Eight Is Enough

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 Brazilian restaurant. 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.

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.

Flashback Friday - Superfreak

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).

Thinkin' Thursday - Everyone's A Winner!

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.

Monday Morning Musings - I Need Someone To Dance With Me Baby

Current song making me crazy:


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.

I Don't Know Where He Gets It From

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.

One Last Gift

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.

Flashback Friday - Pretty In Pink

Lauren, Kay, Emily, Allyson, Sam, Zac, Earl

Papa and Emily

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.

Thinkin' Thursday - Tragedy

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.

Flashback - Of A Different Sort

First of all, just so you know this is my

300th Post!

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.

Stay tuned. Thinkin' Thursday coming soon!