He Always Wants to be the Bad Guy

We've started calling him Justin Beiber (For obvious reasons).


(My little boy, also, Justin Beiber look alike.)





(Justin Beiber)

But I don't think he really appreciates it. I'll be all, "Hey, Justin Beiber, you want some white milk?" and then he'll be all, "I not Justin Beiber! I Jafar!"

Jafar? As in the creepy bad guy from Aladdin? Really?

Yep, it's been all The Return of Jafar all the time over here. He always Roots for the bad guys, what's the deal with that?

But anyway, the real point of this post was that he really, really needs a haircut.

Yeah, I'm a Hippie. So, What?

This video blows my little hippie mind...Yeah, it's NPR, so?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWIvfE01J0k.

Peace. :)

So...how's it goin?

Yesterday, my family gathered together in Utah for the baptism of my beautiful niece. I've lived away from my family for near a decade now, I miss family functions a lot. Even though its been a long time I still get a little homesick for my family when I know they are all together and I'm not there. I guess I just feel like I'm missing out on all the fun. (And maybe I'm a little scared that they don't miss me.)

I set out for a little reassurance in the form of a short, nonspecific, text message to my sister- "So, how's it goin?" and in response, I got these:

"Goin Good"



(My little bro Tay-luh and his cute wife Tara)



(My Mom on the right with my Aunt)



"We miss you"



(My sister Lisa strategically placed to show my cousins in the background)

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to hear, and yes, I teared up for a sec. Thank you, Lisa! (BTW, super cute glasses!)



Rut-Rohh!

1. It's Fall again, and again I am obliged to say, "I hate fall!"
2. This is also the point in the semester where I think I'm horribly failing at EVERYTHING, but soldier on anyway.
3. I just can't seem to get enough sleep, and believe me, it's not for lack of trying. I've been taking naps and sleeping through the night, I'm just so tired all the time.
4. *Sigh* you guys! A few of my in-laws decided to show up to church on Sunday. Surprise! Yeah, thanks for letting us know, jack holes. I love walking into extremely stressful situations with my in-laws, at church, with absolutely no warning. It was lovely.
5. Going back to #4. Yes, there is now cause for repentance. Apparently, it doesn't feel good to be rude to someone at church, which just made me more mad. It was awesome.
6. My transmission went out. :(  I have to ride up to school with my husband 3-4 hours before my class starts. It's really not sooooo bad, except when it is. Also, I haven't been able to exercise as much as I want. I'm only getting 2 workouts in a week, which, lets face it, is lame-O. Special thanks to Steph who keeps giving me rides. She's so nice.
7. But all these crappy happenings aside, things really aren't so bad around here. It just seems like it, I promise.   **SMILE**
8. I made a nice diner and sugar cookies last night. I asked my husband if the fact that I cooked that night made me more sexy. He said that, yes, in fact, it does.
9. My little boy has another ear infection. It's one those really bad infections were the doctor seriously cringes when they see it, and there he was, jumping around, laughing and smiling. I swear if the school nurse didn't call me, I would never know he was sick.  
10. Oh this just in! I went up to school at 9am for my 12:30pm class (remember my car broke down) just to have my class cancelled. Hooray. I love wasting time like that.

Right.

1. So the count down to Mockingjay came down today. I'm actually really sad to see it go, it's been on here for hundreds of days. Now I feel like I have nothing to look forward to.
2. Speaking of Mockingjay, I have finally read it and I liked it. What's your problem with it anyway?
3. We went to Minnesota for Labor day. We had fun and I still can't get over how good that Juicy Lucy with the blue cheese was. Holy Moly.

4. You know? That actually pretty well sums it up. Not a lot going on around here. Then I guess there is  nothing left to do but look at some pictures.

There, I posted.

I Just Got Done Folding The Laundry

Is it silly to say that I feel like taking a victory lap? I mean I would say yes, but I still really want to take that victory lap.

I do know that if my husband had folded the laundry, I would have been all, "What? You want a trophy or something?"

 But sure as heck, when he comes home from work tonight, looks around our messy house and asks, "What did you do today?" I'll puff my chest out, throw my hands on my hips and declare, "I folded the laundry!" like I was announcing that I found the cure for cancer. Then I would expect applause or something equally gratifying, like his standard response, "Wow, you're wonderful."
Oh wow!! I just had an epiphany. When my husband helps around the house and wants major praise, I should give it to him, because I expect the same thing! Whoa......I did not expect this post to take this kind of turn.

Neat, blogging totally "marriage counseled" me today. I should do this more often.

I'm Totally Going to Get in Trouble for This

But, I don't care! Because it's so funny!

If you have met my husband, than you know he is about the coolest person you have ever met.  You see, I can prove this coolness. Someone who knew my husband "back in the day" posted this photo on facebook, and of course I stole it (Ha,ha!). I'm guessing it was taken between '90 and '92 sometime, that would make him 16, 17 or 18.

Now, I know what you are thinking, that this is just some stupid photo of my husband chasing a girl. But I say, forget about the girl already, and let's take a closer look at him.

Isn't he the dreamiest?

He is totally my density.

(He just didn't know it yet.)

First Day of School, 2010-2011

Did anybody else recite this to their kids when they woke them up this morning?

I did. This what he looked like after I did it:

"Good morning, Sunshine!"

Here they are, waiting on the bus.

And then they were gone and I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I wasn't expecting that.

But then they came back, so it was okay.

(My kids are awesome 'cause they ride the short bus.)

Keep Your Eye On the Sky

(This isn't gonna be the most exciting post, just wanted to post something, so here it is.)

In my little town are two airports. One is a little bigger and accommodates private jets and also has a military hanger. The other is a municipal airport and serves mostly hobby fliers. It just so happens that we live under the flight path of both airports. We see lots of stuff fly over, some more noisy than others.

Military. They were hauling something that day, you see that long pole attached to the side? These helicopters are by far the noisiest that fly over.

There was a Hot Air Balloon festival in town over Memorial Day Weekend, I didn't get to go, but they came to me so it was okay.

I assume this is military also, I have no idea what it is.

This guy flies over our house often. Mostly on Saturdays.

When the Stealth bombers were stationed at Whitman Air force base in Missouri, we would see them fly over all the time, also. We see lots of old war planes from World War One and Two as one of the airports hosts a fly in every year. I guess some might consider all the noise a nuisance, but I like to hear the rumble and run outside to see what is flying over today. It's fun.

Stuff

This is stuff that has happened while I haven't blogged (or rather I did blog and then never published):

My little boy turned six and refused to blow out his birthday candles. Or even come over to the table, where his cake was, so we could sing happy birthday to him. Punk. His sister blew out his candles.

My daughter turned eight and spent the day at Chuck E. Cheese being spoiled by Gail. Happiness all around.

I asked to borrow a hand mixer from my sister in law, (Yes, that sister in law) and all of a sudden she was in my house cleaning all my bathrooms and dusting all the kitchen cupboards.  I was all, "What??" but I was also, "Oh thank god. I didn't know how I was going to get this place decent for my parent's visit."

My parents took us to Golden Corral and were being all nostalgic by reminding me and the hubbs that we had our wedding dinner/reception there. "Remember that?" uhmmm.....yeah.

My daughter was baptised. She was so happy and soaked up all the attention. After, I had my husband's family over to my house for lunch. All the old ladies sat at the table and chatted and it was nice because they hadn't all been in the same place in well over a year. Felt good.

Pat Benetar and REO Speedwagon, baby!! Forgot my ticket. Nice lady in box office replaced it for me. Abs and hips sore the next day from shakin' it. Managed to keep the voice this time though.

My neck and shoulders are stiff and it hurts. What the heck?

We watched a really suspenseful, black and white, French movie on AMC. It was subtitled.

The Doobie Brothers and Chicago with the hubbs and sister in law. The audience sucked rocks. Soaked from head to toe in my own sweat.

I read 1200 pages or two books this last week.

Most amazing sunset ever.

Now, I'm going to get off my butt and go work out 'cause I haven't in a long time.

FIN

Browbeaten

So I noticed lately that I have been having a hard time not furrowing my brow. When did I start doing that? I'm not sure, but maybe it was somewhere in the middle of last semester. I had no attention for anything other than Trigonometry. Or maybe the semester before that when I had no attention for anything but  Comp 2 and Calculus. Or maybe I've always done it and not noticed. Well, now I have time to notice stuff (yay summer!), and I  think I look angry and it might just be my imagination, but I'm getting wrinkles and otherwise losing what precious little upper eyelid I did have. I feel like I need to take some toothpicks or something and prop up my eyebrows.

So I guess if you see me, and I have this look of annoyance and anger on my face, I promise I'm not mad at you. It's just leftover from this last year of school.

Probably.

Well, I built me a raft...

1. Man cannot live on bread alone.
2. My little boy is making it his life work to prove that theory wrong.
3. Although, he did eat over two pounds of bananas in about three days.
4. He was pretending to be DK.
5. That's Donkey Kong for you old timers.
6. I have fresh basil and cilantro in my garden.
7. I don't know what to do with it. It does smell good though.
8. Mario Party!
9. Church cancelled due to plumbing problems, hooray!!
10. I can no longer be trusted, I'm over 30.
11. At least that's what Pat said. He's 59.
12. Must.....have....buffalo....wings.....you know....the...boneless...kind....daghhhgggg....
13. first it was the clutch, then the spark plugs, now the timing chain....blah, blah, blah....I don't have a car today.
14. Fortune cookie say I will travel to many exotic locations in the near future.
15. Is Missouri exotic?
16. ...and as Foreigner took the stage, the breeze finally picked up and I momentarily was able to stop sweating. But then I started dancing. And yelling. Lots and lots of yelling....
17. I'm not kidding, I couldn't talk the next day.
18. It was totally worth it.
19. Next up?
20. REO Speedwagon "we climb and climb, connect the dots in time!" Ha, ha, ha!!
21. Old black water, keep on rollin. Mississippi moon won't you keep on shinin on me?

Uno

Great news, Grandma and Grandpa!

Your grand-daughter has learned how to play Uno, and she's a natural!

After she won her first game, and we congratulated her, her little brother, with a pounding of fists on the table, proclaimed he wanted a rematch. (He wasn't even playing)

So you better brush up on your Uno playing skills, Grandpa, 'cause she is ready to show you how it's done!

Moo!

It's a pretty common sight here in Kansas to see an old barn in the middle of new construction. Take this barn in Olathe next to I-35 for instance. This is what it looked like last august. (If you look closely, you can see a hawk on the tip of the roof.)

There were, until a year or two ago, cows grazing here. Every time we would drive by with our toddlers they would yell, "Mommy! Cows!! Mooooooo!!" and then I would say, "Moooo!!" and everyone was very happy. Now they are building freeway exits and bridges.

This is what the barn looks like now.

My guess is that eventually, it will be gone all together. Kind of makes me sad.

Music History

This morning I played music while the kids were getting ready for school. But let's back up a bit...

For Christmas this year, my parents got me the most wonderful gift. I had no idea what it could possibly be, so when I opened it and realize what it was, I shrieked! It was wonderful! It was fantastic! It was the most glorious site I had seen in many, many days! It was a record player.

Oh how I love my new record player, I could go on and on and on, but that is not what this post is really about. This post is about my parents falling in love and how I have in my possession a little piece of that.

The music I played this morning was a Carpenter's record.

So as I flipped the record over and Superstar began to play, I told my daughter about her grandma and grandpa when they were students at BYU. I told her how my Mom told me, that when they would go out on dates, whatever they did, they always seemed to end up at her apartment, listening to these records. Their song is We've Only Just Begun, I've known all the words for as long as I can remember.

So I don't know, it just hit me this morning how incredibly romantic this story is. I'm so happy to have these records. It's like owning a piece of history. It's all part of the reason I am here.

And I think that is fantastic.

Public Speaking

So, remember when you were a kid in Primary (basically, Sunday school for ages 3-12), and every now and then it would be your turn to give a talk? Here, let me tell you about one of my experiences giving a talk, an experience that I remember particularly well.

Well, I don't know how old was, but there I was, in the old Sandy Hills Ward Primary. A mysterious Primary leader (I say mysterious cause I can't remember who it was.) signals me that it is now, right then, my turn to stand at the microphone. So I did, I took my trusted copy of 100 Talks for Children (given to me on the day I was baptized by old Brother Adams, and the older Brother Hart), and I went and stood at the microphone.

It was my moment!

(Earlier, I had stood on the fireplace at home and practiced my talk so when this moment came, I would be ready.)

So there I was, standing, like I said, at the microphone. I looked out into the faces of my friends and neighbors, even my older sister and you know what happened?

I busted out laughing. Laughing so hard that I couldn't control it. AT ALL.

I still remember the look on my sister's face, I had embarrassed her. A LOT.

But still, I kept laughing. The mysterious leader came up to help, but still I was laughing. Surely there were a few, "okay, okay...."'s in there, but laughing was the only significant thing I was able to accomplish at the microphone that Sunday morning.

Now, suddenly, I have a daughter and now she goes to Primary! Can you believe it? Some say she is just like me, but I say she is much better.

Case in point: Last Sunday, my daughter gave her first talk in Primary.

So as you can imagine from the story I just told you, going in, I was feeling some apprehension for her. How would she handle this situation? Would she shine or would she be a puddle of nervous giggles like me?

I did not know.

But she did it! She was fantastic, she stood up at the right time, she spoke every word clearly and loud enough for the people in the back to hear her.

See?

She is totally better than I am.

More Exciting than Christmas

The anticipation is over, the day has arrived!!

The lilacs are blooming!!

My husband came bustin through the front door with these beauties.

The smell is fantastic. FANTASTIC.

My most favorite smell in the whole world.

Sadly, I don't have my own bush. My husband pulls over on the side of a dirt road and pulls them off a row of gigantic lilacs bushes that were abandoned when an old farm house was torn down a few years back. He will bring me two or three more bunches (atleast!) before they are done blooming. Soon he will bring me peonies from an old cemetery.

I really think it's better than Christmas.

We're Not Morning People

(well, he is...I'm not.)

Scene: We had just woken up and turned off all the fans which left our room QUIET. Then a rumbling sounds starts up.

Conversation:

Me: What is that? Is it a train?

Him: Uh, I don't think so.

Me:It sounds close. It sounds too consistant to be a train.

Him: It sounds like someones out there with a grater or something.

Me: Oh.  Is there one of those street vacuum things out there?

Him: No.

(we sit in silence for a minute, well silent except for the rumbling sounds.)

Me: Is it the heater?

Him: oh. hee, hee, YES!!

So apparently the weather is nice for a few days and we forget what our heater sounds like. We then started to make fun of ourselves for the next few minutes.

Me: Sounds like one of them there farmin' graters. Hep, hep!

Him: Ho, ho, but it sounds like a vacuum thingy out there!

Me: Well, whatever it is, it sounds close. And consistent. Very consistent.

Him: And close!

Lets Blow This Taco Stand

What up, March?

Let us list....

1. My little brother and his wife had their first baby on Thursday. I am so excited for him. My Mom is in Boise to help with the baby, and she is totally awesome help after you have a baby, let me tell you.
2. Spring Break wasn't that great, it wasn't horrible either, I guess. I read three books, folded 12 loads of laundry, ran the dishwasher nine times, and I also cooked and cooked, and then cooked some more. I had made plans to go tour the Harley Davidson factory, but true to form, the person I made plans with cancelled at the last minute. Why do they have Spring Break so early here in Kansas anyway?
3. Anyone interested in going to see Yann Martel up in KC in May with me? Send me a text, (or an email, if you must) we'll chat.
4. I caught a quick workout with Heather at jazzercise at 8 am. It is now 11:45 am and my calves are still burning. Yowza!!
5. I got a signed copy of the UK edition of Sea Glass from Maria V. Snyder. It came in the mail last week. I won a little contest on facebook awhile back because I posted that cute little Glass Trilogy widget on my sidebar. Then she mentioned my name (along with the other winners) in her newsletter. It was all terribly exciting for me. (I don't get out much.)
6. You know, I don't like going to church. What's that? You are SHOCKED to hear that? Shut up, you are not. But we have been going anyway, EVERY week. I don't think any of us like it. It's really hard, but man do we love it when they cancel cause of the weather, like last Sunday. God bless the Bishopric.
   

He's Gonna Turn Into a Pancake

I made a tuna noodle casserole for dinner last night. Well, not tuna, canned turkey chunks. Very kid friendly, right? Right? Ahem....

Conversation between the husband and the little boy, at the dinner table:


Husband: Come on, eat your dinner.


Boy: No!!! I want pancakes.


Husband: Pancakes? No, this is dinner, eat this. (He scoops a little bite of casserole on the boy's fork and holds it up to the boy's mouth.)


Boy: (covers his mouth with both hands and shakes his head no, frantically.)


Husband: (gently moves the boys hands and puts the bite in the boy's mouth.) There! See? Not so bad, right?


Boy: (with mouth full of food.) Noooooooooooo!!!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!!! (chews his food. Swallows) ewwww.......that's disgusting!



So then my husband made him take another bite and the boy ran away from the table as soon as it was in his mouth. With impressive defiance, he sat at the computer and started playing a game on Disney.com. Look at those chipmunk cheeks full of food!

So then my husband went and did some weird thing that husbands do or something, but then he was back a few minutes later. The boy is whining about pancakes again so my husband went over to him, picked him up, tucked him in like a football and then brought him over to me and set him on my lap.


Husband: Here you go wittle baby boy, here's your Mommy.


Boy: (whimper)


Husband: Hey, you can't eat nothing but pancakes your whole life, you will turn into a pancake, you know that?


Boy: (nodding his head in confirmation) uh-huh.


Husband: You do? You want to be a pancake?


Boy: uh-huhhhhh.


I watched these exchanges with a big grin on my face, thinking how adorable my little boy is, but also wondering if I gave this much trouble about eating dinner to my parents. (I'm pretty sure I would never eat the canned peas. Okay I'm pretty sure I never ate ANY kind of pea.)

So then, I waited till the husband went out into the garage and I......



made that boy (who wants to be a pancake) some pancakes!!

"It Belongs in a Museum!"

My husband and I finally made it to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. We weren't able to go on our anniversary but two weeks later, I found myself with a Wednesday with no homework and then I disregarded the pile of dishes in the sink.

I was freeeeeee!!

Check it....

Shuttlecocks!

Stain glass!The blurry picture that looks like a painting!

Georgia O'Keefe!

It was cool.

We are going to go again.

Shepherds Pie

Last night I decided to make shepherds pie.

I thought to myself, "It's been a long time since I made shepherds pie, why don't I make shepherds pie, anymore?"

So I made the shepherd's pie, and it was pretty. (If I do say so myself.)

And then I ate that shepherds pie and I remembered.

Yeah, that's right. I remembered.

I remembered that I hated shepherds pie and I remembered my oldest brother calling it shepherds poop.

And now I sit eating the leftovers (cause I'm the only one who will eat leftovers) and I have the urge to say "Shepherd's poop!" with verying inflections.

"Shepherds pooooooooop!!!!"

"Shepheeeeeeeerds poop!!!"

"Shepherds poooooopppppppp!!!"



And that is why I don't make shepherds pie anymore.

This One Time.....(Olympic Addition)

......the 1996 Olympic flame passed right by my house in Sandy, Utah on its way to Atlanta.

See?

And a bunch of the boys from the neighborhood dressed up and ran behind it.

See?

And I was all, "I wish I had thought of that!!!"

It was awesome.

(And oh my goodness...... check out those mountains!)