Love one to another

It had already been a long day. It was Sunday and A was having a hard time listening to me. Dad was out at his guard weekend so I only had myself to rely on for dealing with A's issues. I was tired myself and not in the mood to deal with A's moodiness. In sharing time they were choosing the most quiet kids to come up and open some presents that were part of the lesson. Due to A's whining I knew he wasn't going to be picked. The last present was on the table and the teacher had chosen a boy from CTR 6 to come up. A realized then he wasn't going to have a chance to open a present so he proceeded to cry. The boy who was opening the present stopped and looked at A. Then he walked over with gift in hand and said "Do you want a turn?" A didn't hear what he had said as he was too busy crying. So the boy offered again. This time A heard and said "no." The boy walked back to the front of the room, but still didn't open the present. He waited there watching A. After a few more minutes of waiting, I asked A "Did you want a turn?" to which he replied "Yes." So the boy handed A the gift to open. A was happy he got a turn. This little boy's selfless act brought tears to not only my eyes, but all the teachers and primary presidency's as well. This boy had given his turn to A without even knowing A. I am so thankful to this little boy. He saw a greater need to show love and kindness to a stranger. What a powerful lesson to be a part of and a witness to.

Time

I sit here at 3:30 am wondering why things never happen when I want them. Is it really for the best? What is it that I am supposed to learn as I go through this trial? Am I not looking at it the right way? Did I miss something the first thousand times I had to wait? Everyone always says "It'll happen when it's the right time. " But right for who? For them or for me? When it's warm or when it cold? When it's March instead of April? I sometimes feel that time is just a way for people to try and keep a gripe on things. A way to have order in their lives. I know keeping time comes in handy for jobs when you're working overtime and they pay you for that. But what about those of us who are done waiting, but it still isn't our time? Someday, I would hope that something would happen on my time.

Price matching...

In today's economy it everyone is looking for a good deal. I don't blame them. I like it too. But there has to be a line drawn. It's made it to where I almost don't want to go shopping anymore. My main complaint is with the people who make notebooks of deals from other stores then go to Walmart to get everything "price-matched." I honestly have had to stand in line for half an hour while the lady in front of me had the cashier have to enter a price for everything she had in her cart and on her list. If it had only happened once I wouldn't mind, but it happens every time!! Some of you are probably thinking it can't be that bad. It is. It's annoying! I am so sick of having to wait and wait and wait to get through the line. Maybe they need to come up with a better solution to handling the issue. Maybe have a line where those of us who haven't "price matched" our purchases and would like to leave the store quickly go to check-out 10 or something. I'm not saying they should stop doing that, but there are times when I wish they wouldn't. Maybe I need to start grocery shopping somewhere else, like the new Win-Co stores that have opened. Or maybe I should go shopping at Walmart at 5 am so I can avoid most people. Maybe I should join the madness... I haven't quite decided yet...

New Ink

We have finally gotten new ink for our printer. We ran out of it a few months ago and just never bothered to get more. But now we had to get it out of necessity. See we are in the process of refinancing our house and with that comes the need for copies of everything. If you've refied you already know what is required. If you haven't it's as bad as re buying your house as you have to go through EVERYTHING. Signing papers, making more copies, finding where you hid a small receipt.. blah blah blah... But it will be worth it as we'll get a lower interest rate and a lower monthly payment.

Wahoo!!!

There is joyous news!! I have been exercising since April and I have finally reached a point where I can now run for two minutes without being so out of breath I can't do anything else!!! YES!!! No I haven't lost the weight yet as my exercising hasn't been as consistent as it needs to be, but lately I'm trying harder to be better at it and to my surprise I'm getting better at it. For those of you who know me (which not a lot of you do as you failed my quiz on FB!! J/K) , I hate running. Even in high school when it was mandatory to pass the fitness tests in gym, I hated it. It has never clicked with me. My mother was an avid runner when I was younger, even competing in a few marathons. My thinking has always been "why run when you get there by walking." Yes I am lazy. But now that I'm working out more and starting to see my body slowly become more toned, I shall continue my quest to be in better health. My new personal goal as it say in the scriptures "to run and not be weary." Hopefully that will be me in one month!!! Fingers crossed!!

Love Hate Relationships...

I am currently having a love hate relationship with my Active that I got for my Wii. For those not familiar with the Active it is a new exercise game that was designed for the Wii that comes with a resistance band and a leg strap to hold the nunchuck. It has you doing resistance training, running, lunges, boxing, dancing, in-line skating with Wii balance board and other activities. I love that it makes me sweat, but I hate that it makes my body ache. J says I need to just keep at it. That's kind of hard to do when I want to do the exercises, but I hate the way it makes me work, but then again it's good for me, but I hate sweating.. etc etc etc. To every good there is a bad. So when I combine this with the Wii Fit, I would do nothing but workout all the time. Thank goodness for other needs like having to be on FB, cleaning the house, watching TV or even just playing with A. SO how do you handle your love hate relationships?

Fall TV

Soon the new Fall TV season will be upon us. I can't wait. About the only thing that has been exciting to watch this summer, besides SYTYCD, was the series Merlin on NBC. Since I love the Arthurian legends it was fun to see it be reinterpreted. J enjoyed watching it with me. I hope that NBC brings it back next summer!
As far as the new shows, I'm not really sure what is going to jump out at me. I'll admit I'm curious about "The Vampire Diaries," "Flashforward," and "V." Yes I know, "V" is technically a new show, but they are trying to do for it what SyFy did for "Battleship: Galactica."
Old shows I'm excited about would be "Supernatural," "Smallville", "Heroes", "Chuck", "SYTYCD", and "Dancing with the Stars". I'm sad that "Chuck" won't start until March, but hopefully NBC will have to move it up due to other shows that are not so great that they have to cancel. On "Smallville" I am happy that they are finally done with the Lana and Clark. I hate that they have made Lana seem like Clark's ultimate love. I feel like they did that particular story line to DEATH. I don't see why the writers felt they had to bring her back for this season at all. It really wasn't necessary. SO anyway.. I'll get off my soapbox now.

Roof is done!

So this last weekend my husband got to work on our roof. Luckily we didn't have to take everything off and put it back on, but we still had to have it re-shingled. It's now a dark gray. So pretty much the whole outside of our house is brand new. Now we just have to get started on the inside. I feel like we are going to be in this house forever. Not that there is anything wrong with the house, really. I just find myself getting restless when I live in the same place for more then five years. We'll probably stay here until J has achieved his Electrical Engineering degree. Who knows how long that will take. He's been working hard and is taking harder and harder classes. He's anxious to finish up at SLCC and then move on to the U. He keeps telling me that once he starts going there I'm going to have to change my loyalties to the U instead of the Y. All I have to say is "Fat Chance!" I love being a Y fan. Not that I have gone to the Y for college myself but my parents went there and met there. So for me, it's all good. Guess that loyalty would fall under the "traditions of my father and mother" because being a Y fan is all I know. I remember we would be out on a trip somewhere and the car's radio would be playing the game whether it was football or basketball. Ahh.. the memories.

So whatcha doing?

This is the phrase that Isabella speaks to Phineas every time she sees him. If you don't know who I'm talking about that would be Disney's Phineas and Ferb cartoon. I must confess I have come to love watching this cartoon. It is so funny! If you have never seen it I recommend giving it a try. They have jokes in there that make everyone laugh. Even my husband has laughed at it.! They have Superspy Perry the Platypus and the evil Dr Doofenschmirtz who has a back story for every evil plot. It is so much fun. SO if you ever need a laugh, try watching this cartoon. It'll make you laugh.

Weekend Fun

So this last weekend A and I drove down to Fish lake as that's where my side of the family was doing an annual camp out. J wasn't able to come as he had to go to work. We could have waited for him but he didn't get out of work til 3pm that day so we wouldn't have been able to have gone. It's about a 3 hour drive to Fish lake from here. We got there just after 11 am. It was beautiful there. I haven't been to Fish lake since I was about 10 so it was fun to see it through grown-up eyes. We didn't make it out on the lake, but we did get a chance to ride Noni and Grampy's ATV. That was so much fun. It was great to get outdoors and away from the city. A had so much fun that he ended up getting sick at the end of the day. I think it may have been dehydration as his head hurt, he kept saying he was hot even though it was getting cold and he threw-up water. So it was a long drive back with a sick and tired little boy in the back, but it was definitely worth the journey.

Any suggestions?

I love my son. He is the sweetest kid. He goes around the house telling me he love me and that I'm beautiful. But at church this last Sunday it was almost the end of his short lived life. J wasn't able to be there as it was his guard weekend so it was just me and A. He was really good, up until about the last 10 minutes of sacrament meeting. He was mad at me that I hadn't brought fruit snacks for him so he was sulking on the floor. As we were getting ready to sing the closing song, he started to scoot underneath my chair. I told him to stop and sit up so we can get ready for prayer. His reply "I don't want you mom." So my thought "Oh great. Maybe if I just ignore the behavior it will stop." So once sacrament meeting was over I got up and headed to the Sunbeam classroom to drop off my stuff for the lesson. All the way down the hall my son keeps repeating " I don't want you mom!" Other parents look at me and comment "Yeah my kid has done that to me." With that info I was feeling a little better, but still very unhappy with his actions. Since our Primary has opening exercises in the Chapel I was heading back there when I felt A smack my back while still screaming at me. I told him to not hit but kept walking to the chapel. As I entered my partner asked if she needed to take him for me. I declined and explained my strategy of ignoring the behaviour and sat down on our assigned bench. I noticed that A was no longer screaming at me anymore, but I couldn't see him from where I was. One of the other Primary teachers came up and said "A is sitting in the doorway between the chapel and the hallway." I debated going back there but figured he would get bored of that and come to sunbeams. Nope. I was wrong. So the primary president, who also happens to be my friend and neighbor, decided to step in and help. Well, unluckily for her, A snapped and started hitting, spitting and screaming at her. I just started crying. I was so embarrassed and humiliated. My sweet little son had turned into a possessed spitting-kicking-screaming monster. The primary president was able to get A to finally sit on our bench and sit still. I tried my best to clean up my make-up which is kind of hard to do without a mirror.After they excused us to go to sharing time A ran after me crying. So I just scooped him up and carried him. Once in sharing time I explained to him as calmly as I could that he needed to tell the primary president he was sorry otherwise he couldn't stay on my lap. So he went to her and told her he was sorry. I was thankful for that. Once in class though he started acting up again. This is not the only time he's acted up. In fact it was so bad one week that A made J go to class with him in the hopes that would cure his actions. A was more then happy to be back in sunbeams the next week, but apparently that lesson was already forgotten. So what do I do? Do I tell the primary president I can't be a teacher anymore? How do I correct A's behavior?

New book shelf

I am so excited! We finally got a new book shelf. A nice tall book shelf from IKEA. Something that can hold all my books so they are no longer sitting on my bedroom floor. So since it's from IKEA you have to put it together. Not ever five minutes into working on it I ended up slicing my left hand right in the fleshy part by the thumb with scissors. Quickly putting a band-aid on it, I went back to work on assembling it. About 10 minutes later, I had managed to rip part of the toenail of my right foot and broke all my fingernails on my right hand. I called J and let him know that I had been injured trying to put the bookshelf together. His response "Guess you can't work with anything sharp anymore. "

"Ha ha honey. "

"Have you had a tetanus shot?"

"Umm.. not that I know of. I doubt I need a tetanus shot for a cut with scissors."

Then proceeded the long lecture on the importance of tetanus shots. Yeah for me.
So J ended up finishing the book shelf, but I had done most of the work. It looks great and has freed up some other book shelves that have allowed us more room to show off things that J has brought back from his deployments. Yes it was worth the battle wounds and experience. Just have to be smarter with the assembly next time!

A has a temper

Lately little A has been prone to throwing fits. He sits somewhere and starts screaming "I hate you Mom!" Well one day he had just gone potty and was mad at me for some reason screaming that dreaded phrase. I just ignored him and waited for him to calm down. It got quiet after awhile so I went to go check on him and this is what I found..

Aren't kids the cutest when they're asleep?

More Pictures from Nelson Family Vacation 09

Taking a break after hiking to the top of Independence Rock, WY.

Devil's Tower, WY

Magnum P. I. Ferrari

Forgot to mention in downtown Rapid City, SD they have a statue of everyone of the 44 presidents of the United States. We took as many pictures of the ones we could find before A lost patience with that endeavor.

Mt Moriah Cemetary

At the back of Wall Drug waiting for the T-rex to appear.

The endless stairs at Jewel Cave.

Picture in front of Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore

Nelson Family Vacation 09

Our little family went on our first family vacation as a family this last week. We had been thinking about visiting Mt. Rushmore since last year and decided since J wasn't going to be in school this summer now was our chance. So we left on Monday July 6. Our first stop on our trip was Martin's Cove. Due to the history of the place I was thinking it would be a great spiritual experience to be there. Well.. that's where I made my first mistake. I let us get talked into taking a handcart up to the trail to where Martin's cove is. The main reason is we thought A would enjoy the ride. Then came my second mistake. I misunderstood the mileage on the map between the visitors center and the actual cove. It turns out instead of the couple of miles I thought it was, it turned out to be five miles round trip and that doesn't include the mile walk around the cove. So instead of enjoying it, I was miserable. We also ended up getting eaten by the biggest mosquitoes I've ever seen. Plus it rained on us towards the end of pulling the handcart. So one piece of advice. If you plan on going to Martin's Cove, go more towards the fall, wear bug spray and wait until the kids are older. Course that's just my opinion. So I ended up being hot, tired and very grumpy. Plus we still had to drive to Casper, WY where our hotel was. During our drive to Casper we also wanted to stop at a place called Independence Rock which is famous for having people's signatures on there from when they crossed the area in the mid 1800s. It was supposed to be close to Martin's Cove, but we never saw it. Arriving in Casper we proceeded to find our hotel which was the Ramada. According to Hotwire whom we booked through it was a three-star hotel. Well.. to me it was maybe about a one-star hotel. The pool was broken, the rooms were old and smelled funny. I was glad to be there only one night but sad to realize we would stay there on our way back home. I do plan on writing a bad review for the hotel. The next day we took off for South Dakota. We stopped at a little pizzeria in Lusk, WY due to my husband's request that we try to eat at various places instead of the fast food chains that you can find anywhere. It was a nice change. Then we were off to Jewel Cave, the second largest cave in the world, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument.

We got to Jewel Cave only to find out that tickets were required and they were sold out for the day. So we bought tickets to go back the next day. On our way to Crazy Horse we had to pass thru Custard, WY and there they had a Flintstones park. Yes, as in Fred and Wilma Flintstone. We decided not to pay the $9 per adult to go on but we did get some food from the drive-inn that was fashioned like the one in the cartoon. We then drove to the Crazy Horse monument. As we were getting close to Crazy Horse you could see it over the tops of the trees. It was pretty amazing. We were able to get in for free due to J being active with the military. We learned from a film that we watched that the four heads on Mount Rushmore would fit inside the head of Crazy Horse. How's that for a wow factor? We bought some rocks from there that were remains from the blasting that they do for the sculpture. We hung out there for a couple of hours and realized that time was passing quicker then expected and I wanted to find the hotel we were staying at in Rapid City, SD before it got dark. I don't know about you but I hate trying to find new places in the dark. So we drove out to Rapid City and found our hotel. It was a Days Inn, but it was so much nicer then the Ramada we had stayed in!! After locating our hotel we took off for Mount Rushmore. As it was later in the evening we were able to watch them light up the monument. We thought we were going to return the next day and see it in the day time but that never panned out, so I never got a souvenir from Mount Rushmore, only pictures.

On Wednesday we returned to Jewel Cave to begin our adventure there. We knew it was going to be about a hour and twenty minutes underground and there would be lots of walking. Turns out there were stairs, lots of stairs and they were narrow so J ended up carrying A through most of the cave. It was very beautiful inside, although my claustrophobia was starting to creep up on me towards the end. After escaping the underground cave we took off for Wall, SD.

If you are a fan of the travel channel you already know why we went to Wall. For those who don't have the travel channel or don't watch it as often as I do, in the city of Wall they have a store called Wall Drug. It is definitely a tourist trap full of oddities and fun little opportunities for photos. A had not been awake long from another of his naps in the car when we went to the back of Wall Drug to see their dinosaur there. It was a T-rex that looked like it was on lone from the set of Jurassic Park. There was a cage around it and some flashing red lights. A sign next to it said it fed every twelve minutes. We got there just in time for a "feeding." Smoke started rising from the cage and noises started coming from the T-rex. I looked down and noticed that A was just shaking. He was totally terrified!! I have never seen him shake from terror. We left before it was over but the rest of the time we were in the back area, A kept looking for the dinosaur that he was sure was going to eat him. In the store J found something he has wanted since he first heard of them. He begged and begged and since I couldn't take it anymore he got his hearts desire. The head of a jacakalope that one can hang on the wall. My only condition for the hideous thing was that it not be displayed in our house, only in the garage. So next time you stop by the house J will be sure to show off his greatest prize yet.

On Thursday we checked out of the hotel and took off for Deadwood, SD. Deadwood is full of history and lots of connections to the wild west era. It is also the place that has the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. The downtown was just beautiful. It was more beautiful then Park City to me. Their were also very many historic homes that were well taken care of. Since Deadwood started out as a gambling town there were still many casinos there. Of course just like in Vegas there were displays in the casinos to draw the tourist in. We went and saw Nelsons Car Garage that had Magnum PI's Ferrari, Herbie the Love Bug, James Bonds Aston Martin and other cars. One casino had a massive model railroad train display in it's basement where you deposited fifty cents and watched the trains go through tunnels and towns. We had lunch at a buffet in the Gold Dust Casino then walked over to Adams Museum where they had three floors of museum pieces. Then we drove up to the Mount Moriah cemetery where Wild Bill and Calamity and a few other notorious wild west characters were buried. Then it was off to Devil's Tower, WY. If you don't know what Devil's Tower is, let me mention my best point of reference. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Yeup, it's the mountain from the movie. The one where Richard Dreyfuss character makes it out of mashed potatoes and says "This means something." We didn't actually end up going into the park and get closer as A was passed out asleep and we decided it was more important that he get a nap. So after taking a few photos it was back to Casper, WY to spend the night. We finally figured out where Independence rock was. Remember me mentioning the rest stop? Turns out that Independence rock was right by the rest stop and was a domed shape rock, not the pointy rock both J and I had conjured up in our heads. So we stopped there and climbed to the top, but not before having to retreat to our car and get bug spray as the massive mosquitoes had returned. We stopped at Evanston on our way back and now own some possibly questionable fireworks that we plan on lighting off for the 24th. During this trip A managed to have a melt down at every stop. We don't know why they kept happening. He may have just been sick of being stuck in a car as we drove to different places or maybe it was the fact he didn't have anyone but mom and dad to play with. J also wasn't feeling the greatest as he was probably fighting the flu bug that I had had the weekend before we left. We have learned a lot though by this vacation. Don't try to cram too much stuff into a vacation, especially with a small child and be flexible with planning. Hopefully though we'll be able to take vacations more often though then every two - three years!!

About last night...

I have been slowly recovering from having the stomach flu on Saturday night. The saddest thing about being sick is that we were at the movie "The Proposal" and my stomach couldn't handle being around strong smells. After spending the weekend making sacrifices to the porcelain god I was finally able to keep something in my tummy. So late last night I had some chips and dip with my husband as I hadn't made dinner. Turns out that my stomach wasn't ready for a spicy chip dip. No, I wasn't making new sacrifices, but my tummy was very uncomfortable so I ended up staying up until 6am this morning. So in total I have now had about 4 hours of sleep. Oh well.

Neglected

I have totally neglected my blog. Most of this is due to the fact that since I've been on Facebook I just don't seem to make it to my own blog anymore. I've had this blog for just over a year. Some people have had their blogs for much longer. Of course some people think that eventually all us mommies who do blog will eventually quit and no longer crowd the blog world with our parenting blogs. Only time will tell.

Thinking...

Thinking lately has become something that I try to avoid. I know some of you are going "Well doesn't blogging require thinking?" No, not really. I can type whatever enters my mind and then I'm not thinking about it as I am typing about it. Trust me it really does make sense. I don't like to think. Lately I just want to act. Jump in the car and drive to highway 101 to explore the coastline from the top of Washington to the bottom of California. I want to go to Disneyland and just run wild through the park. I don't want to think about the coming soon expense of adding new tile to our roof. I don't want to think about paying bills, cleaning the house, or just plain old being responsible. I would love to just get in the car and start driving nowhere in particular and see where the road takes me. I don't want to worry about thinking what to cook for dinner or whether I've exceeded my calorie intake for the day. I don't want to think about the allergies that plague me and my son every day making us both sniffling monsters all day long. I don't want to think about the crack in our windshield on our SUV that needs to be replaced. Please, please, please just don't make me think!

No Daddy!!

Since J returned home A has been having issues with him leaving him. A wants to have J hold him everywhere we go and needs to have J tuck him in at night. It's really sweet. Today though he had a melt down. J was getting ready for a shooting competition that he'll be in this weekend so he had to dress in his uniform. Well A started making comments about taking daddy to the airport to which J replied "No bud I'll see you tonight." As the time progressed he started moving around the house more and A lost track of him. I was outside looking in our car for something he needed when J came out kissed me and got in the truck to take off. Just as I was entering the door I heard the downstairs door slam and out came A. He had tears streaming down his face crying " Daddy left without me." So I sprinted down the stairs to grab him, hoping to make it out the door so he could say good-bye to dad before he left. Just as we made it back up the stairs J comes in the door looking for his sunglasses. "Daddy don't leave me." So J took him in his arms gave him a tight hug and said "I love you A. I promise I'll come back tonight." Now with a smile on his face and fresh tears down his cheeks he waved bye to his daddy from the front porch as J drove away.

So lame...

ABC Family has just announced that they are going to have a new series called "10 things I hate about you." And yes it is based on the movie. Are they freakin insane? Why are they doing this? Yes it's been about 10 years since the movie, but they can't possibly improve upon it. Why can't some networks leave things alone. I know they are probably thinking it's a great idea.. but it's not. I loved the movie. For me it is a classic. I bet many people felt that way when something they love is being re imagined. I have recently heard of rumors that they are going to re-imagine "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" without Joss Whedon. That's like saying let's do Star Wars without George Lucas. On the rare occasion things work out well. Look at the Battlestar Galactica re imagining. That was incredible and good fortune. Not everything works out well.

WAHOO!! It begins tonight...

Tonight begins So You Think You Can Dance!! I'm so PUMPED!! I have loved this show since it started five years ago. It's a bonus to think that they are also doing season 6 that starts this fall. If I had any lick of talent I would have tried out for this show but since most of my training was only done in my room with the radio on I don't think I would have ever made it very far. I have always loved dancing and the fact that I can watch dancing on TV that has good music and choreography is great. I love cheering them on. I'm so excited!

Addicted!!

A couple of weeks ago while at Wal-mart I purchased a sandwich maker. I remember laughing at the commercials when they first came out thinking why would I want to buy that? Well now I'm thinking I should have bought one sooner! It's great! Not only are the sandwiches delicious, but you can also do desserts in it and breakfast! I can make quesadillas much quicker too! I love it. I have a lot of sandwiches for lunch now which is a good thing cause then I'm actually eating lunch instead of snacking on all the other unhealthy items I could eat.

Home again home again...

J is home! He's been home since May 2 and boy did he bring a lot of stuff back with him. We now have a beautiful rugs in our front room, hallway, bedroom and for the doors. I am the proud owner of a beautiful silver crystal vase , a tear drop vase, a sterling silver turquoise necklace, a heatherstone gem necklace and a candle that has pictures of all the places J visited while in England. I almost feel like his deployment was more of a shopping spree then an actual job, but I'm not complaining too much. He has very good taste. He also bought A a bear and an adorable camel. It's been great having him home, now if he could quit leaving and going to work A would be much happier.

Time's UP...hopefully...

Well this should be the last week that J is away from us. I am so thankful the time is coming to an end. It has been much harder this last time having him gone as this is my first time being a stay at home mom and having him gone. I don't get much time away from the kid, but I have appreciated all those who have called to have us come over for play dates and taking him for a short amount of time so that I can have a few hours of my own. Hopefully when he gets back he'll be able to take some time off so we can spend it together before he has to report back to work. I wish we could get away but I have my niece on Monday and Tuesday so we can't leave the state. Oh well. Maybe another time. Now would be ideal as he won't be in school yet and come this fall he'll be taking on a heavier load meaning we won't get a chance to get away until Thanksgiving. Hopefully we'll be able to figure it out. I'm just so excited to have him home. I know A is too. He's having a hard time behaving himself lately. He's gotten to the point where he's starting to kick and hit other kids. I know it's because he's ready for dad to come home but that doesn't mean he should get away with it. I pray that he does come home soon and doesn't get an extension on his orders!!

Poor A

A has been sick since yesterday. It has been hard. I hate how when little kids are sick they are just so miserable and is all you can do is hold them. I don't do well with people being sick. With the way he was sick I was hard pressed not to join him. J was feeling helpless as he's still gone and couldn't be here to help me. Well time is almost up and soon he'll be home to help with A. Luckily it's beautiful weather outside so I can open the windows and get rid of all the yucky smells quite quickly!

Hannah Montana

Today I saw the Hannah Montana movie. First let me explain before you start laughing at me! I had the chance to take my niece with me while her kind mother took my kid and the niece I was watching. I had a chance to go to a movie and just relax. My niece that I took is old enough to take care of her needs, so I didn't have to worry about running to the bathroom or making sure she sat still. IT WA GREAT!! I also got a break from my adorable son whom I love, but I needed a break from again. SO that is the reason for the movie. A change of age for a kid for a couple of hours and a chance to not be a mom too. So thanks Sara for putting up with your crazy aunt!

Gone...

Yes it's been a little while since I posted anything. See my husband is off on an adventure so I've been sitting around trying to get things settled with A. It's not been easy! He doesn't want to brush his teeth or say his prayers since daddy is gone. I'm trying to make sure we don't stay cooped up in the house, but then I hate to infringe on other peoples free time. I love that he still has preschool right now as that is one of the few things that forces me to get up, get dressed and get out of the house. I keep thinking while he's gone now is the time for me to really focus on exercising again since I have lots of time on my hands, but still I just lay in bed only getting out to turn on the snooze button. I'm the perfect procrastinator let me tell ya. I've kept up on dishes and laundry, but right now housework is taking a backseat to my laziness. It has been good that he's gone cause that means he took his laptop meaning I can't be on the computer and watch TV at the same time anymore. Our desktop computer is downstairs so I have to chose to either be on the computer or watch TV. I'm glad that J has his computer that way we can see him when we log into MSN messanger. My computer is ancient so it processes things a little slow to the point where the camera gets stuck. Maybe I need my brother-in-law Big D to come up and work on my computer or tell me what I need to do so I can get it to work faster. I also need to look at getting a new camera as J took our only digital camera. Yes I can go back to my 35 mm, but that means I can't tell what the pictures are like and I take FOREVER to get the film developed. Once again... my laziness wins out. So hopefully here soon I'll find a camera I like... except I might get a camcorder instead... I don't know. I'll just have to wait and see what I feel we need.

Where are your parents?

On Friday night our little family went out to Del Taco to eat. A headed straight for the playground with me right behind him. As we walked into the playground there were three kids, whom I guess to be between 9 to 11 years old standing on chairs trying to climb on the outside of the playground. The boy of the group had just managed to get a hold and was climbing up.

"Hey you shouldn't be up there."

The minute those words were out of my mouth the group of kids looked at me as if I had just said a bad word. They didn't get down so I reiterated the need for the kids to get down off the playground. They still didn't move, just looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I guess their mother finally noticed that something was wrong in the playground. She stuck her head in and said what's going on. "That lady told us to get down,"was their reply. "Well you guys shouldn't be up there now that there are little kids around," said mom. So the kids got down after they glared at me. Their mom didn't look to happy that someone else had ruined her kids fun. She was sitting outside the playground and kept glaring at me. Not too long after the kids had gotten down a younger sibling of theirs who was maybe 18 months old, tried to climb up on the chairs that his siblings had been on and ended up falling down and hurting himself.
I totally get it that mom's feel the need to get a break from their kids and let them play, maybe even play rough, but not inside a playground even when their are not little kids around. That's what bugged me the most. "Not when little kids are around." To me that phrase was just screaming you can do whatever you want just don't get caught! It upsets me to see parents who let their kids run rampant on indoor playgrounds. I see so many older kids trample down the younger ones or play on the outside of the playground, trying to get to the forbidden areas without mom or dad even trying to stop them. Why do they feel such a total need to be completely oblivious to what their kids are doing? I admit with one child I guess I feel extra protective of him, but I don't want to see his fun ruined either. I know most parents don't want to see their kids hurt, but what do you do when their kid is becoming a danger to yours? Am I overreacting? I was thinking maybe I could have handled it differently and tried to find the mom to ask her to stop her kids, but the reaction I got from the mom made me think that no matter what I said to her she was going to glare at me. So what do you do?

Jazz Game

Last night was so awesome! J's work had given him tickets to the Jazz game for appreciation of all the hard work he has done for them. They were suite tickets so they were also going to have dinner for us there. I had been to the Suites before where dinner was usually just hot dogs. This time they went all out. There was a tray with a variety of candy in it, fresh rolls, fresh salsa with guacamole, BBQ wings, shrimp and crab claws, roasted vegetables and marinated pork roast. I was stoked! Then during half-time they brought the dessert cart and I had chocolate mousse cake and chocolate covered caramel pretzels! It was totally awesome! Okay, okay I've only talked about the food so far, but the game was awesome too. Something about actually being there during the game makes it that much more exciting. I was screaming so loud each time the Jazz made a basket or when there was a bad call that I have a sore throat today. Oh well. It was worth it. Go Jazz!

Hogle Zoo with Preschool Group

Last Tuesday we went to the Hogle Zoo with A's preschool group. We had fun and the animals were a lot more active then I've ever seen them. Here are a few pictures.

Playing games with A

J and I have bought games for A to play with as we feel he will enjoy playing Chutes and Ladders with us as well as Candyland. With the games always comes the instructions. J and I use the instructions to remind us how to play these games as neither of us have played them in a really long time. A has learned that with the games their are rules we have to follow that are written on a piece of paper. His favorite thing about the games now is to read the rules to us. This is usually how it goes:

A "A wins and Mommy/Daddy loses."

Mommy/Daddy "Umm.. are you sure that's what the rules say?"

A "Yes"

Facebook

So everyone I know is on Facebook. Some people who I haven't talked to in years are on Facebook. I want to get on Facebook!! But my lovely husband doesn't want me on Facebook. Why not? may you ask? Because he says there are too many bad things that can happen on Facebook. People can get my information and misuse it. There are so many news stories lately about the problems with Facebook he doesn't trust it. He lets my blog and IM through MSN messanger, but other then that he doesn't want me on Facebook. So until my husband has a positive experience with Facebook or someone is able to convince him that it's safe, I alas will not be joining the community of Facebook. Sigh.

Where do pumpkins come from?

A has had many many thoughts running through his adorable little head. He has questions about everything from where do pumpkins come from to where does the sun go at night. This has kept my hopping on my toes as I know right now I need to answer the questions, yet keep the language simple enough that he can understand the answer without it resulting in more questions. He also keeps comparing what makes the difference between men and women. He also likes to act like a dog. For example :

A "Mom dogs lick their water"

Me "Yes they do "

A "Look mom I can put my head in a bowl and drink like a dog"

He's either really smart... or just plain crazy. I haven't decided yet.

Jury summons, again....

So this last week I have been dealing with the issue of possible jury service. My juror number was high enough though that I didn't end up having to go in, just the hassle of having to callback every day this last week to see if I would have to go in. The last time I had to go in I actually ended up going into the court room and but being let go as I had just had A and J was away at tech school. Since that was about three years ago I bet in another three years I'll get another possible summons. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Daylight Savings will be the death of us...

We have been graced with the joy of having daylight savings again into our lives. It is lovely having an extra hour of sunlight with in which to frolic in the sun. But seriously, who are we kidding.. it really is not fair to lose a whole hour of time! I have discovered I'm not a morning person since becoming a stay at home mom. I find it hard to get myself out of bed before 8 am. A is rarely up before then himself! Poor J had guard that weekend so he had to get up even earlier then normal because of the change. So why must we continually have to change our clocks? Can't we be like our sister state Arizona and not worry about time change? Until someone can give me a logical reason why we must continue this annoying tradition, I will always loathe the time change.

A's Talk

A gave his first talk in church yesterday. It went pretty well. He only touched the microphone about three times and made a few weird comments, but oh well what do you expect of a three year old. I was more stressed about writing a talk and making sure to us simple words that he could say without ruining the message. So wahoo! He probably won't have to give a talk again until he's a little older.

The Mighty Phone..

Yesterday, when the weather was nice I took A to the park across the street. He played and played. It was great. Then he had to use the restroom but the ones at the park were locked so that meant I needed to pick him up and get him home quick. As we were crossing the street A tripped. A car was coming so I picked him up again and got across the street as fast as I could. Well at that same time my phone slipped out of my pocket onto the street. Please please miss my phone...nope. That wasn't to be. It seemed like the car aimed right for my phone and ran it over. All I could do was watch as my phone did a little flip into the air. Then another car ran over it. Great, now I have to spend money to buy another phone. J is not going to like it. Telling A to stay on the sidewalk I ran out into the street and grabbed my phone. Examining it the outside had scratches on it and the screen wasn't broken. I wonder..so J called me and guess what? The phone still worked! So here is to you my mighty pink motorolla phone. Although you were dropped and ran over in the street, you took it like a champ and are still working. WAHOO!!

Still trying

It's been a year and a half now since we decided we wanted another kid. So I decided to call my doctor's office to figure out what to do now that we knew the results of J's test. I ended up playing phone tag for a couple of days but finally got my answer. "You'll need to lose about 10 lbs. then come in and we'll start you on medication." Lovely. So now I'm trying to fight off the depression of still needing to lose weight and still trying to get pregnant. Yeah. I've been good about exercising, but I don't seem to be losing the weight. The doctors office recommended I could try Weight Watchers. We don't have the extra money for that kind of program. SO I guess I'm just going to have to exercise harder and eat less.

I want...

So A and I went shopping for groceries today. He loves this little trip as it gives him a chance to get out of the house. He's pretty good in the store and loves to chat people up. After we got home and had taken the groceries in he started to talking about pet. Pet? Who's pet? "My dad is going to get me a pet. A dog. A white dot. A white dog with white stripes." Okay.. that's news to me. J and I have been talking about getting a dog. We can't quite decide if we should or not. A has taken it all to heart and seems to think he's getting one. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't.

Sunday Talks

J and I gave our talks this last Sunday. My talk was on Food Storage and J's was on finance. Things were going okay for me right up until I started talking about my Grandma. Then came on the water works. I totally lost my composure. It took me a while to recover. I haven't had to give a talk in church for over seven years. So the nervousness of being up there combined with the emotions I felt for my Grandma were a little overwhelming. Eventually I was able to finish giving my talk. After my talk they did a rest hymn so while we were singing I asked J how my make-up looked. Without even looking at me "You look fine." Yeah I knew better so I pulled out my mirror and noticed that my right eye looked like it had been hit. With that knowledge the rest of my confidence was gone. Luckily J is better at speaking publicly then I was so he was able to get through his talk with ease. After Sacrament everyone kept telling us how good our talks were, yet I had a feeling they were trying to let me know that it's okay to cry when talking about a lost grandma. Hopefully it'll be another seven years before we have to give talks again.

Dentist Visit

So today J and I went to the dentist. For J it was a routine check-up for me , it was my first visit in almost 13 years. Yes mother, it has been almost 13 years since I have allowed myself to go to the dentist. I had some bad experiences with the dentist when I was younger. I remember going to the dentist once when I was about 15 and during my exam I broke down to the point where they had to have my mom come in the room to get me to calm down. So today I went in there with a fear of having a total breakdown resulting in my utter humiliation and increasing my desire to not see a dentist. I was almost in tears when they took me to the back room. I was dreading all the work they were going to have to tell me, the teeth they were going to have to pull. They took x-rays and then proceeded to clean my teeth. They had TVs in the ceiling so I was able to just sit back and zone. I had the volume so loud on the headset my ears were ringing but I figured that was better then having to hear the drilling of the dentist tools. After getting the dental hygienist cleaned and polished my teeth the dentist came in. "Oh great here it goes," was my thinking. "Well Beeka, looks pretty good. You don't have any cavities. Just some plaque build up and we'll get that taken care of."
HOLY CRAP!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Not seeing the dentist for so long I was sure I had a mouth full of horror that was just going to take so much time and dentist visits to set everything right again I just knew I would be miserable. Thank goodness that's not the case!

New calling

I have a new calling in our ward. I am a sunbeam teacher. So now I get to be there every Sunday with A. So yesterday was my first Sunday in there and boy what a challenge I now have in front of me. We have 14 kids in the class. Some of them are still missing nursery and their parents. A is going to have a hard time sharing me with the other kids, but I'm sure that with time he'll understand that I need to help the other kids too. I hope to be a good teacher. The last time I was a sunbeams teacher was back when I was working at SWA and living at home with Mom and Dad so it's been a good long while since I've worked with a lot of little kids. I'm excited and nervous.
Plus while I was getting my calling both J and I were asked to speak on February 15. I get to talk about Food Storage and J gets to talk about Finances. I don't know what to talk about with food storage other then it's something we've been told to do ever since I can remember and they recommend a year's supply. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to them!

My little boy

Little A is now three years old and a Sunbeam in Primary. He's not so little anymore. He has his own opinions and isn't afraid to state it. He plays in his room making his own sound effects with his toys. He's always concerned when he hears babies crying. He loves to cuddle with his dad at the end of the day. His favorite color changes daily. He likes to sing songs and dance. He isn't afraid of anyone and likes to say "hi" to people when we are out of the house. I love having the chance to be home with him and see him blossoming into his own person. I am so happy to have him as part of my life.

Time goes by

Time is passing so quickly. I can't believe that January is already more then half over. What have I accomplished you may ask? Not a lot. I need to work even harder to accomplish my new years resolutions. I don't want to feel like a failure. No one likes to fail. Especially me. I want to actually accomplish goals. I have yet to follow through with the completion of a goal that I've set for myself. Hopefully I can work at completing all my goals so I can set an example for A. I don't want him repeating my mistakes of delaying and not finishing goals. I never graduated from college. I had wanted to be a history teacher as I have always loved history, but I never bothered to go back to school after two years at Snow College. I don't want to have this be a tale of gloom and self-pity. I hope to utilize this to remind myself that time will continue going by. The sun always will rise and set each day. What I do with this time will determine my own happiness and well-being.

Historic Day

Today Barack Obama was sworn in as our new president. I have mixed feelings about this. I wanted John McCain to win, so it's hard to feel complete support for President Obama. I can only hope that he will work to bring the country together and help us with the crisis of the economy. Some Hollywood actors and musicians would have us believe that Obama will be a miracle worker who can do no wrong. As one particular musician put we can now "walk with a swagger. It's cool to be an American again." He was just sworn in today and has yet to actually do anything. The first 100 days are generally the time people give a president to determine if this one will be able to handle all the issues that come with the office. To think that he's a great president is just a little too soon. Yes, he is the first black president of the United States. That is historic. What he does with the office remains to be seen.
The media would also have us believe that President Bush was the worst president in recent history. It's too soon to make that claim. History is better observed when you have a chance to see all that is going on instead of just a small piece of it and when you have a chance to let the facts instead of the emotions be looked at.
Congrats to President Obama. I hope he can accomplish some if not all of his goals.

Washington Pictures worked...

Christmas Pictures

More Christmas Pictures

Switching...

We have just completed our switch from cable TV to Dish. Let me tell ya I am ecstatic! Especially since the price for Dish is half that of Comcast, plus we are getting all of our channels that we watch in HD!! We had Dish originally but switched to Comcast so we could get the internet and cable for a package deal and their promotions. Well once their promotions were over our bill more then doubled! So we've gone back to Dish, since they had a better offer. I know this means we won't get all of the BYU football games, but I'm pretty sure if we wanted to someone would let us go over to their house to watch the game.

New Year Resolutions

So it's a new year and I've decided I need to put my resolutions out there in cyber space in the hopes that people will ask me about them and kind of help keep me on goal. So here goes:

1. I will not live on the computer! I spend way too much time on it...

2. I will be kinder to myself.

3. I will not yell at A.

4. I will be kinder to others around me.

5. I will exercise three times a week.

6. I will learn to live on a budget.

7. I will read my scriptures daily.

Hopefully I will be able to accomplish these goals!