Grumptastic

I'm not sure what happened, but it feels like I am the victim of a hit-and-run from the bad-mood fairy. Good grief. I've been fine most of the day, but in the last hour I feel out of control and hostile. This is not good.


The neighbor kids have been gone to a family reunion for the past 4 or 5 days so my kids are missing them. Landon especially, so he's driving me crazy. We don't use the word "bored" in our house but his behavior is all about that. He has the new Harry Potter book to read, a cute sister to play with, a nice yard to play in and all manner of other things to do, but since his video game time is up for the day and since his friend can't play he's acting like a man without a country. I'm not very nice about this sort of behavior and ended up sending both kids outside to either pull weeds or practice soccer, yet they both acted like they were being punished. I think they want a new mom and I'd like some new kids right about now.

I've got our Activity Days Fake Sleepover tonight at 7:00 and have been working on a slide show of pictures of all our activities from the past year. I'm happy with it, but kind of bugged that it took me all afternoon to do it.

**How is your mood today?
Do you have to make your kids play outside?**

Must Sleep

This has been a busy day, but since I hate to miss a day of blogging this is my brief report.

--Morning swimming lesson for the kids...they actually swam across the pool!


--Seven Peaks all day with Michelle, Amie, Melinda and all the kids (12 including mine).


--Painting my grandma's carport with miscellaneous cousins, aunts, uncle and parents (this involved much sweating, but wasn't nearly as awful as I thought it was going to be).

{My cousin's wife painted a smiley face on his butt,
and this struck me as very funny.}

--Watched Harold and Maude with Lori. Apparently it's a cult classic film, but we'd never seen it.

I have to go to bed.

Blog Party Success!

I can't believe it's now the morning after the blog party, phew. It feels like this has been on my mind for ages, so it's a relief to have it as a pleasant memory. I enjoy things like this, but I didn't realize how wound up I was about it, until I ended up feeling exhausted and having a migraine by the end of the night. I hate that about myself, I always end up paying a physical price for big events and yet I like to do them. It's a conundrum really. Oh, and last night I told someone how happy I was that I have 2:00 church and that I didn't have to teach either, but then I came home to find a note saying my teaching partner wasn't going to be there and needed me to teach for her! $%#@! At least I got to sleep in.


This is a picture of the food tables early on before everyone arrived. Jenn did a marvelous job with the flowers and with her caramel and chocolate splattered apples. Everyone brought such good food, foolishly I didn't eat except for a few bites here and there.


This is a shot with everyone in it during one of the thick of the night. It was really loud in the room (it needs a rug or something to ground the sound), but it felt busy and very social. It was so great that Tasha recently moved from Pennsylvania to Logan, Utah because that meant she could be here for the party, Allison was visiting family in Bountiful so she was here from Louisiana, and Jennifer drove from California with 3 kids to be here, and Lucy recently moved to Utah from Washington as well.


This is a shot of the good mail gift table. More presents arrived, but I never got back to take a picture of the full table. Everyone did such a great job on their gifts, it was a fun exchange.


This is a shot of some of the girls (Lucy, Claudia, Dana, Rachel, Laralee and Chloe) checking out their good mail gifts. Lucy and Melinda both proclaimed themselves as "noncrafters" but ended up with crafty supplies. We're all going to be waiting for them to post their projects.


Here is our group shot (thanks to a tripod) minus Amy H. who had to slip out a bit earlier because she had guests at her house, she'll have to photoshop herself in. First row: from left to right it's Lori, Lindsay, Jana, Julie, Emi, Allison and Tasha. Second row: Me, Rachel, Chloe, Collette, Jenny S., Elisa, Dana and Jennifer. Third row: Jenn, Lucy, Melinda, Amie, Hannah, Michelle, Claudia. Top row: Laralee, Crystalyn, Amy M. and Annalisa. So I guess that means we had 27 women in attendance, hooray. You can see the rest of the photos here.


Claudia surprised me by driving all night from California to be here for the party! I was so thrilled. I had begged her in a couple emails this week to do that because she and her husband often take spontaneous road trips, but she hadn't sounded like they were going to do it. Her husband is the one who ended up making it happen! What a delight.


Also, we missed those of you who said you were coming, but then didn't make it (what's up with that?) and those who were almost going to be able to come and then your trips fell through (Kelly, Lisa and Janae), and what about Miss Kristi? We chose this date because of her! I had deluded myself in to thinking that she was going to surprise us and show up, but then I guess her Europe trip trumps a blog party. Drat.

It was a night of stimulus overload for me, but was so much fun. I'm officially a hugger now! How about that? Thanks so much to everyone who made the effort to be there and who contributed food, a gift and money for the room (you guys were generous!). I'm so grateful to know you all and to be a blogger! Next year will be even better.

Happy Birthday to
Pam (it's her 4oth) and Allison!!

**I really hope everyone will post about the party so we can view different photos and perspectives on it.**

Palpitations

It's T minus 3 hours and 22 minutes until the blog party starts and now I've got butterflies in my stomach. What's up with that? It's probably just excitement and a reeling mind as I keep reviewing the details for tonight (napkins, plates, ice, drinks, etc.). Oh my. I think we're going to have a big crowd (close to 40) so we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck! I wish you were all coming!

A Severe Miscalculation

I seriously underestimated the amount of stuff I have in this room. You'd think since I'm the one who put it all in here that I'd have an decent idea, but oh nooooo. This morning I was actually thinking that Michelle and I would probably have time to work on a creative project as well. That's hysterical. We spent about 7 hours organizing my room and we're still not done! That's just not right. I'm officially ready to declare that I am not buying one more thing for myself until I have a place to put it (that could be years)!


Michelle was a tremendous help to me. She kept me focused and on task all day. I never blogged, never left to take a break, and never sat down on the floor to cry. She kept saying that it was ridiculous that she was helping me organize my room, since she can't seem to organize hers, but I think having a support person in place is the key. I will be helping her in her room next week.


Lori brought us Chili's take-out for lunch again today (she did last week as well) so that was a life-saver. We had Fajita Quesadillas and chips & queso. This replenished our bodies and kept us from having to think of something for lunch, and really that's the worst part for us.


The kids played great today and spent the majority of the time outside, except for a video game/popcorn break. Eva came in to watch a show a couple of times and she even fell asleep for about 45 minutes! Score.


The room isn't clean enough for the "after" pictures, but some serious progress has been made. I'm feeling good about the dresser purchase. It looks good, it holds a ton, and it's going to give me a surface to work on. I never have room to actually do much in here so now I can wrap presents and assemble good mail packages on there. Woohoo!

{My notebook drawer, it's pleasing no?}

Meanwhile I should be preparing for the blog party which is now a short 24 hours away! I'm so relieved that we're not having it at my house. My front yard officially looks like we've given up on yard work all together. Randy hasn't mown the lawn in 2 weeks and my flower beds look like crap. I don't know if it's the heat, apathy, or bad luck, but we're a mess. My point is I'd be wigging out and trying to relandscape if the party was going to be here tomorrow, but since it's not, all is well and I'm not stressed.

Happy Birthday to
Annalisa & Jenny!!

**Can you believe this mess?
Do you have a friend nice enough to help like this?
Do you have a notebook stash?
Are you ready for the blog party?**

Disoriented

My sleeping woes have escalated. Last night I took 2 Tylenol PMs (for the first time) and after sleeping for an hour woke up feeling restless and fighting the "Jimmy Arm." I moved out to the couch (this helps) and watched tv for a little while then fell asleep (victory) until 6:00am. I then moved back to my bed and slept until 8:45. Apparently I'd been pressing snooze for 45 minutes and had no recollection of doing that. I had to get Whitney to her first soccer practice of the season by 9:00, plus I had to stay to help. Needless to say I looked horrifying and greasy. It ended up being really hot, even though it was still morning so I'm actually glad I hadn't gotten to shower and get ready, otherwise I would have had to start over.


The kids and I went grocery shopping and ran into some of their friends from church. They ended up inviting both kids over to their house after shopping (woohoo). So I had 2.5 hours of solitude to unload the groceries and to start dismantling my scrapbook room in order to accommodate my birthday dresser (which Randy finally finished putting together last night). It's major upheaval in my house right now because of all the stuff I had to take out of my room, but I am optimistic. The drawers are nice and big (they even have yellow stripes on the bottoms) so I've been able to fit a lot more in them than I had even anticipated. It's just hard for me to know what should go where because I seem to have so many miscellaneous items.

{My drawer of envelopes and stationery!}

Michelle actually volunteered to come over tomorrow to help me with this project for Creative Friday. I think I'm still going to need her help even though I got a good jump on the project, because this may be beyond me.

**Any organizing tips?
Sleeping tips?**

Another Visitor

I didn't fall asleep until 4:00am again! What is going on? It's making me crazy. I slept until 9:00, but woke up feeling like a zombie again. I would say this is going to stunt my growth, but since I only seem to be growing wider then perhaps it's a good thing. Then again, watching tv and eating cinnamon and sugar toast at 2:30 in the morning probably isn't the best thing.


I got out of the shower this morning to find a surprising voice mail message from my old (not age-wise) BYU friend Sarah saying she is in town and wanted to get together. How delightful. I called her right back and made a plan for her to come over later. I hadn't seen her in person for like 10 years, when Randy and I flew to Portland to visit Sarah and to see an exhibit of Andrew Wyeth's Helga Pictures.


It was so fun to have her show up at my house (which she recognized from my blog) and then to sit and talk just like old times. We had a good chat, ate some of the tasty chips and salsa she brought with her and caught up on life a bit. She was hoping to be in town for the blog party, but it looks like she's probably going to be heading back to Washington earlier than expected.


We had the hardest time getting a good self-portrait. I kept getting my big head and only a tiny part of hers. I was laughing and felt like a spazz, but it was amusing.


I found this whole photo thing so funny. We ended up with 19 pictures! Oh my.

**Are you a self-portrait spazz?
Do like to get together with old friends?
Have you read Sarah's blog?**

My Non-Holiday

It was Pioneer Day here in Utah today, but since it's a State holiday and not a national holiday Randy still had to work (his company isn't based in Utah) and the mail was still delivered (I love that). I kept thinking we were still going to end up doing something festive, but we ended up staying home all day. It was still busy with the neighbor kids in and out, my sister Lori here during the afternoon and a brief visit from my brother Adam (bearing shakes!).


I did my quarterly Clorox Clean-Up bathroom treatment, which involves taking everything out of the bathroom, wearing my protective goggles (leftover from Landon's home school science kit, thus they are rather tight) and scrubbing the walls and ceiling (there's no fan in the bathroom so moisture collects and after awhile things look less than white). This project ended up taking quite awhile, but at least it's done and I shouldn't have to do it again for several months. It's a large, but satisfying job.

I had a phone appointment with Betsy today (hence my self-portrait for SPT was done while on the phone, though that's a pretty accurate picture of me during the day), which was very nice. I'm always amazed that even though we only see each other every few years (she lives in Michigan) and our lives are completely different we never run out of things to talk about. We just start talking and bounce from subject to subject, covering tons of ground before we run out of time (when her son wakes up from his nap). It's great.


I got this good mail package from my new blogging friend Mique (FYI, it's pronounced Mickey.). She sent me these cute good mail labels, a ponytail holder for my summer hairdos, her favorite candy bar and a nice note. Thanks Mique!


I also got to meet Tasha in person today! Once again, I got to meet a fellow blogger and felt totally comfortable, like we were old friends. I guess after reading each others' blogs for over year that's what happens. I also got to meet her two daughters, so that was fun as well. It was amusing that as she was leaving we were saying "See you Saturday" because of the blog party. That's just plain fun.


For dinner tonight I got a take-out Pork Salad from Cafe Rio. I seem to be craving this like crazy lately, so Randy went to pick it up for me when he took the kids out to get a shave ice. I got some good mail ready while they were gone and then watched Man vs. Wild while we ate (though at one point we had to watch something else while I finished eating because it got kind of nasty when the guy was skinning a dead deer). We love that show and it's now our family show of choice. Whitney calls it "The show where the guy tries to survive." Good times.

**How was your day?**

SPT--Beat The Heat

It's no secret that I don't handle the heat well. I have to actively work to not voice my disdain for it, and even then I'm not usually successful. So if we're not at Seven Peaks cooling off, I'm most likely to found inside my air conditioned house close to a fan or a vent!

**What about you??**

Tagged

I can't sleep!! Aargh! I was tagged by Amanda & Sandi so this filled an hour for me. Good grief.

Jobs that I've had:

1. Sales clerk/cashier at the clothing store my dad owned while I was in high school. I worked there from ages 14-18. I still refold shirts when I go into clothing stores now because of my years of doing it there.

2. Waitress at Bob's Big Boy: My best friend Betsy and I thought we'd make a ton of money by being waitresses at this fine establishment, so we dawned our foxy polyester dresses and put on our sexy toasty roasty brown nylons and gave it a whirl. We only last 2 weeks (which seemed like an eternity) before we called-in and quit one night. It was an awful job and I never got better at it. I kept telling people it was my first day, and one of my tables said "Yeah, you already told us that."


3. Donut sales girl at Winchell's: This was the most humiliating and tempting job I ever had. I was desperate for a job while I was a freshman at BYU and just could not get hired anywhere (I still have no idea why) so ended up getting a job working from 5am-noon selling donuts. I had to walk in the dark and the cold from Deseret Towers down to Winchells, wearing my yellow and white striped shirt, where I sold donuts and coffee to many people and tried not to eat any donuts myself (though I could have whatever I wanted). I usually lasted until 10:00am and then I was starving and surrounded by donutty goodness and couldn't take it anymore. This was really the beginning of the end for me as far as being fat goes.

4. Data Entry Queen: I had a super intense typing teacher in 7th grade who scared me so much that I never dared looked down at my hands when I typed. This ended up making me a fast typer with good habits and also gave me an employable skill that has served me well for years. I have had numerous jobs doing data entry over the years and now type daily in my job as a blog specialist--ha.

Films I can watch over and over again:

1. When Harry Met Sally: This movie came out when I was a senior in high school and I just loved it. It was also the first movie I ever owned on video (it was a gift) so I have watched it a gazillion times. I pretty much have it memorized and can listen to it anytime just to be amused. "I said I would and I didn't, I went the other way."

2. The Princess Bride: I don't know how I missed this movie in theaters during high school, but I did, so when I got to BYU and everyone was quoting it I had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn't until I watched it on VHS that I finally got let into the joy of it. I've now seen it so many times that's it just part of me. "Inconceivable!"

3. A Room With A View: I saw Last of the Mohicans in the theater 7 times and became desperately infatuated with Daniel Day Lewis because of it, so I ended up renting all of his movies. My roommate and I rented A Room With A View and spent the entire time being delighted and confused because we could not figure out what character he played. He did such an amazing job as Cecil that we didn't even recognize him! I've since watched that movie hundreds of times and know it by heart. Lori and I often quote bits of it to each other (it's rather applicable in daily life) and just adore it. "Here is where the bird sings, here is where the sky is blue."

4. Tootsie: I saw this movie in the theater back in 1982 (which seems highly inappropriate to me now) and thought it was hilarious (though I can't imagine that I understood much of it then). I've seen this movie hundreds of times since then and still think it's funny. "I was more of a man with you as a woman, then I was myself as a man."

Places I have lived:

1. Fullerton, California

2. Grand Rapids, Michigan

3. Hudson, Ohio

4. Freakin Eagle Mountain, Utah

Favorite TV shows

1. Friday Night Lights: I think this is one of the best shows on tv. It is so well done that it feels like a good movie each week rather than just an episode. I'm so glad it didn't get cancelled!

2. 30 Rock: I think this is the funniest show on tv. I basically bought the entire season (one episode at a time) on itunes and have watched them over and over again while I'm doing stuff on the computer. "Live every week like it's shark week!"

3. Survivor: I know, it's reality tv, but I can't get enough of it. It's fascinating to me to see how people "play" the game. I love it how they try to keep their integrity, meanwhile they're exhausted and starving which changes things completely. Plus, I find it amusing that I'm always trying to figure out what I would do if I were playing, but really know I wouldn't last through the first afternoon!

4. LOST: Randy and I joined the party late on this show and ended up watching the first two seasons on DVD (which was a great pleasure). We love this show!

Favorite foods:

1. Pot Roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.

2. Good Pizza

3. Cafe Rio Pork Salad

4. Lays potato chips with Ranch dip

Websites I visit daily:

1. Many, many blogs

2. Amazon.com

3. Netflix.com

4. Hotmail

Places I'd rather be:

1. Sleeping soundly and dreaming of Brad Pitt (it's 5:30am @#$%!).

2. Eating chocolate mousse in Paris.

3. Lying on the beach in Hawaii.

4. Walking in the rain in Oregon.

People I'm tagging:

1. Claudia

2. Jen

3. Natasha

4. Barb

Sunday Thoughts

My primary lesson today is on the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats from Matthew 25:31-46. It's pretty straightforward...Sheep = Righteous followers of Christ, Goats = Wicked people. I was struck again by the simple significance of the imagery of sheep. Sheep have a bad reputation, but I think it's undeserved.

This lesson gives us the famous scripture in Matthew 25:40

"And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me."

That pretty much covers it all doesn't it? There's really no room for justifying our behavior and treatment of others is there? I consider myself a good person who is struggling to be like Christ in all areas of my life (teensy baby steps at a time). I want to be found on the right hand of Christ when He returns. So I have to ask myself if my daily decisions are bringing me closer to Him. Some days I can answer "yes," but other days the answer is "not so much."

It comes back to loving and serving others doesn't it? We love those we serve, and we really should serve everyone. I think Kristi's challenge to do Random Acts of Kindness goes along nicely with this thought, plus she has all kinds of great ideas for things to do.

Some ideas that come to mind.
--Visiting teaching
--Taking a meal to someone (why not surprise someone with lunch?)
--Writing a note just because, especially if it has a compliment to be shared.
--Saying thank you and meaning it, whether it's because someone held a door open for you, smiled at your kids, picked up something you dropped or said something you needed to hear.
--Going out of your way to help someone at the grocery store.
--Visiting a neighbor or new move-in.
--Calling your grandparents.
--Volunteering to watch someone's kids, so they can have a break.
--Cleaning something for someone else.
--Running an errand for someone else (i.e., calling to see if they need anything while you're at the store).

Here's to becoming a sheep! Baa.

**What do you think??**

Just Plain Behind

I'm feeling behind on blogging, both reading and posting, and I don't like it one bit. If I don't stay caught up then I end omitting things and that seems a little bit sad to me. Does anyone else do this?


I woke up the other day and shuffled into the kitchen where I found this note from Landon. He was trying to be funny while fulfilling his duty of practicing his penmanship. He write huge so he fills the paper with one sentence.

"Mom please cut this bagel, and
put it in the toaster on dark.
Oh and could you butter it?
Thank you from Landon"

Thursday night we met at Amy's house for our book club discussion of Water For Elephants. We had quite the spread that night of panini's, Michelle's chicken salad, apples and toffee dip, chips and salsa, m&ms, and Dibs. It was very good and helped make up for the lameness of the book. We all found the book entertaining and page turning, but there were several gross parts and ultimately I felt like it was much ado about nothing. It was one of those books that left me feeling manipulated and disappointed. I came home and promptly listed my copy on Amazon and had it sold by morning, woohoo.


I took this picture through my dirty kitchen window, it's Landon lying on the grass watching the road in anticipation of Lucas' arrival. He was out there for a half hour! He loves it when Lucas gets to come over and play at our house.


Michelle, Lucas and Eva came to our house for Creative Friday since I had my nieces here. It turned out splendidly well. Michelle got lots more done than she had expected and the kids got along great. I managed to write 18 thank you cards, so that's a start, phew.


The boys played great together all day, switching off from video games, playing outside, the board game Life, and frolicking in the water. It's kind of great that they're such good friends, they've literally known each other their whole lives.


Eva surprised us all by playing well and being happy all day at my house. She got terrifically dirty in the boys' mud pool, but she was so delighted by it that it kept her busy. She looked like a first class ragamuffin, but was still all kinds of cute.


Whitney, Bella, Tess and Megan played great during the 2 days sleepover and did pretty well with incorporating Eva into their day. It was kind of funny to see them all zoned out like this yesterday afternoon, eating fishy crackers and watching The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

I've been receiving some belated birthday goodies and am enjoying that.


Missy shocked me completely by ordering these extremely cute cards and envelopes from Paper Source. They arrived today and I was giddy. Thanks Missy!


My sister-in-law Daniela sent me this Barnes and Noble gift card today. Woohoo. I was actually surprised I hadn't gotten one for my birthday because usually Randy or someone in my family gets me one. Nice.


Michelle A. sent me this Mt. Vernon ornament, some cool luggage labels and a cadbury chocolate along with a nice note. Thanks Michelle!


Jenn gave me this canvas quote thingy. I've never seen one of these before, and absolutely love it. Thanks Jenn!


Allison sent me an itunes gift card (do a little dance) and some nice Making Memories supplies. I'm delighted with these items. Thanks so much Allison.


I surprised Landon by preordering the latest Harry Potter book, so he was thrilled when I handed the package to him when it came in the mail today. I don't care at all about Harry Potter, but he does so it was a fun surprise.

**How was your week?
Do you fall behind and end up omitting things?**