Road Trip

Steve has been working out of town a lot lately. He was gone for almost four weeks. He wasn't gone like a full four weeks. He would be gone a few days, home a few, gone a few. Well, right in the middle of the four weeks he had been gone for a full week straight and we still had almost another week before he came home again. I woke up that Saturday morning missing him so much. I really wanted to get in the car and drive to see him. I looked up how far away it was (he was working in Page Arizona) and discovered that it was 7 hours from here. So all morning long I tried to talk myself out of a road trip. I called my mom and told her we needed to go and do something really fun that day. She was giving me suggestions and asking me what I thought. I told her that I thought I really just felt like driving to AZ to see Steve. She told me I should. So I finally realized that that is what I was going to do. An hour later the kids and I were in the minivan and on our way.

About an hour and a half into the drive I started to get sleepy. I thought, "AHHH! What am I doing? I can't drive for seven hours!" But I did it! The kids were great. Steve was very surprised to see us (I didn't tell him we were coming). We had a blast for the one day we were able to spend with him. We even got to be in AZ for that one thing. Uhmmm, ya know, with the football and the commercials.

(the slide show is really small. if you want to view the pictures larger, click on the slide show)

Monday Morning Musings - Norm!

Not exactly morning anymore. It's either do this or clean my kitchen, so I choose this.

We have all been a little under the weather here lately. I am getting really tired of it.

I was able to go on Aubrey's field trip with her today. I feel like such a horrible mother. When Zac and Emily were in Kindergarten, I used to go all the time to help in their class. I never go to help in Aubrey's class. I don't really know anyone well enough in my new neighborhood to dump Monster Baby off with them and I would be less than helpful if I took her with me. Aubrey asks me to go and help all the time. She always says, "But so and so's mom goes all the time to help!" Going on the field trip today helped to ease my guilt a little.

We had parent teacher conferences last week and we found out that Zac scored in the top 10% Nationally in Science and Reading on some standardized test. Yeah, he gets it from me....

We were watching old home movies earlier tonight. I had to explain to my children why we have 5 million hours of Zac doing pretty much nothing on tape and about and hour of Emily and 30 minutes of Aubrey and nothing of Addy. I told them that when moms and dads have their first baby they think everything the baby does is so awesome because it is the first time they are seeing one of their babies doing it. By the time you get to the 4th kid, they are lucky if they get their diaper changed every day. But moms and dads still love all their kids just the same. Even if it is hard to tell from the taped evidence.

Speaking of old home movies. WOW! I had some major mom jeans goin' on all over the place. And Steve, he looked like he was about 15 years old. And thank goodness he got rid of those sweats that were way too small.

I love my new house and my new neighborhood and everyone is really nice and all but I'm just really tired and.....

♪ Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, people are all the same. You wanna be where everybody knows your name. ♪

trying...not...to...cry.....

WebCam Wednesday - Take A Chance On Me

Alright. I'm takin' a chance right now posting this here video. This is why. I don't know where the speakers for my computer are. So therefore I can't hear anything on the video. It has been deleted from my flip camera so I can't go back and watch it there and hear what's goin' down. I could upload it to my blog, save it, and go listen to it on Steve's computer, which happens to be equipped with speakers. However, his computer is turned off. I don't wanna turn it on and wait and go through all the hassle. I just wanna go take a bath in my nice big soaker tub. That's what I wanna do right now. So I'm just gonna be daring and post it. It could be scary. This was shot at my mom's house on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a long time ago. I could be yelling at Zac when he is being obnoxious trying to cover up the camera. My children could be talking about bodily functions. You could be hearing them perform bodily functions. I don't know. But here it is. It's real and it's raw and that's just how it is.

WebCam Wednesday - I Wanna Know, Have You Ever Seen The Rain

I love the rain. I grew up in a place where when it rained, it rained. I now live in a place where when it rains, well, it just gives off a light misting. If you click on my "Everything you wanted to know about me" thig-a-ma-bobber on the right side there, you will see that aside from the ice cream and the people (not particularly in that order)(or maybe so) the thing I miss most about Texas is the rain. So when we were in St. Louis for Christmas and got caught in a torrential downpour, I was so excited. I had been so long since I had seen real rain. Steve and I were driving down the street loving it, while our kids were freaking out in the back seat. I turned back to them and said, "It's OK kids. That stuff there, that's called rain." Anyway, I just had to take a video to remember.

Gathering

When we were in St. Louis for Christmas, the whole family went to Steve's mothers grave. She passed away in 1990 from cancer. I never met her, but I know she is a wonderful woman because she left behind a great legacy. It was a special moment to have everyone gathered there together to pay tribute to her memory.

After visiting Myrle's grave, we drove around the cemetery for a while. I love cemeteries and this cemetery is beautiful. It is a National Cemetery and it is HUGE. All the headstones are alike an it is an awesome sight to behold. They go on for miles and miles and miles. It is a very historic place and there are soldiers buried there from the Civil War and every war since. For some fascinating facts about this cemetery you can click here.

Monday Morning Musings - Repeating Myself. Repeating Myself. Repeating Myself. Repeating - OK, You Get The Idea

Ya know how I said a few posts back that I haven't been blogging much because I say everything on Facebook and I feel like I would be repeating myself if I said it here? Well, I'm about to do some repeating. For those of you who refuse to join Facebook (Kristy) they have this thing called a status. And on your status you type whatever it is that you are doing and all your friends can see it and comment on it. Most of the things I put on my status are things I would probably be using for my Monday Morning Musings. So for my MMM today I am going to give you some of my past status....uhhh...statuses. For those of you interested in joining Facebook, you may do so by clicking here. Come on. All the cool kids are doing it.

My past status updates:

1/26/09: Allyson is aware that the jar says refrigerate after opening,but do pickles really need 2 b?Cause I ain't got no room n my fridge 4 this big ol' honkin' jar from Costco.

1/26/09: Allyson has a strange, unexplained desire to watch Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

1/25/09: Allyson has concluded that if she stops cleaning her house for more than five minutes at a time, it turns into a disaster zone.

1/24/09: Allyson finally has a mortgage on her house! WAHOOO!!! now i have to start making the payments....

1/23/09: Allyson is standing @ her fridge,eating green olives straight out of the jar,trying 2 decided what 2 eat 4 lunch.Maybe if I eat enough of these,I won't have 2 eat lunch.

1/22/09: Allyson just unpacked 2 boxes! The first boxes I have unpacked since the new year. I only have 587 more to go....

1/22/09: Allyson says as if it wasn't bad enough that the creators of Lost have drug out their cockamamie story for this long, but I find it very irritating that they filled my DVR with 2 hours last week and 1 hour this week with crappe' I have already seen before.

1/21/09: Allyson is staring at the pile of trash she just swept up in the kitchen and is wondering if all kids are this messy when they eat or if mine are just special that way.

1/21/09: Allyson is eating oatmeal and just looked on the side of the box and found out it is expired. How bad can old oatmeal be? Tastes pretty good to me.

1/20/09: Allyson says he can talk the big talk, now we see if he can walk the big walk.

1/20/09: Allyson is watching the inauguration because Zac has to for his homework. Oh and 'cause Aretha Franklin is singing.

Let There Be Lights

We were having unseasonably warm weather back at the beginning of December. I knew it wouldn't last for long so one night I told Steve we HAD to go downtown to Temple Square to see the lights. Usually I am torn between wanting to go see them and wanting to stay warm. But this year we were able to do both.

Flashback Friday - Talk About Havin' Your Cake And Eatin' It Too

These pictures were taken at my house when my book club met there, I have no idea how many years ago. Maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Maybe longer. I really couldn't tell ya. The book we read this month was called Eat Cake and so everyone brought their favorite cake to book club that night. It was a fun book and a fun meeting. We had tweleve cakes that we hardly made a dent in, so we all divided them up and everyone took some of each kind home.

Some of you might recall my "Special" little Flashback Friday I was doing before I packed up all my stuff and moved. Well, I wanted you to know that I still am planning on doing that and I will start again with those next Friday. I've picked up quite a few readers since then so anyone who wants to add a comment, feel free to by clicking here.

Seasons Of Love

Compliments of my last post title, I have now had this song stuck in my head since last night. Well, except for a brief moment when I woke up this morning and Grease Lightning was stuck there because I was dreaming I was in the cast of Grease. Which is a much better dream than the one the night before when one of my kids got kidnapped or the night before that when Steve died. I swear I have been having the strangest dreams lately. And I'm not even the P word (pregnant).

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes, How Do You Measure, Measure A Year?

Monday marked the one year anniversary of the death of my father. It is so hard for me to believe that one whole year has gone by without him here. 365 days. A lot has happened in the past year. My children have grown up and changed so much. The world has changed so much. One year. We have now made it through every holiday and birthday without him. He was very much missed. How grateful I am for my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches that we are eternal beings. That our families, they can be together forever. I know that my father lives on. I know that he watches over us.





On Monday Steve and the kids and I all went to the cemetery with my brother Sam to put new flowers on his grave. That whole day, my mind kept going back to his last day on this earth. How glad I am that I was a part of that day.





I love this picture of my dad. It was taken on a Sunday in September of 2007. I love this picture because I remember this day so well. We were at my parents house for Sunday dinner and it was such a beautiful day so we all went out front to sit on the lawn. The kids brought out the hula hoops and we all had so much fun making fools out of ourselves (hula hooping for anyone over the age of 30 should be limited to the back yard). My dad and I kept trying to outdo each other with the hoops. I love this picture because it shows my dad in his true spirit. He was always goofing off and having fun. Everyone around him had fun.


This is another one of my favorite pictures of my dad. Again it shows his goofy nature. This was taken on Easter in 2004. It was before my parents moved to Utah and my dad was in town visiting. We were outside taking pictures and my dad took Emily's hat and put it on his head.

My dad loved to laugh and he enjoyed life to it's fullest. He was laughing and enjoying life up to his final moment on this earth. He was a great example to me and I will forever be grateful that I was blessed to have him as my father.