I Just Remembered How Much Fun This Age Is

All of my lipstick and chapstick looks like this. All of it. Overnight my sweet little baby has turned into an absolute holy terror. She is constantly into everything. CONSTANTLY. EVERYTHING. It is making me crazy. CRAZY. She just goes from one disaster to another. She pulls everything out of every drawer, cabinet, trash can, anything she can get her hands on. As soon as I finish cleaning up one mess, I turn around to find another. CONSTANTLY. I had just finished frosting a cake last night, threw the frosting container in the kitchen trash, walked into the other room for less than 2 minutes, when I heard the kids calling for me to come see what Addison was doing. Here, see for yourself:

Monday Morning Musings - Comin' At Ya Live From The Year Two Thousand And Eight

This is a man who needed a break. Aside from running his own business and being the sole breadwinner in our house, he is also the general contractor for our new house. Which means he is always going 24/7. When he isn't at work or at the new house, he is at home typing up bids or researching products and trying to schedule work on the new house. The battry (I didn't misspell it, it's an inside joke)(well OK, I did misspell it, but I meant to) on his cell phone, which starts out fully charged in the morning, usually needs to be recharged by lunch. So when his birthday came around on Saturday, I decided to kidnap him and take him away for a little short rest. After working all day on the new house, I picked him up and took him to a nice hotel where we had in room massages (is that cheating that I got a massage on his birthday?) and room service dinner waiting. It was a very nice break. Happy 41st (I just had to throw that one in) Birthday honey!

Emily was asking Steve what year he graduated from high school. He told her and then she wanted to know what year she would graduate. That is easy to figure out because she was born in 2000. So I said she will graduate in 20-18. That's how I said it, twenty eighteen. But then I started to wonder, is that how people will say it? Or will they say 2,018? 'Cause when you watch movies that are set in the future they always say the year as 20-18 but when we say the year now we way 2,008. I like saying it 20-18. It sounds better than 2,018, don't you think? I think we should start a date reference revolution. If we all start saying the year as twenty-o- eight maybe it will catch on. OK, twenty-o-eight doesn't sound good. Let's wait until 2010 and then start saying twenty ten. I will remind you when it gets closer.

Steve came home from working really late one night. I had stayed up waiting for him to get home. It was after midnight. I had been watching a recording on my DVR and it just ended when he came home. So the TV went to the channel it had been on before I started watching it, which was a sports channel. I muted it because Steve and I were talking. Then we stopped talking and started watching TV. We were both so tired that it took us about 10 minutes to realize that we were just laying in bed, watching silent women's tennis.

We just found out last week that Miley Cyrus (AKA Hannah Montana)(get with the program people) will be performing in a nearby city on the 4th of July this year. My friend and I were both online trying to buy tickets as soon as they went on sale. An hour later, we realized that it just wasn't going to happen. But Steve wouldn't give up, he kept trying for at least an hour after. I was sad, but he was even more sad than me. He was really excited to surprise the girls. I guess we could still go if we want to pay a gazillion dollars for tickets on eBay or something. What is it about a little girl singing that creates such a frenzy?

I made the mistake of buying Emily clothes for her Birthday. And the Easter Bunny made the mistake of putting shoes in her Easter Basket (the Easter Bunny, as previously stated, is cheap. And since everyone needed new spring shoes anyway, they got them in their Easter baskets.) Well, since she wouldn't wear anything that I (or the Easter bunny) picked out we got to go return everything last week. Please just slit my wrists next time. Holy cow! The child is only eight. I told Steve he gets to take her shopping from now on. I was really mad because one of the dresses I bought her was the cutest dress ever. Seriously, if they had it in my size (and if my size were a couple of sizes smaller) I would wear it. (maybe that's the problem)

Look, I even found a picture of it so you can see. Only the one I bought her was deep purple. Tell me that wouldn't be cute this summer with a big head band and sandals. (it isn't as cute in the picture as it was in real life) (Aubrey liked it and she begged me to let her have it and I would have except it was 3 sizes too big) But no. She thought it was the most repulsive thing she had ever seen. So we had to go to several different stores to return everything. I told her, OK, we are taking this back. This is what it cost. You have to find something else that costs the same amount or less. Hours later, and while pulling out my hair and gnashing my teeth, I finally said, "WHATEVER! I DON'T CARE IF IT COSTS $10 MORE! LET'S JUST GET IT AND GET THE HECK OUT!" I honestly don't know what to do. It gets worse as she gets older. And it's not just that she doesn't want what I want her to get. It's that she doesn't like ANYTHING. She would get those shoes, except she doesn't like the one little tiny glitter heart on the side of it. And she would like those shoes if the red were a slightly different color. And she would get that dress if the flowers were this color instead of that. Just finding something that she actually LIKES, regardless of what I think of it or how much it costs, is nearly impossible. And the biggest trick is finding something, getting it home, and then having her wear it more than once before she decides she hates it and will never wear it again.

Anyway, I have more stuff to say, but it is almost 10:00 and I haven't taken a shower yet. Have a Happy Monday!

Flashback Friday - Say Cheese

This is a picture of my brother Sam in my parents back yard in Dallas. It looks like he was probably playing outside in the water and I surprised him with the camera.

Thinkin' Thursday - To Spend Or Not To Spend?

You hear it in the news everyday. Analysts debating weather or not we are headed for an economic depression. It's scary. I have been thinking about it for a while now. You can't help but think about it. But what I have been thinking all seems like a catch 22 to me.

Last month, Steve had a booth in the home show. He has had so many booths in so many home shows I can't even count them all. I used to go, way back when he first started. I quickly learned that they are very boring events, so I stopped going. Well, I decided that I hadn't been in years, and to show my support to my loving husband, I decided to go last month. Also I thought, "Hey! I am actually building a house. Maybe it will be more interesting to me now." WRONG. Ok, we did find the tile we want to use for the backsplash in our kitchen, but it is ridiculously expensive so we probably won't use it anyway. And we did talk to a man for a few minutes about a water softener (WOO HOO!). But other than that I just walked around looking at the crazy people spending their hard earned money on CRAP (I really hate that word so when I say it, which isn't very often, I really mean it). CRAP!

I am probably the cheapest person you will ever meet. And I just don't go shopping to go shopping. To me, a trip to the mall is more of a punishment than anything. I wait until we have no options left before I go grocery shopping. I never buy my kids toys except on their birthdays or Christmas, and I didn't buy them any toys for their last birthdays, just clothes.

So anyway, I am walking around the home show watching people and screaming at them in my head saying, "STOP! WHY ARE YOU BUYING THAT?! YOU DON'T NEED THAT!" I was thinking about how much consumer debt we have in our country. How many people are defaulting on their home loans. How many people declare bankruptcy each year. I wanted to tell those people to stop making it worse and go home and put their money in the bank or use it to pay off their credit card bills.

But then I started to think about what would happen if people stopped spending money. I know someone who always has to have the latest and greatest gadget. And everyday something comes out that is better than what was there before. So this person is always buying the new gadget, even though they have practically the same thing 10 times over. And I know for a fact that this person or their family cannot afford it. And I just want to smack this person upside the head and say, "STOP! You big dumb butt!"

But seriously, what would happen if people did stop? What if people didn't want to have all the latest and greatest? We would surely be thrown into a consumer driven depression then. Wouldn't we? I mean, that's the whole point of this new tax refund thing, right? To give people extra money to spend so that our economy will keep going.

But then if people keep spending money they don't have on things they don't need, doesn't that hurt our economy too? We need people to keep spending money to keep our economy going. So it just seems like we have this vicious cycle going on.

So then, I really don't know what the answer is. Do we want people to keep spending money on things of no worth, or do we want them to save it up and pay off their debt? I don't know. You tell me.

Monday Morning Musings - Hot And Sweaty

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.

Flashback Friday - Neighborly

Sam, Cloe, Hallie, Lauren

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?

Thinkin' Thursday - Rock The Vote

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.

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:

EGG-CELLENT

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: