of the world with their husbands while they spit in their faces and trampled all over them and humiliated them in the worst possible way. What kind of message does that send to women and young girls? "Men are pigs, honey. That's just the way it is. And it is your duty as the woman to love him in spite of it. You love and support him, bear and raise his children, and then let him find some 20 something little toy and let him use her too, because she has her own special set of problems, and then then you stand right there beside him and smile and act like it aint no big thang."
This is the problem with our society. The more we see this, the more normal it becomes. We are lead to believe that this is normal and this is the way life works. But it's not. IT'S NOT!
I belong to The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In 1995, 13 years ago, the First Presidency of my church put out a statement entitled "The Family: A Proclamation To The World". You can click on the title to read it in it's entirety. I find it very interesting that the Proclamation came out when it did. Things have changed drastically in our world in the 13 years since it was issued and I believe it was divinely inspired for our day and time. The last two paragraphs in the proclamation read:
"We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society. "
I think that says it all. I don't want to get political now, but.....well, just think about it.
This morning, at the kids school, the PTA had their annual Books and Bagels. All this week, since they brought home the flyer for it, I have been having horrible flashbacks. Click here to find out why. Whew! Glad that's over.
For Aubrey's birthday, my sister Lauren told her that she would take her shopping and let her pick out 3 CD's that she wanted. I took them to go pick them out yesterday. One of the Cd's she picked out was a Barbie Party Mix. It was all pink and sparkly. I looked on the back to see what the songs were on it and I didn't recognize any. In fact the titles didn't even make sense to me. I figured they were just some made up Barbie songs. Boy was I wrong. Who knew Barbie did Ghetto? And it is Aubrey's favorite of all the Cd's she picked out. We have been listening to it constantly since she got it. I would much rather listen to Hannah Montana or The Barbie Fairytopia Soundtrack CD she got. There is one redeeming song on the CD and I am trying to convince her it is the best song on there, that way I can play it at least 2 times before we move on to the other songs. Thankfully that song is now stuck in my head because "Tainted Love" can only be in there for so long before it makes me a little wacko. I love this song because I love 1985.......I can even tell you all the video's they are recreating on this video, back when there was music still on MTV.
Current song stuck in my head: (WARNING: If you actually watch the video with the guy dancing, it might ruin the song for you. Just listen to it. Unless you need a good laugh, then you can watch it.)
The other day Addy, Aubrey and I were in the car and Hey Jude came on the radio. Aubrey and I were singing the "Naaaaa, naa naa, na na na na, na na na na" part and Addy started doing it with us. It was just the cutest thing ever.
Now that Addison is in a forward facing car seat, she thinks that we always have to watch a movie when we are in the van and that she has to have headphones every time we are in the van. And if I don't give her headphones and turn on a movie she pitches a major fit.
I just got to pay my Home Owners Association Fees for the new neighborhood we are building in. WOO HOO!! I don't even reside in a house there yet and I already get to give them my money.
Do you ever have contractors or repairmen come to your house to do work and then leave a mess behind? I had 2 guys in my house Friday working on stuff and one guy to repair my dryer and they all left a mess behind. It was really irritating to me. It always seems to happen whenever I have anyone in to do something. I know my house is a mess, and you probably think I won't notice one more thing, but honey, letmetellyousomething, I am very aware of all the messes in my house and I DO notice.
I am having a hard time not bustin' out with a Thinkin' Thursday right now because I have a big list of topics to cover. I am having a hard time choosing on for this week. I know you will be on the edge of your seat all week waiting for it.
I better go get something accomplished today. Happy Monday! Have a great week.
My sister Kristy just did a post this week on lip gloss and her facination with it. This is an obsession that goes way back. I have the pictures to prove it. I will say this though, the quality of the stuff she puts on her lips has greatly increased. This is he her cup 'O chapstick she used to keep by her bed. There were other pictures of her room with these and I thought some of you might enjoy seeing them.
(OK. So it's not Thursday anymore. I am pretending like it is for the next few minutes. I started this post yesterday and then ran out of time to finish it. )
Drum roll please! From the blog that brought you MONDAY MORNING MUSINGS and FLASHBACK FRIDAY, a new weekly post has been born. THINKIN' THURSDAY.
What is Thinkin' Thursday, you ask? It is chance for me to throw my opinion out there. It is a chance to me to make you say, hmmmm. (things that make you go hmmmm, things that make you go hmmm, hmmm, hmmm)
OK, anyway. My opinions. Because it is my blog. You probably won't all agree with my opinions, and that is fine. I just feel like throwing some thoughts out there because I feel like I need to. If you want to comment that is fine, if not, that's fine too. I just want to make you think.
I have decided to dedicate my first Thinkin' Thursday to the topic of......Global Warming and the recent Global Warming Conference that was held in New York City. WHAT? You didn't hear about that conference? Why not? Oh, because it was a conference of scientists who don't believe in Global Warming. (and we are supposed to believe the media isn't biased) I find the following video very interesting. Willie Soon with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics states that the data for the earth's climate changes over the last 100 years do not follow the same patterns for the c02 emission data like you have been hearing. He says that between 1910-1950 the Arctic was warming by about 2 degrees. During this warming period there were relatively no c02 emissions. In the 1970's the Arctic started a cooling trend, at the same time there was a huge rise in co2 emissions. Bob Carter from James Cook University says that Antarctica used to be warmer, but is cooling now and sea ice this year is at an all time historic high. Sea ice in the North Pole was decreasing but it is starting to turn around. Both scientists agree that our planet Earth is constantly getting warmer or colder. Here, you can watch the video for yourself:
So why all the Global Warming hype? Because it is the hip, in thing right now? Because someone is making a booty load of money? I don't know. I do recall an Oprah with Al Gore where he said people who don't want to cut back on their co2 emissions can send money to make up for the co2 emissions they put out. Hmmmm......that makes sense? I did go on his website and found ample opportunities to donate.
Click here to read an interview Glen Beck did with Anthony Watts, a meteorologist who started out looking at a temperature recording station (where we get all our data about the rising temperatures) to see if the type of paint they used made a difference in the temperature readings. He happened to notice that the recording station was six inches away from a heat source. He thought that was strange that someone would put it there. He went to another recording station near a fire station and noticed that the fire chief parked his car with the radiator end about 2 feet from the sensor on the temperature recording station which also happens to be right next to a cell phone building which had an air conditioner blowing exhaust on the recording station. He started looking at stations all around the country and found out that the majority of them are not in compliance with regulations. He found some on asphalt parking lots, on rooftops, near other heat sources. Hmmmm.....click here for more pictures.
So to celebrate this wonderful news I went around my house and turned on all the lights and plugged in all my appliances. Then I started my car and just let it sit in the driveway. Just for fun. Really, I didn't. I think that this earth is a gift to us and we do need to take care of it. I think that we have a problem with overdoing it in our country and it is good for us to cut down on the unnecessary things that bog our lives. But I don't think we need to have wide spread panic about something that, well, doesn't need to be panicked about. I don't think hard working Americans need to be swindled out of their money.
Besides, what makes Al Gore an expert on the environment. Well, I guess if you are smart enough to invent the Internet......
I had totally forgot that I had ordered them. We were in the kitchen and we had just finished eating dinner. We were cleaning off the table. A truck pulled up outside. I asked Steve who it was. He told me and the kids immediately shouted, "It's our Girl Scout cookies!!!" OH YEAH!!! I forgot about those. I was so excited. Now we had dessert. It was all I could do to pay the girl and then rip the grocery bag open to get my cookies. Before I even pulled the first box out of the bag I could tell something was wrong. The box was smaller than normal. I opened one side of the flap and could tell something was wrong. There weren't very many cookies in there. Then I pulled out the cellophane tube of all that is good in the world chocolate minty put a smile on your face delectably thin happiness. I held them in my hand and looked at them with a disgusted/confused look on my face.
This is how I eat Thin Mints. Frozen. Pop one whole cookie in my mouth. Enjoy. First of all, if you haven't had them frozen, you are missing out. Try it and you will never eat another room temperature Thin Mint again. Second of all, they were the perfect popping size. Well NOT ANY MORE! What the HECK?@#! You don't mess with perfection people. Ya just don't.
I want my money back. Girl Scouts of America my booty.
My sweet little Aubrey turned 5 on Monday. We had a party with her friends on Friday. They came to our house for cake and ice cream and presents. Then I did the craziest thing I have ever done and took them all swimming. It was fun. On Monday we had a family birthday dinner and party for her. I can't believe she will be starting kindergarten in September!
The past 2 Saturdays Steve, Zac, and some very WONDERFUL friends have been working on our roof. The girls and I took them lunch last Saturday. Here are some pictures.
Ash, Max, Aron, Zac & SteveZac who at one point almost fell off the roof while showing off for his sisters Our view off our back deck
It's that time of year again. Arena football. Saturday was the opening night for the Blaze. Aubrey got to go with her daddy on a special date. She was so excited and she had so much fun. I got to hear all about it. She enjoyed watching the cheerleaders but informed me that they were dressed immodestly. She also told me about how boys have to use little potties and stand up to go to the bathroom. I am glad it was so educational for her.
We walked home from school the other day and when we got to the house, Steve's friend's tuck was parked in our driveway. Zac said, "Did dad get a new truck?" (That is a very reasonable question at our house) Then as we got closer he said, "No. Dad would never buy a Ford." I thought it was funny.
I don't know what to do about my 365 Thanks blog. I started it at the beginning of the year and then my dad passed away and I haven't done it since. I don't know if I should try and go back and fill in the missing days or just start from today. (Or just scrap the whole thing) I don't want to do that because I don't want to be abandoning my New Year resolution but (whispered in confidentiality) keeping up with two blogs is a pain in my bahooty.
Steve and I went on a real live gen-U-ine date on Friday. It was a very busy day so when we decided to go I had about 10 minutes to figure out what we were doing while he went and took care of some work stuff. I got online to look up movie times. I found that that was a problem. You see having a DVR means that I don't ever watch live TV. Ever. If there is something on that I am going to watch at the actual time it is on, I will do something else for 15 minutes, then watch it so I can fast forward through commercials. I was looking at the movie times and being that I haven't seen any movie commercials, I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. So I had to look up each individual movie to see what it was about. I got to the one, I can't even remember what it is called now, with Jack in it (good casting of him in that role though). I had remembered seeing a commercial for that movie when Steve was watching something and I remembered it looked like something I wanted to see. Vantage Point. I think that is what it is called. Anyway, I thought it was about time travel, isn't there a time travel movie out there? So I'm watching the movie and I kept waiting for the guy to time travel. I was really confused. I was a good movie though in spite of the lack of time traveling. I did feel for a few minutes like I was watching Groundhog Day, but Steve reminded me that there are no bombs in Groundhog Day.
Steve thinks I need to inform everyone that we are not doing the kitchen I posted in my last MMM. We had to decide really quick what we were going to do on Friday (one small reason why that day was so crazy) because Steve and his friend Scott are doing a booth in the Home Show this week and Scott needed an idea for a counter top to put in the booth. Steve suggested that he make our island for our kitchen and use it in the booth. So we went and picked out the island cabinets for our kitchen. We decided that as much as we liked the red, we didn't want to commit to a red kitchen/family room for the next gazillion years. We saw this kitchen at IKEA before and fell in love with it. We decided to do this one:
Last night Zac was telling me that the night before he had a really bad nightmare. He said that someone had built a machine that shows you what your spirit looks like. He got into it and it showed that he didn't have a spirit, he was an alien. So I told him, "Zac, your father and I weren't planning on telling you this yet, but......One night we were sitting out in the back yard and this big meteor came crashing down in the corner of the back yard (I even pointed for emphasis). We ran over to see what it was. When we got there we could see that the meteor had cracked open and inside it was this little tiny cute alien creature that was the size of my hand. We picked it up, named it Zac and have loved you ever since." The child is 10 freakin' years old. I didn't think he would actually BELIEVE me. The problem with him is he watches the History channel and the Discovery channel and they always have shows on there about aliens. I have banned him from watching shows about aliens but apparently they have already done their damage. And now I've done mine....
I don't want to say this about my most fav-O-rite show, but American Idol is really boring/irritating me at the moment. I know it is because I don't know the contestants that well yet, but come on. They are doing horribly. And last week they had to do songs from the 70's and the week before songs from the 60's. I don't know if it is because they are so young that they have just never heard a song from the 60's or 70's before, or what. Those are the best 2 decades for music. Ever. All the best songs came out of those years and they are picking some horribly boring stupid songs from that time. They need to let me start pickin' their songs, or sumpthin'. There is one exception, my favorite contestant singing one of my favorite songs:
Sorry I'm a day late with my Flashback Friday. Yesterday was a little busy. Last week I tried to scan a bunch of pictures from a party we had at our house when we were growing up. My scanner gave out 1/2 way through. I have finally scanned the rest of the pictures. Here they are:
My friend Diana did a post the other day about a time that she and my sister went to the airport and acted crazy. It reminded me of some of the fun I have had at airports. Here are some pictures of me and a group of my friends at the airport one night. We went around taking goofy pictures. There was another time we went to the airport (I don't have pictures of this instance) and kept causing scenes. One time we were on the escalators and this guy and I pretended like we were married and we were screaming and yelling at each other. We went around the airport all night doing things like that. It is so sad that all the fun has been taken out of the airport. Sigh....my children will never know the joy of hanging out at the airport all night.....or making prank phone calls (darn caller ID).....it's a sad, sad world we live in now.
