How I Spent My Lovely, Lovely Weekend

Yeah, so, we had a nice weekend.  There was a lot of puking involved.  That's always lovely.  And it involved pretty much everyone.  Also- always lovely.  Steve was lucky because he had to work day and night all weekend long.  Well, lucky that is until he got sick and still had to work. 

The kids and I were so sick  this is what we did.  Laid on the couch and watched TV.   For two days straight.  We didn't have any strength to do anything else.  

We started off with several episodes of Extreme Doomsday Bunkers.  Then that ended.  Zac and I have already watched all the Walking Deads they have on Netflix.  So we started over.  And watched the first few again.  Until the girls came downstairs and wouldn't leave so we had to turn on something else.  We couldn't find anything else we wanted to watch so we looked under "What's Popular on Netflix".  And right there was Cake Boss.  We had never watched it.  So we watched like five thousand episodes.  It's not our fault.  Netflix just kept playing one right after the other.  We didn't have to put forth any effort what so ever.

Can I just say.  Probably not the most appropriate thing to be watching in our condition.  First, it made us wanna puke again.  Then it made us realize how incredibly hungry we all were.  Being that we hadn't eaten anything all day.

By 7ish Saturday night we finally decided that we really needed some type of nourishment.  But none of us felt like getting up and making anything.  Soup was the only easy thing we could make but just the thought of eating soup again made us all wanna gag (what we really wanted was cake)(from New Jersey).  I called Steve to see when he would be home from work because I thought maybe he could bring us something.  He was in Logan and wouldn't be home for many more hours.  I seriously considered calling my neighbors and asking them to bring their dinner leftovers to our house.  We laid on the couch for another 2 or 3 Cake Bosses.  Then it was like we were either gonna die or we were gonna have to eat.  Something.  Anything.  

The only thing I could think of that someone would bring to us was pizza.  But the thought of pizza on my weary stomach was not pleasant. But then I was like, well, none of us can get up and physically make anything.  And the pizza dude is the only person who will bring us something.  So I mentioned the idea of pizza to the kids.  To which they all replied with a collective groan.  So we watched another 2 or 3 Cake Bosses and then by that time it was like they didn't care how disgusting  pizza sounded.  They were like bring it on.  Bring.  It.  On.

Oh that blessed blessed pizza super dude.  He has no idea what he meant to us that night.  I love you pizza dude.  You saved us!  I just hope we didn't make you sick.  I was trying to hurry and take the pizza from you so you could turn and leave and not have to inhale too many of our germs.  But you just wanted to talk about the snow and Christmas...and all that good stuff.

Thankfully I think we are pretty much all well and good now.  I've had a few stragglers that felt like they earned a day off of school after a weekend like that.   But for the most part we have all recovered from our days on the couch. 

Everyone except for Addy.  We have scarred her with an overabundance of a Jersey accent.  She walks around now saying, "I'm the boughss".  (Translation: I'm the boss said in a New Jersey accent)

Monday Morning Musings - Always Knock On Windsday

Can I just say: My life is crazy busy right now! I am always on the go. I am glad to be busy and I love all that keeps me busy, but wow. Busy. I have so much to blog about and no time to do it. I thought I'd try and get a post out tonight before I go to bed (even though I'd rather be in bed right now watching The Big Bang Theory) because I know there is no way any kind of post is gonna be happin' tomorrow.

So...American Idol. It's back on and we are so excited in these here parts. Well, most of us are anyway. We were watching it and Steven Tyler was walking out to his car and he had all these people following behind him and one of them was carrying all his stuff. I said, "Man. I wish I had someone to walk around behind me all the time carrying my stuff." Emily said, "That's what dad's for!"

Two weekends ago (has it really been that long-the time goes by so fast) we had a Lord of the Rings weekend and we watched all three of the movies. Zac and Em had never seen them before. I'm tellin' you right now, I am so proud of myself. I stayed awake (mostly) for all three movies. I can't even stay awake to make it to the end of a thirty minute TV show. I regularly fall asleep in movie theaters. Well as regularly as we go to them, which isn't very regular.

We watched the first one on Friday night and I had to stand up and do some calisthenics to keep myself awake. We watched the second on Saturday during the day and then the third Saturday night. Again. Standing. Calisthenics. During the second movie Emily kept saying, "WHAT!?! They are STILL in those trees!?!" I did learn a great trick for staying awake through the third one . I got out my big exercise ball and sat on that. It's hard to fall asleep on one of those. When I started to try I would just start bouncing. I did start to doze a bit toward the end. Ball or no ball, a person can only stay awake in a darkened room that late at night for so long. That's when I remembered that it is the movie of 15 endings. It is so dang long and you think OK- it's ending- I can stay awake for a few more minutes. Then there is another ending. And another. And another. And SURPRISE! Another!

On Thursday Addy and I were driving in the car and she asked, "Is it windy on Wednesday?" I said, "No, it wasn't windy yesterday." She said, "NO! Is it WINDY on WEDNESDAY?" After a few more tries of trying to decipher what she was asking me she said, "Is it WINDY on WINDSDAY? Is that the day the winds come?" I had to explain to her that it wasn't Windsday. It was Wednesday. And no. That day is not reserved for winds.

Yeah. So our doorbell is broken. Again. Why can they not make things to last now-a-days? (I sound like an old person asking that, don't I? Well guess what? I'm old.) We built this house three years ago and we have already had to replace the doorbell once. Well the new one decided to stop working. We now have a sign on the door informing people to knock if they want to be heard. But we didn't always have that sign. Which means that sometimes people stood on our front porch for a while after ringing the doorbell, waiting for someone to answer. FYI: You can hear everything that goes on inside my echoey house from the front porch.

So it was a Wednesday night (not Windsday). I had this feeling that my Bishopric was going to show up at my house that night to give me a new calling. In fact, about 15 minutes before they came I thought, "I really should clean up the living room a little before they come." But I was in the middle of helping with homework and cleaning up from dinner and trying to get kids ready for bed, so I promptly forgot that thought. Had I remembered it I might not have done what I did next. Which was yell. I had very kindly and softly asked my three beautiful daughters to clean their homework stuff up from the kitchen and go get ready for bed about 10 times. When I got to request #11, some of the kindness and softness had left me and I might have yelled something about getting their stuff cleaned up right now and to go get ready for bed. Then I walked past the front door and could see someone in a suit standing by the window next to the door. Then I remembered. I was expecting the Bishopric to show up at my house. Oh that was fun to open that door and see the three of them standing there. They promised me that they heard no yelling. I won't call them liars out of respect, however....

So the story doesn't end there. Oh, how I wish it did. But I doesn't. About two weeks after that, it was a Wednesday night again. And no, it was not windy. The girls and I were sitting on the couch which is about 5 feet away from the front door. The front door that still didn't have a knock sign upon it. Steve and Zac were at the church for scouts. The girls and I had just finished reading scriptures and saying family prayer. Again, I asked very kindly 10 times for them to go get in bed. Again, the kindness left me by request #11. So I yelled again for them to go get in bed. Then I walked into the other room where I could see that there was a car in my driveway with it's headlights on. I went to open the door and SURPRISE! It was once again a member of our Bishopric there to sign Zac up for Seminary next year. He once again promised that he heard no yelling. Yeah, right.

Seriously. How embarrassing. So that very night, a "Knock if you want to be heard" sign went up on our front door. And if you come to my house and want to get and earful, just stand on the front porch for a few minutes before you knock.

Monday Morning Musings - It's A New Dawn, It's A New Day, It's A New Life For Me

Where's Addy?

I LOVE a new year. It's the best feeling. A whole brand spankin' new clean slate to do with whatever I want. Yesterday we set goals. We set several family goals and made a plan to carry them out. We also set individual goals and made plans for those. Each first Sunday of the month we are going to evaluate how we did the previous month and make a new plan for the new month. I found this quote yesterday and put it on the front of our goal journals:

"I urge you to examine your life. Determine where you are and what you need to do to be the kind of person you want to be. Create inspiring, noble, and righteous goals that fire your imagination and create excitement in your heart. And then keep your eye on them. Work consistently towards achieving them." -Joseph B. Wirthlin

This is the kids last day of Christmas break from school. Real life starts again tomorrow. It will be nice, but I am glad to have this one last bonus day to just kick around the house and hang out together and have fun.

We took down our Christmas trees and our decorations today. I think I enjoy taking them down as much as I enjoy putting them up. It is so fun to decorate and anticipate the holidays and it is also so fun to clean it all up and give the house that fresh clean slate feeling that comes with a new year.

So Steve made a big change in his life last week. He traded in this:

For this:

It was a good change that was a long time comin'. He just had to talk himself into it. His old monstrous beast was a gas chugging diesel. And for the last year or more, diesel has been a full dollar a more a gallon than regular gas. And Steve drives a lot. He fills his tank up an average of every other day. So with the savings he will get with better mileage, regular gas prices, and a smaller truck payment, we are thinking we will save enough each month to almost pay one of his employees pay checks for the month. Not to mention that his oil changes will now be 1/3 of what they were. And he drives so much that he has to buy new tires so often. And the smaller tires are half the price of the others. And I don't have to take a running leap to get up into the truck now. Too bad he didn't have this truck all those times I was pregnant and had to make my way up into one of his big huge trucks.

The other day Addy was talking to me about something and I really had no idea what she was talking about. I kept asking her to clarify a little. She got frustrated with me and said, "MOM! Are you hearing what I am saying to you? Do you think you are losing your mind or something?"

We were driving in the car one night and Zac changed my Christmas station to some other station and a rap song came on. In a part of the song that just had music I started singing my own rap song. Zac turned and looked at me and said, "No free stylin' mom." Then later Emily was trying to get him to change the station to the station she wanted. He said, "Zac FM doesn't take requests".

Have you ever seen the show Take the Money and Run? The kids and I watched it last summer and the other day the girls were for sure they were filming an episode near our house. We had been gone somewhere and when we got home, there were 2 cars parked down the street from our house by the walking trail. One of them was a really nice car, but don't ask me what it was. I'm not a car person. Not long after we got home the girls were in the kitchen and they saw a man dressed "in very nice clothes" by their description, running down the trail to the car with a silver briefcase attached to his wrist, just like on the show. For a minute I thought maybe it could be possible they were filming the show, but they said there was no camera crew so I had to burst their bubble and tell them it probably wasn't so. Now I'm really wondering what was going on.

Speaking of TV shows...Do you watch The Big Bang Theory? Oh my! Steve and I had never seen it before, but we just started watching it about a month ago. It is the most hilarious show we have ever seen. I am excited because they had a Big Bang marathon on New Years Eve and so our DVR queue that was getting rather low on BBT is now bursting at the seams.

Here's the theme song. How can you not want to watch something that opens with such a catchy little ditty?

Monday Morning Musings - Inspired By Sprinklers

I am lovin' today. I really am. I am just thinking about all that is good in life and am thankful for all that the Lord has blessed me with. I love being a mom and I love the blessed opportunity I have to stay at home with my kids everyday. I am so thankful for my husband who works so hard to make that possible. I love you babe!

I had a wonderful lesson in giving and kindness on Saturday. We are trying to get our sprinklers put in so we can get our grass to grow so we don't get fined by our HOA. The majority of the work on the sprinklers was done by someone we hired last year. We have decided that we are going to finish the sprinklers ourselves and there is this one place in the line where there is a leak. And Steve has tried to fix it several times, but it is in a tricky place and it keeps breaking again. Well Steve was trying to fix it again on Saturday and he was getting very frustrated. So I say to him, "Why don't you go and ask those people working on the sprinklers by the school if they will come and fix it for you and you can pay them 50 bucks to do it and get it over with."

Well, that was worth it to him, but apparently it isn't very manly to ask for help. However, if your wife asks for help that is a completely different story. I got in my car and drove down the street and stopped on the side of the road and asked the guy if he could come down and look at our leak and try to fix it. He came by and said he would be back later that afternoon and would fix it. He came back and in less than 15 minutes it was fixed! And he started to leave and I asked him how much we owed him and he was refusing to let me pay him. I was like, "No, we are paying you. We aren't just expecting you to come and fix our sprinklers for free just because some crazy lady stopped on the side of the road and asked for your help." He wouldn't let me write him a check so I gave him the only cash I had which was $19, which I had to force him to take.

After he left I was thinking, what a nice person. I mean really. To drive over to some strangers house to fix their sprinklers and to do it expecting nothing in return. When he left he said, "If you have any more problems, just stop by again." I am so thankful to him for being so kind and generous. And it has inspired me to pass it on. So this week I will be keeping my eyes open for a stranger that I can help in some way. So thank you sprinkler man for the inspiration!

Emily and I are so super-d-duper excited that our favorite summer show is on! Design Star! We are also excited for all the new episodes of Color Splash with our most fav-o-rite designer and the first ever winner of Design Star, Mr. David Bromstad. However, we are not sure how we are feeling about his move to Miami and his new crew. We loved his old crew and we are sad they aren't on any more. But we still LOVE David!

I am so sick and tired of my playroom always being a disaster. I am about ready to return to the days of the pioneers when kids were lucky if they had one toy. Really. I am so close to getting rid of every toy in the play room and letting the kids pick one toy they can keep.

Happy Monday Everybody!

2nd Annual American Idol Finale Soiree

Can you call it a Soiree if you serve pizza on paper plates? Hey, we did have salad on the side to fancy it up. So if that doesn't make it a Soiree, I don't know what does. For the second year in a row we had our neighbors Lori and Andreas and their family over to watch the American Idol Finale. We were all at a dinner at the church on Tuesday, so we watched both nights of Idol together on Wednesday night. You can see from the pictures that the kids were really into the Idol viewing.

SIDE NOTE: If you google Soiree to see how to spell it and you spell it swaray, this is the definition you get from Urban Dictionary: The way stupid people spell soiree. Well, EX-KA-USE me!

Monday Morning Musings - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The above picture was taken:

A) On Christmas Eve
B) Last February
C) Just a few hours ago

Yep, it snowed again today. Old Man Winter, who knew you had such a stubborn streak? Oh well, it's all blue skies now. Please note my grass (overlook all the interspersed weeds) that is now growing where once upon a time there used to be just dirt. And weeds.

It's always nice to know that you just aren't getting through to your three year old. You see, on an ideal day, I am showered and dressed before I wake the kiddos up. But not every day is ideal. Today was one of those days. And once I get them up, I can pretty much just forget about taking a shower until I get the older ones off to school. Every time that happens Addy and I have the same conversation. It goes something like this:

Me: Addy, I am about to get in the shower. You cannot answer the door while
I am in the shower. If the doorbell rings, what should you do?

Addy: Come and tell you!

Me: Should you answer the door first, and then come tell me who is at the
door?

Addy: No! I tell you first!

Me: OK. So DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR! Come and tell me and I will tell you
what you should do.

Addy: OK! I WON'T answer the door.

And then I leave her upstairs in the playroom watching Dora and playing with her toys.

I used to think that was working, but apparently it only worked because no one ever actually came to the door. That is until today. When Addy suddenly appeared at the shower. With a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet in her hand. "Mommy a lady and a man just gave this to us!" Yeah. I guess from here on out if I don't shower before I get everyone up in the morning, I just don't shower. That should be...fun...

Apparently the Lost finale FINALE was last night. Everyone is talking about it. Steve and I are so behind on our Lost viewing. I checked the DVR this morning and we have 9 episodes we haven't watched. I didn't even know it was the finale until I heard everyone talking about it on Facebook. Oh well. Now Steve and I have something to watch this summer. And if we watch one every night, all in a row, it will be easier to remember what is going on. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding? We still won't have any idea what is happening.

Last Friday my mom called and her neighbor had 5 extra tickets to Cirque du Soleil Alegria, that was starting in just a few hours. She and Lauren were going to use 2 of the tickets and we could have the other 3 if we wanted. Well, Steve and Zac were going on a Father/Son campout and Aubrey was going to a birthday party, so it worked out that there were just 3 of us (Emily, Addy and myself) left at home. We got ready and jumped in the car and headed out. It was so much fun! Thanks Curtis and Kami!

Tis The Season

Christmas time. The most wonderful time of the year. It sure is around these here parts. We are loving it. We have all radios, in the house and car, tuned to Christmas music and the CD changer loaded up with Christmas Cd's. After all these years and all the Cd's I must say that Amy Grant's Christmas CD is still my favorite. I have lots of others that come close, but for some reason, it's my fav.

We went to our church Christmas Party last week. Was that last week, or the week before. I really can't remember. It was decked out as a glorious winter wonderland. And it was a winter wonderland outside that night. As we drove home from the church, we had fun watching the temperature gage drop from 9 all the way to 0 just as we were pulling into our garage. Thank goodness for a warm house! Here are some pictures from the party and the kids with Santa. Addy was so cute. She kept kissing and hugging Santa and she was so excited when he told her she was on the good list.

One of the bestest things about Christmas is the traditions. We have a brand new tradition that we just started this year, and we are all loving it. Several weeks ago I was reading Christmas ideas on some blog and there was an idea to wrap Christmas books under the tree and let the kids open one every night and read it. They said it was a good investment and you can reuse the books every year. I loved the idear, but, um, HELLO! Last time I checked, we were in a recession. Buying 25 Christmas books just didn't seem reasonable or feasonable. So I forgot the idea. Then, Addy and I were at the library and, lo and behold, to what do my wondering eyes...somethin', somethin' (can't remember the words), but anyway, right in front of me was a library cart stocked full of Christmas books! FOR FREE! (as long as we return them in 3 weeks) So Addy girl and I, we loaded up on the Christmas books. We went home and wrapped them. Addy took great delight in handing me the tape and putting the books under the spare tree that we just so happen to have in our kitchen.

So all month long, the kids have been taking turns opening a book every night and reading it. We have read all kinds of fun books and some...not so fun books. Kinda makes you wonder how some of them got published. Must have been a slow year for Christmas books that year. Anyways, last night we read a fascinating book about how the song, "Silent Night" came to be. And tonight we read a German Christmas story. We LOVE our fun new family tradition. You should try it out.

Need anymore fun Christmas ideas? Try looking here.

Evil Genius Survivor Man

I'm a little scared for my boy Russell tonight. Real scared. On the preview for this weeks Survivor, they make it look like he is gonna get voted off tonight. NO Russ! Don't go! I love his little evil, buddha bellied, mind game ways. He has made the game so interesting this season. I love how everyone totally believes him and likes him and thinks he is the nicest guy. And behind their backs he is talking about how he is using them and when he's done, he'll just throw 'em in the trash. But now, it looks like his gig might be up. Only a few more hours and we will know. Be safe you nasty little evil genius man, you!

Vacation - Camping

The first part of our vacation started out a little rocky. But things have improved greatly. We were FINALLY able to leave for camping around 6:30 PM. Almost 12 hours after we originally wanted to leave, so we did lose a whole day. But we didn't let that stop us from having a blast for the rest of the trip. We went to Manti Canyon. It was a very nice relaxing trip. Just what we needed.
I opened up my own little beauty shop in the wild:
My beautiful Emily:

The kids all got along fabulously:

We spent a lot of time on the ATV's:

The girls- Emily, Aubrey, Reagan and Addy:

The kids organized their own little sweat shops where they "painted rocks" with berries:

On the way home we stopped at a cute little ice cream shop:

Spencer, Zac and Asher

Reagan, Addison, Aubrey and Emily

Allyson, Steve, Mike and Sheila

We stopped at a cute little park on the way home in order to avoid rush hour traffic:

Our bad luck that we had on the first part of our vacay seems to be changing. The only bad thing that has happened since the origional onslaught is we had a flat tire on one of the campers on the way home. But by that time we were old pros. We didn't even bat an eye at that one.

Monday Morning Musings - Chest Tube Anyone?

Last week, with a tear or two in my eyes, I watched the final episode of ER. Ahhh, ER. My Thursday nights will never be the same again. Last Thursday night, Steve asked me what I was going to do. I looked at him with a look that said, "What the heck do you think I'm gonna do." And he said, "You don't really wanna watch that do you? It's just going to be some cheesy, sappy story line so they can bring all the characters back". And then I looked at him like he was insane and I said, "I have watched that show every week for the past 15 years of my life. I have see every episode! And what? You want me to miss the very last one? THE VERY LAST ONE?!?" And then he was like, "Woah! Fine. Watch it". So I did. Ahhh...ER. Because of you I know what a GSW is. Because of you, I think if it came right down to it, I could intubate someone, I've seen it done so many times. Because of you, I am highly disappointed with the personal appearance of any doctor I am treated by. So long, old friend....

Addy has this Dora obsession. And when I say obsession, I mean I am about to lose my mind if I hear the Dora theme song one more time. The one cute thing she has picked up from Dora is that anytime we go somewhere, when we reach our destination, she gets really excited and starts saying, "WE DID IT! WE DID IT! WE DID IT!" I feel like when I am driving I should be saying, "Freeway, stop sign, big brown library. Freeway, stop sign, big brown library."

I have an extra bedroom upstairs and that is where we put all the boxes that didn't have a specific room they belonged in yet. Mostly they were boxes that when we were on the last day of moving I was just like, "Throw it in a box! Any box!" When we moved in they were all nicely stacked in an orderly fashion in that room. Since then my children have rummaged through every box and now that room is completely trashed. I don't even want to go in there, but I guess I'm gonna have to. I should just put a dumpster outside below the window and just start shoveling everything out.

I bought some socks on Saturday. I went to open the package yesterday and I noticed that across the top was written, "Resealable bag!" So I just lookin' at this bag 'o socks in my hand thinkin', "Who in the world needs to reseal their bag of socks?" So you know what I did? I didn't open 'em by the zipper in the top. Nope. I just ripped right into the middle of the bag. I reached in and grabbed out my socks and then looked at the empty, decimated bag and laughed. Ha. Resealable bag. Not anymore!

The One With The Island, The One With The "Singers", and Mr. Squarepants Himself

Bada-ching! Oh, yeah. I'm lovin' Lost this season. As much as it annoyed me in the past, I'm glad I stuck it out and stayed with the program. Anyhoo, last night's Lost was so goody goody gum drops. Steve and I were all snug as bug watching it in bed and at the very end I was sitting up yelling at the TV, "NO SAWYER! YOU LOVE THE OTHER ONE NOW! LOOK AWAY! LOOK AWAY YOU FOOL!". And then Steve was like, "You're gonna wake up the kids in this dang echoey house". And then I was like "ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!" 'cause they said Lost wouldn't be on for 2 weeks. Man. 'Cause I'm all like, oh my! They all thought they were going back to save everyone but now everyone has a fine and dandy life and they are gonna come and screw it all up. But then, really they are eventually gonna die if they don't somehow get saved 'cause, well, ya know what happens to the Dharma people. And then it's like OK, do you believe Ben or that Widmore dude? I don't know who to believe. But I do wonder this. What happened to all those filler survivors? Ya know. The ones I always laughed at when they showed them, cause you have no idea who they are. Where were they during all the flashes? Hum? Where have they been the last 3 years? Huh? Steve always tells me not to put too much thought into Lost, but HELLO!

I'm thinkin' American Idol SUCKS this season. (oooh, I said a bad word)(we are not allowed to say the suck word at our house) But it does. It sucks. (I feel so dirty now). It just makes me mad because it is like my favorite show and, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we didn't watch Tuesday's Idol because it was Aubrey's B-day and, well, I was a little busy. Sixteen 6 year olds runnin' around screamin'. But that's off the subject. We finally watched 1/2 of it last night and I really have no burning desire to watch the rest, or the result show for that matter. I think the judges picked some really...bad...people this year to put through. I think there are some people they didn't put through that they should have. I don't think it's fair how they do the groups and then only 3 people can go through from each group. 'Cause what if one group has 6 really good singers and one group has none? What then? I don't know. We will have to see. We will just have to see. Hopefully it will get better soon.

I never used to let my kids watch Spongebob. I'd never really seen it, so I didn't really have a reason. I just like to enforce my parental abilities by subjecting them to my will. But for some reason, the past few months, they have started watching it and I haven't stopped them. And ya know what? It's actually pretty funny. I watch it with them all the time and I laugh my head off. In church on Sunday, one of the kids in my Primary class leaned over to me and said, "I like to watch Spongebob. I'm not supposed to, but I like to. Because he is a sponge. And he is square. And he wears pants." Do you think it's bad that my 2 year old goes around saying, "Watch Spongebob!" all the time? Am I a bad parent? I mean, it is pretty clever, a sponge, wearing pants! HELLO!

Monday Morning Musings - I'm Holding Out For A Hero

So Emily, she can't just say things normally. Like Saturday morning, she was trying to tell me something that had to do with something that happened the night before. Now, if it had just been the two of us in the room, she probably would have said it normally. The thing is, Aubrey was in the room. So in her loudest voice she said, "Mom, remember last night when I stayed up until 11:30 watching TV with you and eating ice cream...", just so she could make her sister jealous. She is always giving way too much information. The other day we were in front of my mom's house and 2 missionaries walked by. So she yells across the yard to me, "MOM! Isn't it exciting that Sam is coming home from his mission in Mexico City, where he is a missionary, in just 3 weeks!".

The cutout of Sam is, at the moment, sitting at the kitchen table. He is wearing one of the girls flower hats and a white and purple scarf is tied around his neck. It cracks me up because it startles everyone else when they walk into the room. But this morning when I took Addy in to eat breakfast, she just waved and said, "Hi Sam!".

I am now the last person on earth to finish reading Breaking Dawn. I just finished it last night. I think I did good considering that I was averaging about 3 pages a day. I really must say that I enjoyed it very much. Bella was not even a little annoying. I have fallen in love with vampires once again. I didn't think I would like the book if Bella and Jacob didn't hook up, but I was wrong. It all worked out. Everyone keeps saying that it was the end of the series, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few years from now we get another little taste of Forks. I mean, the Volturi are gonna want revenge, right. They aren't just gonna let them get away with that. Now I gotta go out and find some kind of library around here.

I know you have probably been worried sick about me not having a life. So to put your mind at ease I thought I would let you know that we now have a DVR in the basement of my mothers house. And this being premiere week and all, I am so excited I can't contain myself. Heroes starts tonight!!!

And one last thing. This song is making me crazy. It just won't stop.

So Close, But So Far Away

Last week the final 3 American Idol contestants went home. For David Archuleta, home is just around the corner from me. Well, not exactly, but close enough. He performed at his high school which just happens to be about 5 minutes away from my house. I was very tempted to load all 4 kids up and make the trek with 20,000 other people, because when do you ever have that kind of opportunity. I decided not to go. We watched the performance live on TV. When they released hundreds of balloons the girls and I ran out on our deck to see if we could see them. I am sure we could have except for a huge tree right between us and them. We did catch a glimpse of this plane with a banner flying around (if you look really hard in the picture you can see it too). And we also watched the helicopter that was carrying David from his high school to the Jazz game go by. Emily and Aubrey were screaming at the top of their lungs, "WE LOVE YOU DAVID!". Now had it of been David Cook performing 5 minutes away from my house, well......let's just say.....we would have been there front and center.

Farrah Honey, You Need To Set Your Tivo

We are Fox News Channel types around our house. However we do make a nightly exception when we switch over to CNN to get our daily dose of Beck. Farrah, this one's for you:

Thinkin' Thursday - That's What She Said

So this is what I am thinkin' about this Thursday:

You hear that? Does that sound make you as excited as it makes me? I must admit, I never used to watch The Office. Ever. Never ever. But then my dear sister Kristy started doing these posts with clips from the show on her blog. They amused me. So I started showing them to Steve. And they amused him too. So we just started this season watching it. Then the writers went on strike. Which might have been disastrous for some Office fans out there. But being that we had 3 whole seasons to catch up on, we were just find and dandy around here. We have watched them all now, except for one disc which is always checked out from the video store when we go. Huhhhh. One of these days. Anyhoo. Yesterday, I bought something I have never bought before and I was so excited. I bought a ringtone for my phone. It is The Office theme song. I get so happy whenever I hear it that I wanted to be able to hear it all the time. I keep calling myself from my home phone just so I can hear it. Anyhoo. Did I already say that? Tonight is the big night. The dinner party. Are you excited?

So I must say I thought my sister was a little crazy when she did her Christmas post. The one where she bought presents for all her Office friends. But I completely get it now. 'Cause they're my friends now too. And I love them. The characters on this show are so well developed. Everything about them is just so well done. I love them. Did I already say that? If I had to go out and find a job, I would want to work at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. And I would want to sit at a desk with Dwight and Jim.

Bye Bye Moonwalk, Hello David

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.

I Went Straight To Youtube

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:

Monday Morning Musings - Clean Sweep

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.

Monday Morning Musings - Alien Boy From Outer Space

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:

Lost And Found

Just in case you forgot what's goin' down tonight: