What a surprise

So The day after Christmas we were expecting Jeremy's parents to come for a visit. But they didn't make it, the "traffic" was bad. Well actually the traffic was bad but come to find out there is another reason. They had four stow aways they didn't tell us about, Jeremy's brothers family. This is a huge surprise because they have only made it out to visit us once the whole time we lived here. Dad called to tell us he was at point of the mountain and that he would be here soon. Jessica ran up to her room to watch for them out her window. She couldn't have been in her room more than a few seconds before she was yelling down "there here". OK now point of the means you are close but not even speeding would get you here that fast. So we didn't believe her. She ran down stairs and made us look out the window. No grandpa. "But I saw him out my window". OK so a 10 year old knows what her grandpa looks like so I go up to her room with her to look out her window. She got to it first and said "see there he is and there is Phil". We all turned as fast as we could and ran out the door. Jeremy almost fell he slipped on ice and slid all the way into Courtney's arms. We were all in so much shock. I was shaking for almost an hour. It took me two seconds to rearrange the family to accommodate every one. We bribed Brian with being able to keep his cell phone if he would give up his room to the grandparents and sleep on the couch. It worked. Everyone seems comfortable enough and the hot water is lasting for every ones showers. I was worried about the food because I only bought for 2 house guest not 6 but surprisingly my fridge is so full I am making every one eat the left overs for daytime meals.

Oh by the way for those of you signing times fans Rachel posted a comment on my Thank you Signing Times blog. Can you believe it.

Thank you Signing Times

When my sister told us they were going to teach my niece sign language I thought how fun. I always wanted to learn sign and I had heard that children can communicate so much earlier when taught to sign. They are right. It was so convenient to know what she wanted at an early age.
I am not an out going person. Is any one surprised by that comment. I didn't think so. So today I went to Jessica's Christmas program at the elementary school. I had an empty seat next to me and I offered it to a lady. After the kindergartners were finished I decided to get up the nerve and strike up a conversation with her. I took me a second or two to work up the courage and when I did she politely informed me that she was deaf. Oh well there goes my chance. But then I remembered a few signs that I was sure would have got the point across that I was asking her what grade her child was in. That took a little longer to work up the courage for that but I thought "what the heck if I make a fool of myself I probably will never see her again anyway. " But surprisingly it worked. Her daughter is in 2ND grade and she even took out pictures to show her to me. Although I couldn't make out all her signs (one I thought meant colors but I now think I am wrong) we were able to communicate pretty well. In fact she got it across to me that she didn't know what grade was singing. Then it dawned on me she couldn't hear the principle tell her in what order the kids would be singing. So I let her know when the 2ND graders were up. She was very happy that I helped her. What a good mommy she is to go to a singing program when she can't hear. In the freezing weather no less.

The Mojave desert

I know to most of us this picture just seems normal. Especially for this time of year. But let me explain; this is my mom's house in Phelan Ca. Yes Phelan does get snow but never like this. Usually an inch on any give year. On the bad winters you could expect 2 to 3 inches. Oh yeah and not all in one storm mind you. When I was in middle and high school they would cancel school if there was a dusting of snow on the ground. I am talking 1/2 an inch or so and the world would come to an end. They would close the freeway down people wouldn't be able to get to work or get home from work. Schools were canceled because the insurance company wouldn't allow the school buses to run in the snow. They don't have snow plows or salt like we do. I am used to the snow now but I remember when I first moved here and it snowed I just naturally assumed school would be canceled and was utterly shocked that it wasn't. I also remember a certain father in law of mine who made me drive on a patch of ice when we got here because "I need to get used to it." I seriously thought I was going to crash the car. I didn't, and now I have been driving on ice all week to take my kids to school.

Hectic Morning

This morning we wake up to a nice new blanket of snow on the ground. When you see that, you just know all the drivers that make you go crazy are out. I was having one of those morning where you wake up and you start your morning rituals to realize, "OH NO it’s not a normal morning I have no time to waste and I need to leave earlier than normal because there is snow and the roads are covered." If I could have known about the snow I would have gotten up earlier but I didn’t know. So I start running through my morning trying to get it all done so that I can go to the school and see my daughters band performance. When I get this way I have a hard time settling back down and turning off the fast pace in me. So I finally get into the car and start to back out of the driveway, in a hurry, to get Bri off to school. When I push on the brakes at the end of the drive I remember, ICE!! I can’t drive this way in the ice I will end up killing someone. And I have an ‘almost driver’ watching my every move so I make a big show of calming down and say out loud "No matter how late you think you are do not drive crazy in these conditions it’s not worth it." Then I start to talk to Bri about how to drive in the snow. He has come a long way with his attitude towards life in the last year or so and today is one of those days were I can see it. I start off by telling him that in the snow you want to drive more cautiously because you can’t stop well on ice.
Bri- "I KNOW I KNOW MOM. What do you think I’m dumb."
Me-"Well no I don’t but I didn’t know how to drive in the snow until I drove in it."
Bri- in deep thought for about a second then his body language changes and he listens to every thing I said.
Now just over a year ago this would have turned into a full blown fight over how I called him dumb. And he wouldn’t have talked to me for at least a whole day. But he is maturing and I think he is starting to see that I don’t mean him any harm.
Any way I got to show him lots of bad drivers and what not to do. He seemed to agree with me on how to deal with it all. And by the time he got out of the car I was calm and collected and the rushing of the morning was gone. When I got to the school for Jessica’s performance I set my coffee on top of my car, like I always do, and bent over to get Tyson out of the car. The next thing I know something hits me hard on the back of my head and then everything got hot. My coffee melted the snow and slid off onto my head. The back of my hair was wet, very wet. I grabbed the baby blanket to dry off as much as I could. I couldn’t miss her performance so I watched it with wet sticky hair, that when it dried felt like I put way too much hair spray in my hair. Ahh gotta love the snow.

My Honey Lamb and Lil Cora May

Last night after many weeks of practices our church had its showing of "It all happened in the Country." It was a children's play to remind us all of the reason for the season, Christ's birth. After one week of having the script Jessica, aka Cora May, not only had all her lines memorized she had EVERY ONES lines memorized. Not that she didn't make her mistakes during practices because she did. Jessica has been saying for a couple of years now that she wants to be a star, on the stage or on TV. I figured it was because of Hannah Montana. So we'll see. She did fabulous. She even had a solo and even though I could see she was nervous and fidgety I think she did very well. Jeremy was also in this play as Uncle Yule. He also had a solo. He was fine during all the practices then on Friday he got a major case of the butterflies. On Sunday night as he kissed me good-bye he said "I think I am going to be sick" Thanks dear next time tell me that BEFORE you kiss me. But he did so good. He was the only one who had a goof but from my understanding it wasn't all his fault. Someone mixed up their lines and it threw him off. Better then what I would have done. I would have froze the second the lights came on and not said anything. Little Luther, a young gentle men in our church, took the show with his perfect hick accent and too small overalls. He was made for the part. And Chelsea and Daniel were perfect as city kids who learned about the real meaning of Christmas and learned the country ain't so bad. One little girl who was a country girl that told a little bit of the story as a narrator did so well I can't wait to see her get a major part next time.
I think my two little country folk are very brave for getting in front of friends, family, and strangers last night. I am proud of them.

Is this wierd to you? and I am not going to catch it!

I was watching Brian pour himself a bowl of cereal today. After he pour it, he grabs a few cereal from the bowl and puts it back in the box. Now first of all the bowl was not over full and second when I said a few we are talking 6 or so pieces of cereal. So it prompted me to ask him "why did you just do that." His reply was "Well it never fails after I pour the milk in about 5 or 6 pieces will fall out of the bowl so I am just picking them up before they have the chance to fall out." Crazy kids.

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It was 4 years ago this month that we rescued Holly from the pound. I guess she was an escape artist and her past owners got tired of paying her bail. So we got a really great dog already trained and spayed. And she has never tried to escape, well except for the time we came home and there was a thunder storm and she figure she couldn't get in the back door so she would try the front. She is crazy afraid of thunder and fireworks. So she is a great dog, BUT soon after we got her I was noticing wet spots from time to time and I never saw her squat so I figured it wasn't her and I just couldn't figure it out. Well as time went on we noticed it was her. She would just be laying there and pee would come out of her. We contacted the vet and they said it can happen in spayed females and there was meds for it. So med #1 worked for a while, about a year I think, and then she started to leak again. So we moved on to med #2. Which is stronger and no way will pee come out. Well they are wrong. She still leaks. Not as often but it happens. So at her vet appointment yesterday we told them and they decide there could be something majorly wrong and they wanted to do blood work. The blood work is fine so now they want to run a urine analysis. We have to get my great big Labrador retriever to pee in a tupper wear container and take it in. Now how do you supposed we do that. I can't tell her "hey Holly I need you to pee in this for me K and then hopefully we can fix you right up" Can you just picture one of us following her around the backyard while she smells every inch of it to decided were she will squat and then leaning down with her to stick a cup under her. Well I guess I should be thankful that they aren't asking me to wipe her first then catch it mid stream like they tell us to do.

Cereal?? Really??

Did you know that your cereal can get weevils. I had no idea. I thought it was only in flour and dry mixes, you know things that have not been cooked. Now I am utterly disgusted. I like to make rice crispy treats from time to time and I only use 1/2 of the box of cereal when making them. Apparently it has been a while. I went to make the kids an after school treat and I killed weevils when I added them to very hot melted marshmallows. So be alert of those nasty weevils.

she kept me laughing today

Today was the first Sunday in advent which according to our pastor means to look forward to. Every year on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas the pastor calls up the little kids and tells them a little bit about the reason we celebrate Christmas and a chosen child gets to light a candle that will remain lit during the sermon and after church another child who is chosen will blow out the candle. The pastor asked a different Sunday school teacher every Sunday to choose 2 of there kids for these jobs. The kids love it and look forward to it. So today our pastor asked Jeremy and I to choose two of our kids. We teach the 5th and 6th graders and today being the Sunday after Thanksgiving only had two kids show up so our choice was easy. Jessica wanted to be the one to light the candle so our other student got to blow it out. At the end of class Jess volunteered to close us in prayer and her pray went something like this “Dear God please watch us today so that we don’t catch the church on fire” Oh yeah I forgot to mention my daughter is deathly afraid of fire.
Our pastor also starts off his sermon with a short story that almost always gets us laughing. I wonder if he is trying to figure out who sleeps and who listens. Well he’s so funny you don’t dare fall asleep and miss his story. Anyway today part of his opener was to mention the family member we all have. You know the one you can’t decide if you want to admit you are related to or not. The one who gets labeled the crazy aunt or uncle. Jessica leans over to me and says “that’s dad in our family isn’t it.” Oh I died.

Memories of a Seagull that put a smile on Jess' face

We were visiting with Jeremy's family this last weekend. When visiting Jeremy's family they all tell stories of the passed. It's cool. So Jeremy shared one of our funny stories with his cousin Richard that I will re-tell.
When we first moved to Salt Lake City I did not know that the state bird was the seagull. And had I known that I would have never believed it because there is no ocean here. But there are tons!! Well one day right after we first moved here and all the snow had melted away, we decided to go fishing up at Jordanel Reservoir. I had made up a lunch and at lunch time Jessica who was 3 at the time decided she only wanted chips. Trying to be a good mom told her 'no you must eat 3 bits of the sandwich first' Well we all know how 3 year old can be at times. She had a fit and refused to touch the sandwich. So I refused to give her chips. The bread was drying out and I was getting more upset so I decided to walk away from her for a minute. Here comes a seagull to Jessica's rescue. It swooped down, grabbed the whole sandwich, took it out into the lake and ate it. Jess giggled and said 'can I have chips now'.

NKOTB

For those of you who knew me as a teen know I LOVED the New Kids on the Block. And I was going to marry Joey McIntire. Too bad for you Joey, Jeremy came along and swept me off my feet. Well about a year ago I heard rumors that they were getting back together and it was true. Jeremy was determind to buy me tickets to the concert but at $80 I said no. That just seemed to high of a price. Then he got an email from Ticket Master, because we spend way too much money through them, for NKOTB tickets at $20. So I aloud him to spoil me with tickets to the concert. It was great fun. Missy and I took Jessica to show her who we loved as teens. Although she was too sleepy from having a sleep over that she didn't quit enjoy it as much as I would have liked. They sang most of there old songs and were even able to still hit those high notes. We called my sister Cyn when they sang there old song Hangin' Tough and sang the words we remembered to her. What fun. There were some crazy people there dressed up all '80's like. Leggings, showing bra straps, torn T-shirts hanging off the shoulder, crimped hair, blue eye shadow, the whole 9 yards. Some still managed to fit into there old T-shirts with NKOTB on it, bright florecent colors and the faces of Joey, Jonathan, Jordan, Danny, and Donnie every where. I was living out a childhood dream. Although in all my dreams as a big fan of NKOTB I always had back stage passes to hang out with them. But instead of hanging with the 'old' kids I came home to my honey lamb and told him all about it as he fell asleep. I guess he will never be a fan of the boy band.

Crazy Man

A few years ago I stopped buying soda. Jeremy was drinking so much he was getting cavities and then the kids started to pick up the habit. Then he got his first kidney stone and caffeine makes your body flush out calcium and will even rob it from your bones. This gave me a great excuse to stop buying it. Now he only gets it at restaurants or at other peoples houses. Well so I thought!! Today Jeremy went to check the mail and comes running in the house, "I won, I won!" He has been buying Pepsi at work. In the caps that most people don't even pay attention to is a code and he enters them online. Today in the mail he had a Zune MP3 player waiting for him. Now I just got one for my birthday and I know they cost a bit of money. He got one for free didn't even have to pay shipping and handling.
He was telling me that yesterday while he was entering the code on-line he quickly added in his head how much money he probably spent on the soda and it was about amount of money if he would have spent if he had just went out and bought one. No doubt! Not to mention the ER bill in a few months to a year when the next kidney stone tries to pass. In all honesty I know he didn't drink ALL the soda. Everyone at work gave him there caps because they don't believe you really win. Well I also thought that but he has not only won this Zune apparently he also has won $20. If he wants to drink soda fine it's his body and I am not his mother but I wont buy it for the house because I am my kids mother.

The Verdict

The doctor called. I do have a small cyst on my right ovary. There is nothing wrong with the uteruses they were just fascinating. Glad to be of service for some entertainment. Because it is so small they just want to treat it with birth control and see how it goes.

FYI on pain

Just a quick note for all who have been concerned. I finally got into the doctor today. She said that my ovary did feel enlarged and so she sent me down stairs to get an ultra sound. She ordered the correct one. They did not seem to care about my ovary. The tech pointed it out and measured it twice and moved on. That's not what happened last time I went through this. Then she spent tons of time measuring my right uterus. She told me everything she was measuring except this one spot she didn't say anything. I don't know if I am reading too much into it or not but if there is something of concern than it would be my guess that the one spot would be it. And no I am not pregnant for any of you who had that thought pop into your heads!!

Venting my frustration

Everyone is at work and I am home alone and I need to complain so here it goes. I have been having tummy aches. I didn't want to go to the doctor so I chose to ignore them even though I know what the cause is and I know it won't likely go away on it's own. I believe I, once again, have an ovarian cyst. So after talking to some girlfriends about stuff like this I realized "oh yeah I kinda want to keep my ovary healthy so I can still be a girl and not have to shave my FACE!" So I have gone to the doctor and he agreed after examining me that the likely cause of my pain is in fact an ovarian cyst. He tells me he will schedule me for an ultra sound asap. OK a week later I call and tell them this is crazy where is my appointment (this was yesterday) Oh well it's tomorrow morning at 7 am. Hmm did they think it would be fun to keep that a secret or what. So this morning Tyson (little one I tend) and I go to the big new hospital to have my ultra sound. The nurse put in for the wrong ultra sound. Because he is only a tech he cannot change anything with out doctor permission. GRRRRR. Tyson got a health breakfast of vending machine cookies, luckily I did bring him milk, while we waited for the nice tech to call the doctor and try to get it changed. An hour and a half later they just send me home with the advice to call doctor and give him a hard time. Now I wait, again, in pain.

It's not the after yet!!

I am not one who likes to draw attention to myself and I don't like to toot my own horn, but right now I am sort of proud of myself. Like many I have struggled with my weight for many years. Well pretty much my whole life. I have had times were I am very over weight and I have had times (high school) were I wasn't really over weight but because the people around me were oh a size 0 I seemed to be over weight. I have always known that the one true way to loose weight and be healthy was to make smarter choices and to cut back on portion size. It has worked in the past for me to loose weight this way, but I always gain it back because I have thin people around me who can eat what ever they want and not gain weight. I begin to feel sorry for myself or think what is one fast food meal really going to do to my waistline. Well one meal full of fat leads to another and another and another until I have gained back all or more of the weight I had lost. So back in February I decided to join Weight Watchers. I did this for the support, tips, and to see others success, and to see others beginnings. When I joined I went in with the mind frame that I was going to do this for the rest of my life. Thank goodness when you reach goal weight you become a lifetime member and no longer have to pay the $9 a week. I thought of taking a before picture and decided that was too cheesy. But I am thankful my sister took a picture of me and didn't listen to me when I told her to erase it. It wasn't intended to be a "before" picture she was just playing around with her camera. This picture was taken about 2-3 weeks after I started weight watchers and I had already lost somewhere around 7 lbs. I have now lost 40ish lbs. and have about 15 more to go. I hate this picture so much. So here I go, my before and now picture, the after is yet to come.
BEFORE

NOW

Walking for the cure

On Saturday morning I did a breast cancer walk. When you walk with a team the team comes up with shirts that have some sort of saying or slogan on them. I just wanted to share a couple of the funny T-shirts I saw there. One had a picture of two mountains side by side and it said "saving the mountains" (the person I was walking with whispered to me 'or the mole hills in my case')One very large breasted lady's shirt said "Yeah there fake the real ones nearly killed me"And my favorite- "Saving second base"Some people are quite creative. Hope you all enjoy they and get a smile out of it. Have a great week everyone

Brace Face

Here is the before picture. It just wouldn't seem complete with out one. She is so beautiful to me and I can't wait to see her with her new smile although as beautiful as she is now I fear how much more beautiful she will be and I do not anticipate the boys that will be lining up at the door.

Here she is getting started. Now this is a blackmail picture if I ever saw one. HUMM maybe if there are too many boys I might just post this picture on the door and they might change there minds. What do you think, will it work? They forgot to put Vaseline on her lips so this was very uncomfortable after a while.

Poor thing she was such a trooper, but it did become a bit painful especially when they started the back teeth. They have to dry the teeth very well and then they put on some sour stuff. I think so that the cement will adhere better. Then they go through tooth by tooth an add the cement and bracket. With Jess they also had to add a very stiff wire in the front to push teeth aside because she still doesn't have enough room for those darn eye teeth to come in. I guess the second tooth in front is being moved to go almost behind the front tooth then when the eye teeth come in and can be braced, then they will work on moving them all back into place.

Here she is all braced and done. She chose orange and black rubber bands for Halloween. they typically have an appointment every 4 weeks so she can change for every holiday. At least there is some fun to go with braces. She has been pretty sore. We are sticking to a soft diet pudding, applesauce, yogurt, mac n cheese, and Tylenol around the clock. I was just drifting off to sleep last night when I heard her whimpering I woke her up and she had accidentally bumped her mouth with her hand and it hurt. Thankfully we have been through this with Brian and I know that it only last this bad for two days. And I also was more prepared with the applesauce and Tylenol.

An amazing weekend

On Saturday Jeremy took me up to the mountains to see the fall colors. It turned out to be free canyon day. So we didn't have to pay the $6 day fee. Then we decided to hike up to Tippanogas Cave and we were able to park in the parking lot. On any old regular day it's difficult to find a parking spot in the parking lot. Then we went to get our tickets for the cave tour and they were out because it was also free cave tour day. BUT some guy over heard that we couldn't get tickets and gave us his, they didn't want to wait around the 3 1/2 hours until there tour. So we hiked up to the cave figuring we would go slow and take our time and enjoy they fall colors. We got there too early so we just sat and waited. Then a tour guild asked us if we wanted to join his group because he had room for two more. So we got to see the cave and get back down to the car before our regular tour time. It was pretty great.

Tagged

Ok Michelle this is for you!! I don't know how to add that little tagged thing from Michelle's blog so I will just explain. Michelle has challenged me to come up with 7 weird or interesting things about myself and ask others to do the same. Here it goes...
1. This one is my favorite~ I have 2 uterus and 1 ovary. Or would you say uteruses. I was of course born with both uterus but the left ovary was removed when I was 19 due to a cyst.
2. Both of my kids were born from my right uterus. I am lopsided when I am pregnant. Brian was in the right by chance and Jessica was there because she was born after I had the left ovary removed.
3. I have never ever done drugs or smoked. Not even once. It was my form of rebellion as a teenager.
(humm this is getting harder)
4. I met Jeremy when I was 12 years old and it was not love at first sight.
5. I was a teen mom. that counts as weird or interesting right!!
6. I got my GED a year after my son was born BUT went back and got my high school diploma a year ago. When I walked into the schools office to see how I could do this the councilor looked over my transcripts from high school and said " congratulations you just graduated high school" funny. I had all the credits I needed all along.
7. I am glad Jeremy put his foot down (so to speak) but I used to want 6 kids. Yep. I even wanted all boys and one girl. Love my kiddos to death but I am real glad we stopped. Now I get to look forward to a second honeymoon stage because my youngest will be 18 when I am 40.

Sorry I am not a very interesting person. Hope you had fun reading anyways. Hope to see 7 interesting things about you on your blogs soon.

Jess can be funny too

So Jessica can be funny too. It's just she doesn't always do it on purpose and so when we laugh she cries. But this one time she did it on purpose. It was about 3 years ago and I woke up with an eye problem. After about 5 hours of trying to ignore it I decided to check it out in the mirror. I saw a dimple on my eye ball so I decided to go to the doc just to get it checked out. Turns out I had a chunk of my eye ball missing. When I got home I told the kids and Jess walks across the kitchen and step on a drop of water someone had spilled and said, "Eww I think I found your chunk of eye mom."

Quick Witted Child

Yesterday while talking to my sister I remembered another one of Brian's come backs. The reason I am blogging all of these is so that I never forget.

A year and a half ago Brian went to Spring Fling. (this is a night sponcered by the christian churches in the area where the teenagers are locked up in a local rec center all night with pizza and free range of the rec; swimming, skating, ice skating, basketball, rock climbing, ect.) Pure torture!! Anyway, Brian and his friend Isaac were ice skating when he fell. He hit his head so hard he saw stars and didn't get up right away. One of the adults who was there came up to him and asked him if he was alright and did he need ice. He told her " no I think I found plenty."

Provo River Falls

We made it to another water fall before the snow fell. Yes our mountains have already received there 1st snow of the year. We went on labor day weekend with Jeremy's parents. There wasn't much of a hike to this one and as a result it was crowded. But it is beautiful. I still hope to take one more trip to a water fall and hopefully even go to Bridal Falls when it freezes. People actually climb up it when it's frozen. Can you even imagine. I would freak out.

Provo River Falls

Today we went on a field trip to the Tracey Aviary in Liberty Park down town. It's a fun park but because of the cripto break out last year they wouldn't let the babies play in the water. They handled it pretty well but our hearts were broken for them. It was cool, at the aviary they had just fed the bird and the eagles were actually eating a rabbit. I tried to get a good picture. But as good as my camera is I didn't get it. I just don't get to take pictures as fast as I want to some times.

Trip to the Zoo

Missy and I took our girls to the zoo. My guys were out hunting and Jory was out with friends. It was enrichment day so we saw how all the animals played with toys and in some cases the kids got to act like and animals. In the picture Jessica is painting like an elephant. She also went through an obstacle course, I don't know what animal they enrich the environment with obstacles maybe it was an enrichment for the kids. The monkeys were the most active and fun to watch. Although I am sure the elephants would have been great also but they space the shows out so far that you would have to spend an entire day there to see all the shows. Enjoy.

My favorite mother's day present ever

I was going to add new pictures today but I left my camera in the car that Jeremy took to work so I will add a memory instead. What triggered the memory was the other day Jessica experimented, at the Stewart's house, making banana muffins. They weren't too tasty, needed more sugar, but you could tell what she tried to make. Oh yeah and she did this all with out a recipe. Which brings me to my memory.... A few years ago Brian wanted to buy me a mothers day present but didn't have money and Jer was at work so I would have had to drive him any way. We were all laying in my bed watching TV listening to Brian try to figure out a plan to fix this no- present- for- mom- problem, when he jumps up and says stay here don't go down stairs. I figured out quickly from the sounds coming from the kitchen that he was going to bake me something. After a while he comes up to the bedroom with a look of defeat and says "something went terribly wrong. I followed the directions exactly but it didn't work" I go down stairs to see what I could do to help and the bowl is full, and I mean full, of Bisquick. I asked him why so much and he tells me "I put in 23/4 cup of Bisquick just like the recipe says." after my laughing fit was done I told him it say 2 and 3/4 cup of Bisquick not 23/4. OH how I love that kid. I did hurt his feeling by laughing but it still to this day is the best laugh I have ever had in my life.

the comedian

I remembered another funny from Bri. Jeremy took Brian out to dinner and a game night of laser tag. They went to panda express for dinner and after the meal Jer opens up his cookie, laughs and tells Brian "wow how did they know. My fortune cookie says 'you will win at laser tag tonight'" Brian quickly opens up his and says "well mine says ' your dad can't read'"
Why can't I be quick witted like that.

Just a quick funny

So I think kids are the best comedians ever. And sometimes I just can't stop laughing. I want to share with you a funny that happened this morning.
Jessica, my daughter, is a slob. No way to put it nicely. I have to say though I am not the best house keeper, but I do put an effort into it. I just have house cleaning ADHD. I start in one room and find something that belongs in another room and so forth. By the end of the day I am exhausted and the house hasn't changed much. Anyways back to story at hand.
Jess, the slob, was getting a talking to this morning becaus Tyson (the little one I watch in the day) was licking my expensive paint brushes. (they are cleaned after ever use) When I was finished telling her she needs to get better at cleaning up I went to wake up Brian. I open his door and the blanket is pulled over his head and he says "I'm awake I'm just hiding from you" I asked him why and he tells me "I heard you using your clean the house voice and so I was trying to pretend to sleep longer to get out of it" I laughed for 5 minutes.

Brian Injured

So boys are very different then girls. And I am learning this more and more all the time. I alowed Brian to go to a friends house to hang out. I get a phone call "Hey mom can you come and get me" I don't think anything because he's been gone hours and it's very hot outside.
"Yeah sure I'm on my way"
"OK thanks but you need to know before you get here I don't want stitched, no seariously mom NO STITCHES!"
"Um how bad is it."
"well blood is squirting out"
"OK but I get to take pictures right"
"As long as I don't have to get stitches"
Come to find out they were showing off for each other to see who could jump from branch to branch in a tree using only one hand. It was deep but small. Less than an inch long. A stitch could have been used but not manditory and I got my pictures. ;-)

Swim Lessons

This summer Jess did swim lessons. It was fun for her to get out and do something. It was hard to do things this summer, with the price of gas as high as it was Jer drove my car to work to save us a bit of money and I don't like to drive the truck, so we stayed home a lot. She did very well and learned to dive. She loves it. And with the olympics on she is finding it fasinating to watch as well. Maybe one day we will have a little diver in the family. On the last day the kids had a free day where they were able to go down the slide. She also got brave enough to go of the high dive. Hope you enjoy her pics.

Rocky Mouth Waterfall

I am hoping this will be the first of many water fall photos. Jeremy found a web site of all the water falls in Utah and how to get to them. I plan to visit all of them. Starting with all the local ones. this one was a 1/2 mile hike from where we parked the car and wasn't too difficult of a hike. There was beautiful butterflies but I couldn't get a picture of them. Brian refused to go so he isn't in the pictures. I am very tired of fighting with him to join us on our family outings. I am hoping one day he regrets it as mean as that sounds.

My Larry Garden

This is for Larry. He built me this garden two years ago and I haven't sent him any pictures of is lately. My lilies did bloom. Well one did. The irises are spreading so I am going to trans plant the new grows. I love them but don't want them to take over. My strawberries have been doing wonderful since I transplanted the to this garden. Thanks Pop I love it!

Crafts

Here are some things I did this week. For my b-day my mom bought me a bead kit and I just went to town making jewlery. And here is the begining of a quilt I am making for a wedding gift. Unfortunatly the wedding was last weekend. Oh well.

Petting Zoo

Today we went to the petting zoo at gardener village. It was fun but way hot. The girls (Jessica, Ariana, and Amelia) were all beat red and sweaty. The red hair and fair complection will get you every time. Jessica and Ana road on the pony ride. I think Jess is just getting too big for that kid of stuff. It's time to move on to full size horses that don't walk in circles. But it was perfect for Ana. In the petting zoo part the goats checked out our stuff (particularly Missy purse) for some grub. Tyson was very interesed in the dogs (aka goats) until he found the goose. I think he would have stayed there all day watching them and never even cared if the rest of the world disappeared. According to Jess, Ana wanted nothing to do with the pigs. They were fat but pretty cute. One of them must have had babies recently, poor things belly side drug on the ground.

Being the parent of a teenager

Things I learned about being a parent:
They don’t learn from your mistakes so pray they learn from there own
Terrible two’s are an insight to what your child’s teenage years will be like only it last longer in the teenage years
Having a funny child is great fun until they learn to use the humor to over power you with laughter when you are trying to punish them.
No matter how much you tell them you love them once they are teenagers they forget.
Praying God will bless you with a smart child so they won’t struggle the way you did growing up can back fire.
Giving them all you never had doesn’t insure they wont feel deprived
Spacing out the ages of your children doesn’t make life easier and having them close together doesn’t make life easier.
Come up with the rules for dating before they get their first girlfriend/boyfriend and have them posted where they must read them daily.

Kittens

The other day we went up to Amber's vet clinic (Jory's sister). A litter of kittens were born about 5 weeks ago and we took the girls to see them. It was fun because the kittens were too young to know better and the kids thought "wow they are cute and furry and fun and I can pick them up by the tail!" As fun as it was I had a bowling girl all the way home. If you don't already know Jess is an animal lover and cries when she sees kittens and puppys on the side of the road to be given away. Because what if they go to a bad home, what if no one takes them home, what if what if what if. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I did use them to show Jess how mess she looks when she doesn't pull her hair out of her face so hopefully in the future we will have better pictures of her.

Taylorsville Days

Every year at the end of June we celebrate Taylorsville Days. It's the day Taylorsville became a city. I guess it's 12 years old this year. We go every year and I finally brought the camera.

My new painting

I told Larry I would blog my new painting for him to see. I was in the mood to play with colors. I saw this blue and wondered how many differ shade I could come up with by adding white and this is what happend. So there are only two colors in this painting (if you count white as a color)

Mudd monsters.

Flaming Gorge Wyoming

We love camping at Flaming Gorge Wyoming because when you camp on BLM land you get to camp right on the beach. AHH the freedom a trailer gives you. It was so hot that every one got sun burned. Our family not too bad. Brian only got his leg burned and I did too. Jess a little here and there but I'm not 100% sure she burned while camping. I know the day before we left she got burned and I think that was all she got. But Jeremy didn't put sun screen on and the last day the fishing was awesome so they sat out all day fishing. He was burned to a crisp on his face and arms and the back of his legs. But between all the people who fished that day they caught 100 fish. Yes 100 fish!! Of course most of them were catch and release. We did keep a few for dinner. While down fishing Dan (my friend Jen's fiance) caught a fish and took out his knife and cleaned it right there. Jessica and Kimmy (a friend of Jess' that we took with us so she wouldn't get bored) came running and screaming to me saying "He killed it alive He killed it alive" after I was done laughing hysterically I had to explain that you can't kill something that was already dead so of course he killed it alive. Also another funny out of Jess: We always take binoculars to look at animals while camping and across the water Dave Jennifer Jess and Kim saw something so they looked through the binoculars to see what it was. It was vultures. Dave thought they might be turkey vultures so that's what he told the girls they were. Jeremy and I walk up and Jess says mom look turkeys and they are saying bock bock bock (The sound a chicken would make.) Again after laughing we asked her "what do turkey's say" just so we could laugh again. Then Jeremy tried to ask her what a chick would say and she looked dumb founded and couldn't remember. Kids, there kinda like your own personal comedian.

California

This is my side of the family. I will try to name off everyone but for give me if it gets confusing we aren't in straight rows. From the Top Lt to Rt Larry holding Amelia, Jeremy Then the middle Brian, Jeff, Jory, Jessica In front mom Missy holding Ana, Me Cynthia and Evan. We just got back from spending some time out in California. We went there to see my sister Cyn graduate from Cal state San Bernadino with her BS in chemistry. She's a smart cookie. It was a bonus that it was on Father's Day weekend and I got to spend the first father's day with Larry. Who's the greatest, and if you didn't know any better you would think he did raise us because we are so much alike and love each other so much. We had a great time. It was hot out there. We didn't mind it though because out here in Salt Lake City the sun had not made much of an appearance this spring. But it is making up for that. When we got home it was hot and has been every since. Thank goodness mom gave me some shorts or I would be cookin. Now we are getting ready to leave tomorrow morning to go camping. So next week look for some camping photos. Take care.

NEW YORK

We just got back from New York City. Jeremy graduated from Pace University with a BS in telecommunications with Honors. As a graduation gift his folk flew us and them to New York for a week so that he can attend his graduation and have a family vacation. It was great fun. We saw everything we wanted to see. The Statue of Liberty, Empire state Building, ground 0, central park, a Broadway show, time square, Yankees game, rats and more! Well the vacation started off with a bang, I left my purse in the taxi. After a few hours of freaking out and remembering all that was in the purse $300 cash and the Yankee tickets. We get a call from the cab driver that he had it and would be dropping it off in the morning. FEW!!!! Everything still in the purse!! In my defense I had three things I was holding on my shoulders and when we got into the taxi I relaxed and dropped the purse when getting out I grab the straps on my shoulder and got out leaving the purse behind. Thank God for honest people. We started off sight seeing on one of those double decker buses. Which was great because we learned a little more about the city and where everything was. It started to rain while we were on the bus we got drenched and froze. It pretty much rained the whole time we were there. We got to see ground 0. Where the tower them selves were just looks like a construction zone but at fire station 10, the ones first on the seen, they have a memorial for the lost fire fighters with there pictures and around the corner some of the local school kids made tiles in memory of those lost. Those two thing were hard to see and I felt like I was at a funeral. It was sad. We also saw a sphere that was in between the towers and saw the damage it got. I will have that picture on the side show that I will add later. The statue of liberty was great. That day was actually the best weather we had the whole trip(our last day of course) We stood in line for 3 hours to get on the ferry that took us to liberty island and we couldn't go up into the pedestal because they only let so many people in per day. You can no longer go into the statue it self. We also went up in the empire state building. We didn't go to the top it cost way too much but at floor 82 that's high enough. we took some picture on the city. I LOVED the Yankee's game. They played the Orioles. Poor Jones he got picked on ruthlessly by Yankee fans. Now this was my first time to a professional sporting event and I don't know if they are all like this but talk about die hard fans. The energy from them was what made it so much fun though. On the way home from the Yankee game we loaded up on to the subway to head back to the hotel and after the doors shut (like the mother duck that I am) counted my group (or chicks )and one was missing. BRIAN!! I freaked out and stood up to look for him. Now imagine a subway so crowded you can't move and remember how short I am most of the standing were men. I couldn't see my Bri any where so I freaked out a little and then I see a hand wave to me and an eye ball I recognise look at me through tons of people. I sunk to my chair and tried to contain the shaking in my hands and legs. There was one guy who tried to smile at me, I think to see if I was going to hang in there, and I turned my head and couldn't look at anyone for fear the tears would fall. But Jeremy reassured him that I would be fine now that I knew where Brian was. I guess Bri had seen a couple of open seats and tried to snag them for us and in the mix was separated by the mass of people. The graduation was long. Especially since Jeremy was like the seventh person to walk across the stage and hundreds were graduating. We decided to beat the crowed and get a potty break and outside to the fountain where we planned to meet Jer just before the end of the graduation. As we were crossing the street a car who had a red light decided to honk and hit his gas peddle and bumped my daughter. She did not get injured just scared but he had no remorse for hitting my daughter. a native New Yorker yelled at him for me but I really wanted to kick his car or punch his face. I did feel very guilty that I didn't have at least a talk with him but Jeremy's parents didn't see it happen and kept walking and i was afraid to loose them so I followed. We got home in the middle of the night on Saturday. I was so exhausted I slept until noon on Sunday. It took a couple of days to get back into normal life mode. We walked so much I felt like we never stopped rushing the whole trip. It was wonderful to walk in the door and take a deep breath and say were home.

Jeremy and I had the opportunity to go see a Broadway show while we were out there. Phantom of the Opera. It was great!! Jeremy takes great pictures doesn't he. Since we went by our selves we had no one to take our picture so Jer stretched out his arm and took it.

OK this is for all you HEROES fans out there. For those of you confused this is a TV show that is a must see. You can rent the whole first season. I suggest renting all of them at once on a Friday night because you wont want to stop watching them until they are all done. I DID IT!!

This is a picture of us in front of the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunatly no one bothered to make sure that the statue was in view. I do believe it is behind Jeremy's head. And yes that is Brian's lip pouting. I think he has decided to take after his uncle Evan and never do an ordinary smile face in pictures. I really don't mind at all except when we do a picture for the christmas card or at a photo shoot where I pay for them to be taken.