Happy 2009 Everyone...

well i've started a depressing post about WHY i loathe this holiday so much about 4 times and it REALLY is too depressing to read, so i will just say HAPPY 2009 to everyone...and add i do NOT NOT NOT like this holiday!

We are looking forward to 2009 for a few reasons:

1. Kyle will GRADUATE! (FINALLY! praise the Lord, hallelujah -is that how you spell it?)

2. By September of 2009, I will have a child in High School, Junior High and Elementary School...

gee, could i have planned that any better?

3. Somehow, someway we are trying to head to the beach this summer to "veg" on the sand.

4. We hope to win the Idaho state lottery to pay off our student loans and house (well, one can always wish right?)

5. Kyle will now be 2 years "scout free" (as in he has NOT been working with the Scouts...that DOES free up a lot of summer vacation time for the family...not that we GO anywhere, but we have the time now! LOL)

6. Josh may finally stop growing UPWARD this year, thus freeing up my "New Pants for Josh" budget for something else.

7. We will probably hit 12 gallons of milk a week this next year.

8. 2009 will come with its share of joys AND challenges...are we ready?

9. i may try to start growing houseplants again this year...who knows?!

10. we will be trying some NEW things with duct tape this year, betcha can't wait!

have a GREAT one everyone! 

$5000 grand anyone?? beach chairs for sale....

as i was searching for CHEAP places to MAYBE

stay for a vacation in California this summer

I came across THIS spot!

for 3 1/2 years as Kyle has trudged through school,

and i have trudged (the word trudged sounds SO good, kind of like DRUDGERY, 

although it has NOT been just trudging and drudgery--say THAT 3 times fast--

 it does make one feel MORE empathy for my situation 

than if i used words like SKIPPED and HOPPED, right?)

anyhoo, as i have TRUDGED through motherhood/fatherhood/and doing it mostly alone,

i have ALWAYS said "when Kyle is DONE, i want to sit

on a beach for a week and do NOTHING."

(that sounds SO GREAT to me!)

anyway, found this spot, the chairs were EXACTLY as i pictured

them in my minds eye all this time....

they had my name all over them....

but alas, the chairs are about $5000 grand out of this gals price range...

off to keep checking into reality!

keep your fingers crossed~

HOW could i forget????? look what she did....

in case you can't tell...bottom tooth GONE!

my baby lost her first tooth!

wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

(she is growing up) :O(

what do YOU do for Christmas break?

so what does YOUR family do for Christmas break?

US....

we are big fans of game playing!

as in board games, card games, anything "game-y" (except for game-y meat)

it is some serious stuff, and for SOME OF US (namely me)

...we never like to loose!

so my SIL regifted me this great word game this year.

it is called "QUIDDLER".

i am a huge HUGE fan of word games, or ANY game that in fact

requires actual thinking as part of the challenge.

Josh and I have been DOMINATING at this game so far.

it is a game of skill and thought that requires

one to spell/make words with the cards drawn in ones hand.

each round you get progressively MORE cards to make into words

and you win by laying all YOUR cards (all of them) first!

fun stuff....

a few other enjoyable activities have involved some good old fashioned sledding,

snow fort building, shovelling (LOTS of that)playing with friends,

grabbing a movie and snacking.

kyle and i were just saying to each other how ODD it is at the holidays how

people snack and never seem to sit down for a real meal.

there is always tomorrow, right?

so anyway, if you're bored, QUIDDLER can still be found online at AMAZON,

i even saw that Target carried it as well.

a word to the wise: find some intelligent people to play it with! :O)

Merry Christmas to ALL and to all a good night!

what it's ALL about...really!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to family and friends near and far~

anyone remember Laverne & Shirley?

Please PLEASE PLEASE! tell me i am not SO OLD that I am the only one who remembers the T.V. show "Laverne & Shirley".
Remember the era of "Happy Days" with Fonzie and Pinky Tuscadero??
Who didn't love Laverne, Shirl, Lenny & Squiggy and all their antics? It was SORT OF a modern day "I LOVE LUCY" (i know, i know, probably NO purist would compare the two in the same sentence...but i was an 8 yr. old easily entertained so give me a break!)
Now I am certain you all are wondering WHAT in the world could that old T.V. show have to do with Christmas? at all?
i am going to tell you!
Every year, as i would wrap up a few of the gifts for my children from Mom and Dad (me & kyle) and put them underneath the tree (which leans slightly right this year much to my dismay) i would find my children at odd moments beneath the tree. They would be shaking, wiggling, and in any other way humanly possible, trying to figure out what was beneath the wrapping paper or inside the box.
I DO KNOW that I could easily solve this problem simply by NOT putting anything out early, but i do like to have a present or two under the tree, and obviously Santa doesn't make his appearance until late Christmas Eve.
Last year, I was struck by what I like to call SHEER GENIUS! (or maybe it was insanity, I do know the two are closely related and I daily teeter between them both)
Back to my "genius"....
I decided to give each of my children a "SECRET NAME" (imagine that being said in your best James Earl JONES voice, it really makes it sound SO much better!)
SO, much to their chagrin and my (great)amusement they became became...JUAN(aka Eliza), LEONARDO (aka Olivia), REPUNZEL (aka Grace) & OLIVER (aka Josh). The names were very randomly choosen and they spent days trying to figure out WHO was WHO! (i actually think i took the 2nd letter from their names and twirled around two times singing Christmas carols until a new name came to me.)
They had NO CLUE who was who (and i forgot daily too so it was written down and tucked away in some "secret place" which i forgot as well)
But it was all good, Santa has a great memory and he got the Josh, Grace, Eliza and Olivia presents stacked in the right piles (thank goodness for Santa!)
This year, I just finished wrapping up my "mom & dad" gifts and setting them beneath the tree. I picked a theme for names this year. From one of my favorite shows from the 80's. (probably before some of you were born, sigh)
As the gifts were stacked beneath the tree (with its slightly right lean) the kids were scratching their heads "who the heck are Laverne, Shirley, Lenny & Squiggy mom?"
"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAA???" said I.
HOW could they possibly have made it thus far into their youth without a CLUE who these people were??? SOME of them did not even know "THE FONZ".
Certainly I have failed as a mother!
BUT thank goodness for the internet and google (see, another good use of the internet we could use in a conference talk...teaching the kids about old T.V. shows. hmmm, probably not!) Ah well, for what it's worth, it worked for us!
We googled LAVERNE & SHIRELY and HAPPY DAYS and had a brief, but enlightening discussion about the "good old days" (now wait i am looking over my shoulder and they are all gone, the room is empty, well, I ,AT LEAST, had a good conversion with myself about the "good old days".)
And so, long winded as usual, that is my story, and I am sticking with it.
This year all the presents under the tree say LAVERNE, SHIRLEY, LENNY & SQUIGGY! (and NOPE! kids there is NO color coded clue in this blog entry, you will all have to wait until Christmas morning to see who you are this year!)
so, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and to all HAPPY DAYS! (long live the FONZ!)

it works! it really works! RE: DUCT TAPE & WALLS!

well, we HAD TO try it....

what are the children to do on their

first day of Christmas vacation?

Olivia was our unwilling model,

after bribing and cajoling and threats of

not being her "best friend" anymore,

the girls got her hooked up to the basement wall.

we apologize for the blurry pictures, i believe

Gracie was laughing too hard in all the pictures...

thus shaking the camera!

and here she is:

So after all, one CAN 

DUCT TAPE a child to the wall!

for reference: Olivia is 5 1/2 yrs old.

42 pounds and about 46 inches tall.

we thank you Olivia for a REALLY good laugh today,

and hope that we can afford to pay for your extensive

therapy at some point in the future~

the 5 things that make me happy...in no particular order!

#5. DIET COKE...

gosh does that one REALLY need an explaination?

#4. MONEY...

now before everyone goes all postal on me for putting MONEY

as a thing that makes me happy, let me explain!

we have never had an excess of the green stuff, BUT, we

have always had enough to make ends meet...and in these days

of recession, and harder times, for so many in the world i am TRULY grateful

for enough to pay my bills, buy food for my family, and even help out a little

for those that may be worse off than me.

so while money probably does not buy happiness (although it can sure

buy a lot of nice "things") i am happy that i have sufficient, because i know,

KNOW KNOW, it could be a lot worse. (and you just never know if tomorrow,

it will be YOU--meaning ME--that it will get worse for!)

#3. My children, awake or asleep (well mostly asleep, but i have no

picture loaded on my computer of them sleeping)

OKAY! i am kidding, i DO love them when they are awake...

they make me laugh, smile, they make me crazy, but MOSTLY

they make me extrememly happy (and proud!)

#2. Chocolate Chips Cookies....simply divine when warm

(or pretty much anything chocolate)

AND the#1 thing that makes me HAPPY...

DUCT TAPE!!!

because now that the holidays are upon us.....i feel daily urges to

use it on my children and stick them in a closet. Isn't there some

kind of Guiness Book record for seeing how long it takes

for kids to undo themselves from duct tape in a closet?

no? are you SURE?

below are just a FEW of the many uses for duct tape.

you will never loose your child, even in your own home.

(can someone try this and tell me if it REALLY works?)

use it to cover up butt cracks....

yours OR someone elses!

you can make a holiday gift...josh has one in BYU blue

that he created....it took him hours...see that makes me happy too!
(he was creative AND he used his time wisely!)

AND, it comes in LOTS of pretty colors! :O)

and those are the TOP 5 things that make me happy.

(sort of)

happy birthday old lady!

"they say it's MY birthday...

Happy Birthday to me...."

(la la la la la la....singing loudly to the Beatle's tune

of the same name.)

i ask myself WHY OH WHY am i advertising??

i am old-er, getting even OLD-ER.

i have a few new wrinkles,

(but still no gray hairs, thank goodness for ONE good thing

in the gene pool...sigh)

things sag that used to NOT sag...

(and NOT what you are thinking, although...)

ah, the blessed joys of my aging and aching body...

i am now my mother that i made fun of.

and if you're reading this and NOT there yet,

just KNOW it will happen!

but i am happy to celebrate this day with my little family.

they are the world to me.

i got to spend the morning with Kyle, alone at breakfast.

cheap, but good and QUIET! (no kids)

i got to snuggle with Bompie and watch "ELF"

(a holiday classic, that STILL makes me LOL after seeing

it something like 1,298,322 times!)

and i got the greatest gifts (simple and small, yet PERFECT!)

from my girls...sweeter still (OH! so sweet!) they saved

and paid for the gifts themselves.

it touched my heart.

so, for that reason i am glad to celebrate my "special day"

with those that i love and care about the very most in this world.

what do your favorite TV shows say about you?

since we are the last remaining 1% of the world

WITHOUT

cable, HDTV, TIVO, etc.

we are still just on the basic channels....

but here are a few of my favorites.

i wonder what it says about me???

probably more than i want to admit via the internet... Boston Legal, just finished up forever.

it was slightly irreverant (ok it was A LOT)

and slightly political (ok, again a LOT)

but man oh man did this show make me laugh.

i hope you don't think less of me for it.

two words: "Denny Crane"

(seriously, i watch reruns and just LAUGH!)

i guess i am irreverant....??

i was introduced to THIS (B.G.) by my friends Brodi,

and her sister Erin. When they told me about it i mocked them,

i laughed, i teased and i ridiculed.

THEN i started borrowing their DVD sets from Season One. (and

Season Two and Season 3.0 and Season 3.5)

All those long nights while Kyle was in school, i watched! and watched and watched...

And then i was HOOKED!!!

this is the NEW version from the SCI-FI channel. i am NOT

a "sci-fi" fan per say, but this show is REALLY, really, really good!

if you want to mock, tease and ridicule me, i say WATCH it first!

OOPS! not sure how "edward" (Twilight) snuck in here....

well, he looks good anyway~!

go see Twilight...again!

one of the best shows EVER.
nuff said.

we own all the seasons on DVD and watch them over and over.

again, very politically incorrect, but WEEKLY it makes me laugh.
i love the Office! who doesn't? (probably someone right?)

WHAT shows do YOU like???
(and if you want to know what my TV choices say about me,
it is mostly that i am a little bit weird and I am OK with that!)

finishing things up....

i got this email from a friend today about FINISHING THINGS UP and thought it was JUST PERFECT for what i was about to post here....

"By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished."So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished and before leaving the house this morning, I finished a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now."


the email made me laugh!

we (as in KYLE) did finish up one really BIG THING today though ...
FINALS! he is done at the University for the 2nd to last time!
3 classes left!
3 classes left!
3 classes left!
(did i mentions, 3 classes?)
OK, i am excited! HE is too! the kids are as well!

way to go KYLE on "finishing things up" today!!!
So now i guess he can go finish off an Oreo, and a piece of cheesecake too!
He deserves it! way to go on something you started a LOT of years ago!
here's to finishing things up....

Merry & Bright

here's our card preview....

finished product....

guess i don't have to mail them out now~??

Walmart .09 cent prints (they are not technically

Christmas CARDS, just photo's that i "embellished.")

cost: $3.50

it will cost me more to mail them than have them done.

kyle especially wants me to mail a letter out telling everyone

how perfect our family is (you know "those" kind of christmas

letters?? the one's that make you wonder what the h*ll is wrong with

YOUR family??)

guess we'll be skipping the letter this year~ :O)

ode to snow

i stole my images from the world wide web....

so what?

here's the thing, i live in a "snow state"...

MOST people love that fluffy white stuff that falls out

of the sky from Oct. to long into May some years,

but GUESS what?

NOT ME!

i am officially a "snow odiator*" (a word i completely

made up by the way)

*diriative from the word "odious" meaning:

1.deserving or causing hatred; hateful; detestable.
2.offensive; repugnant; disgusting.

see, for me, there is nothing good about snow.

it is...

cold

wet

makes the roads slippery to drive upon

you have to shovel it

if you ask Josh what is "bad" about snow, he

will say EVERYTHING.

(i take full responsibility for influening him for the worst in this matter)

did i mention COLD?

AND WET?

i know, i know, i am now at the mercy of being on the

receiving end of some flying white stuff in the form of snowballs,

cast at me by those who love to ski, snowboard, and otherwise

frolic in the white frozen water....

go ahead, cast your first snowball.

see if i care.

i stand by my ODIATING of snow.

give me warm lazy spring days, full of sunshine and flowers.

OR give me a hazy autumn day, filled with gently falling leaves.

i will take EITHER over snow.

i think i need to move somewhere warm-ER.

san diego?

oh sure, it (meaning SNOW) is great on Christmas Day, it really sets the mood

for St. Nick and all that jazz, but anytime before OR after, ODIATOR I AM!

so you can stand with me or against me, it matters not...

i just had to share my ODE TO SNOW.

SILVER BELLS...

"Silver bells silver bells It's Christmas time in the city Ring a ling hear them sing Soon it will be Christmas day ..."

ahhh! the sweet music of bells ringing, Bing Crosby singing...Christmas tunes playing softly on the IPOD (oh how far we've come from the old scratchy record players)
but WAIT!
there is no sweet music playing, no Bing Crosby singing, but I *AM* hearing bells....

ringing, and children ...well, A CHILD, running whenever the bell

is being RUNG. Eliza seems to have confiscated a SILVER BELL

that was used at Aunt Wendy's wedding (actually it was given to her

as a gift with no thought of its future use) today she has decided

to be the QUEEN of our house (is this not how it is EVERY DAY?) and

i am the KING (obviously our dad is NOT around a lot) and poor poor Olivia

is the SERVANT....everytime the silver bells ring, Olivia goes darting

through the house to fetch something for the QUEEN. I am sitting on my

couch reading and giggling as Olivia dashes through the house

for something, YET AGAIN, for the QUEEN.

that, is OUR version of silver bells this holiday season.

i am off to turn on Bing for a while now....

"silver bells, silver bells..."

MY RANT: WTH ever happened to customer service?

if you have to ask what does "WTH" mean, well, nevermind...

and if you know what it means, read on!

i am 41 yrs old (gasp!) and i think that after living on earth for that

long i deserve the smallest amount of respect, right?

today i was running one QUICK (well it was supposed to be QUICK)

errand while the kids were at school. it is SHORT DAY and so i only have

until 10:30 and then bompie returns from K. (as in kindergarten, initials

on blogs confuse me--)

anyway, i ran up to Smiths Marketplace for my "big purchase".

as i was waiting in line with my item, some kind holiday soul turned

and said "you KNOW that there is a coupon in today's paper for "X" amount off

of your purchase. there are some more coupons up front!"

i told her THANK YOU, and i was thrilled to know it, because if you know

ANYTHING about me, it is #1: i LOVE to shop. BUT #2. ONLY if it's a really

good deal! all deals make everything better. this is my philosophy on shopping. (pretty much i REFUSE to pay full price)

anyway i dashed up front to try and find the coupon. i looked and looked but to

no avail! There were PILES of papers, but none of them from today.

so i turned to the CUSTOMER SERVICE line and waited. there were THREE (yup THREE) ladies working the lines...however INSTEAD OF serving CUSTOMERS,

they were balancing the tills or some darn thing.

so i continued to wait.

after 10 MINUTES of waiting (i was 2nd in line) i was pretty ticked. NOT ONE TIME in that 10 minutes did ONE of the ladies say "i will be right with you" OR
"just give us a minute to finish up please"

i was starting to feel like one of the THREE PIGS and was ready to break out

into a song and dance routine with LOTS of "HUFFING AND PUFFING!"

the lady in front of me had a small baby who was getting crankier by the minute

and she and i were taking turns rolling our eyes at each other.

FINALLY, they looked at us (AHA! we were still there, someone COULD see us!)

and proceeded to help the lady in front of me....she left.

it was MY TURN! oh glory day! oh happy times! someone would FINALLY help me! to my UTTER surprise, they turned BACK TO EACH OTHER and started chatting amongst themselves....FOR REAL?? for real!

by now, i was pretty ticked! "EXCUSE ME" i said and i explained what i needed.

and much to my (NOT) surprise NOT ONE OF THEM had a clue WHAT ad i was talking about or where it was.

now it was THEIR turn to "huff and puff" and stomp around, they could NOT find the ad anywhere. finally after consulting a help line, a manager and google they located the AD!

the customer service rep THRUST it at me and rolled her eyes.

OH THE HORROR!

i politely (well SORT OF POLITELY) said "you know, i hate to point this out, but

I AM the customer, and you DO work in customer service--you may try being a little more pleasant about it!"

there is my RANT, SMITHS almost lost my sale today....i worked in "customer service from my first job at age 16 til NOW (running my own ebay store still i deal w/serving customors...some crabby, some nice...and MY PHILOSOPHY is that THEY are the customer, and i should SERVE THEM!)

so my rant is ...WTH ever happened to GOOD customer service. it seems to be harder and harder to find! i actually find myself complimenting people at stores when they do a great job at helping me.

and if you think SMITHS is bad....let me tell you about WALMART....

Bompie says "HI DADDY", grace is a winner and I am a COPYCAT!

Kyle is in Phoenix all week on business.

bompie says HI DADDY! i love you!

she drew you this picture of you flying on the airplane.

you are in the BACK WINDOW in case you're wondering...

all the other employees are in the other windows!
DADDY! ^^^


Grace Catherine took "honorable mention" in her REFLECTIONS
drawing this year. it was the 4th of July over the Manhatten
skyline...my picture is really bad! HER picture was really good!
way to go gracie!

GEEZ mom! do i have to pose?

getting her "award"...

yeah grace!

i am a WINNER!

bored and copying an idea i saw on TV yesterday...

santa nutter butter cookies...
ingredients...

stage one...

stage TWO...

close up

stage THREE...

and DONE!

MY verdict: a LOT of work, pretty cute, not sure how they taste!

nerds...we are all nerds!

so we put up the tree and all the trimmings...

what do my girls do?

sit on the couch for an hour and read all the

Christmas books that have been packed

away in the basement for a year.

we are nerds, plain and simple! :O)

(and, by the way, those are ONE YEAR OLD
candy cane suckers they are eating too...found 'em

at the bottom of someone's stocking...in case

you're wondering (and we know you are!)

they still tasted FINE actually....

regift?)