Bad luck always comes in threes?

It has been one of those weeks that you wish you could rewind time and try it again without the drama.

Monday my new car was hit in the parking lot at work. I came out to go home and there was a note on my car of a person who apologized for hitting my car and to contact her. It was lucky that she left a note but it still is really frustrating that my pretty new car now has a bashed in front fender. The first estimate was $1200 to fix it. 

School is frustrating me. Maybe it was just this week but they are adjusting the assignment for the classes and the new templates are very confusing. I spent six long and miserable days trying to figure out how to do this last paper and I know I blew it. I just hit a wall and could not think. I worry about my grade and hope I can redeem myself over the next couple of weeks. 

Wednesday I start another class on top of the existing one. So far the reading looks interesting and seems to be stuff I can actually apply at my job. That will be a change as most of what I have learned is not as helpful in my job as it is for most completing the degree. 

Nothing is getting done at home. No christmas decorations no yard cleaning up or cars licensed. I hate the four day state workweek as D's day off is usually friday and the offices are all closed so my cars are still unlicensed. 

I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop as we had the car bashed, bad luck at school and what do we think the third thing will be?

I keep you all posted.

Always the last to know

D comes from a big family. He is the second to the oldest of six boys and two girls. Needless to say the family has gotten bigger as you add in wives and husbands and kids. I love his family but when compared to mine it is so very different. 

My parents are always willing to help. Whenever we need help or even just a shoulder they are always there. They never forget a birthday, anniversary, event or whatever is going on in our lives. They call weekly if they have not heard from us just to make sure that we are all okay. The kids love them and I know I can depend on them. 

D's parents are much different. Granted they are a bit older but they never call and we seldom hear from them. We do not see them very often, even when they visit D's sister who lives 30 min away from us. They remember the kids birthdays (usually) sometimes D's but never mine. His siblings are all over the place but nobody really keeps in touch other than the guys who play some dumb computer game together on-line. It just feels like you are not important to them. I am sure that they love D and the kids in their own way but so often it is really hard when D needs that family connection and so often he is left out. 

Why am I musing, many would appreciate the lack of interest from their inlaws. I guess it was the traditional we need money request that happens this time of year. D's siblings go together for a gift for his parents each year. I do not mind going in on a gift it saves me time trying to figure out gift I can get them (D is no help) that they will hate this year (I try to be creative, it never works). My problem is that his siblings are all about asking for money but yet we never get to participate in the choosing of the gift. It feels so much like all we are good for is the cash. D did say his brother asked him for suggestions but I think it was more an afterthought when the decision was already made. 

I get angry and frustrated because his mom and dad are missing out on so much of four really great kids. They have never seen either  Ty or Boo play in a concert, Boo play soccer or participate in any thing with my kids. They did not come to Ty's high school graduation. These are such memorable and important things and just makes me feel bad that they miss out on these great events. I know they live three hours away but it is still tough to see them miss out by their own choosing. In doing so they are also missing out on a really great son. A caring wonderful guy who tries so hard to be a good dad, husband and friend. 

I guess this teaches me to be a better parent, to treasure each moment and as my kids grow up and embark on the next steps in their life, the parent or grandparent I want to be in their future.

To my parents, Thank you for always being there. For all the times you have bailed us out come to our rescue moved our furniture and loaned D tools. For all of the great things you share with us and the time you are willing to give. Thank you for all of your love support and being you. You guys are great and I am so glad that you are my mom and dad. I love you both.

 

lack of interesting material

Sorry for no post lately. It is not that anything hasn't happened it is just taking the time to put together a post has not been in the cards. We seem to always be going in six million directions and with indoor soccer having started it makes for busy weeks. 

Boo's indoor season is officially started. They have played three games all against teams bigger and older and have not done as well as they would like. One of the teams they have played twice. Boo is doing well in her playing. She enjoys pushing the other team around. Those who have never seen an indoor soccer game it is like soccer and hockey put together. You play the ball off of the walls around the field and can push and shove a little more than in regular soccer or maybe you just notice it more because the field is smaller. Anyone who would like to come her games are on thursday nights, give us a call and we will give you more details.

A couple of weeks ago we had the great privilege to see my sister and her son in Savior of the World. It was really great and we all enjoyed it. It was really neat to get to see the show and it was fun to see them performing. Thanks for the opportunity to attend. They both did a really good job and I know it has been a lot of work for both of them.

Ty is loving her job except that she has some late nights and early mornings and seems to get tired and grumpy. We scored our first couple of perks of her job. She got us twilight tickets for Friday and we got to see the movie. Our showing was nice we did not have to wait in line and theater was not too crowded unlike the next day when she got her dad tickets to Quantum of Solace (he is a big 007 fan) that theater was very full and crowded. It was a great movie and Twilight was okay, not as good as the book(they never are)

Everyone else is doing okay. School is tough and I will have two classes together starting in two weeks and I am worried about getting all of the work done. I just keep saying four more classes. 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Boo!

Today at 4:40 pm you were 15! I can still remember when you were born.  The doctor figured we would have you by noon  considering you were a 2nd baby but you refused and were born in your own good time. You were so cute with your hair standing straight up. In the hospital the nurses would put gel in your hair to get it to lay down but as soon at the get dried it was standing straight up again.

You had the most beautiful blue eyes and all of this black hair that soon after turned blonde. You were so much different from your big sister. You were all sass and hated to be carried down stairs frontwards. You were always so full of life and wanted everything your way. You loved sports, soccer and running and hated to be inside the house. You spent every hour you could outside playing. 

I love you and I am so proud of you. You work really hard and it shows. You are so talented and beautiful and I am proud to be your mom. Happy 15th birthday. 

Happy birthday......

and many more to come

Just think next year sweet sixteen.

booksale this weekend

All of you friends and family who live in the area, the big library booksale will be this weekend the 7th 8th and 10th at the library in clearfield. Lots of really great stuff. Prices are on friday $1 a hardback book, $.50 a paperback, Saturday $.50 a hardback and $.25 a paperback, monday $3 a bag or $5 a box. Times are from 5-8 on friday, 10-2 on saturday and 6-8 on monday. I will be there working all three days so if you have questions give me a call.

It is a great opportunity to get some great books at incredible prices. Some may be in tough shape but there is a lot that were donations. There will also be video's dvd's and other a.v. items as well.

check it out!

First Paychecks

Ty after much pushing and shoving from her dad and I got a job a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that she could have got a good job working for the library she decided that she wanted to work for a movie theater. She applied to all of the theaters around and finally got a job at the Tinseltown in Layton. Her dad and I were very excited for her and have tried to support her as much as possible.
Last Wednesday she got her first paycheck. It was for a little over $200 (minimum wage sucks). When she told me she had gotten paid I gave her the little talk about not spending it all at once and making sure she left enough money for gas and such for the next couple of weeks.

Well she is a teenager and she went out the next day and bough a PSP. She now has 18cents in her account, a car on empty and no money to buy gas. D tells me I am being too hard on her. It was her first paycheck and she got excited. When I talked to her after she didn't think that I was being serious on not spending the whole thing. Oh well. the sad thing is that a check that D wrote out last april for a soccer uniform got deposited this week so we are financially in the same boat as her. Oh well. I hope she saves some of the next one.

I have four cars in my driveway, one won't start (stitch), one on empty(Max), two not registered (max and big car), and my car (roxie) working toward empty since it was the only one with gas and everyone keeps driving it.

Payday is thursday.

election crazy

So far I kept my feelings and comments to myself about the elections and all that is going on in our world. When people would discuss, often heatidly, about who is who and what is what and what crazy man picks a running mate who has no experience I have shook or bobbed my head in accordance with their views. I know of people who get daily multiple emails about who they should vote for according to religion. It is all just crazy.

We are all individuals and the right to vote is our right. Who we decide to vote for whether it be Super Dell for Governor (not likely) or which of these two guys running for president, is our own personal decision and truthfully no one needs to know. I don't believe that anyone has the right to make my decisions for me or tell me what to do. We fought a war to gain these rights and as citizens it is our duty to make use of them.

I admit that this is a very important election. The country is in a mess that whoever we choose is going to have to find a way out of. This will not be an easy fix as it is going to take a long time to get though the current financial trouble and get us back on a positive track. No one, even Obama or McCain has a magic wand that they are going to wave and poof we all are happy and weathly and wise and our houses are worth millions again and anyone can get credit. It is not going to happen.

Choose who you think will do the best job, read up on the issues, be and informed voter, do not let any one group sway your decisions, make up your own mind, and most of all get out and vote. It is your right and responsibility.

adigators and family dinners

D's little brother moved back to Utah last winter from Arizona. They built a beautiful (huge) new house out in Stansbury Park. I had not yet seen the finished house so they invited us over to dinner yesterday to see the house.
Bee has been driving us cookoo (not that it is a far trip) to go to the zoo so we combined the two activities. We took the kido's to the zoo for a quick trip around (we have season passes). Caught the elephant show looked at the animals and of course the obligatory trip to the gift shop. Well to everyones surprise all of the white alligator stuff was 50% off so the kids (except boo) got little white adigators (Bee's word).
We then got lost in Salt Lake because D thinks that I-80 East and west are joined. Luckily we did not get too lost it just took an extra fifteen or twenty minutes to get to his Bro's house.
Dinner was nice, the house is beautiful and spacious, I would love to have their master bedroom closet. It was a fun day except for the no homework getting done but it was really nice to get the invite and to see family. These are bee's closest geographical girl cousins almost her age so she was in pink pony heaven and it was hard to pull her away to go home.

Thanks Ken and Steph- We will have to have you over to our house next.

Oh and D's littlest bro proposed to his g-friend and they are getting married in April. Congrats Matt and Crystal.

To my sister

You are the best and I do love you more than you will ever know. I love to spend time with you and your great family. I did not mean to make you sad or feel bad or like I didn't like you because I do, you are my sister.

 You are beautiful and I appreciate all that you do. I know we are a bother and you probably wish that we had not moved so close. Sometimes it is just hard to be around everyone and yet inside ourself feel not a part of what is going on. It is nothing on you but all on me. 

I envy your commitment, your spirit and light. That through all of lifes troubles you seem to stay strong in the faith and committed to your family. Others of us are just not that strong. We just don't have the ability to fit in and always feel the outsider no matter the situation. 

I have the problems and the issues for I am so far from perfect. It is hard to be me sometimes, in a family of such beautiful people and you are the only one overweight and not beautiful. Like the ugly duckling who never got to be the swan. Maybe I am just in a funk with so much pressure that this was the outlet. but as you once said about your blog this is my outlet and if you don't like it I am sorry but it all can't be happiness and light all of the time. 

My Meemer, take heart, I do love you and I respect all that you do. You are my best friend and I did not mean to hurt your feelings. You are so beautiful, fun, interesting, loving and most of all the best sister I could have ever wished or hoped for. 

Forgive me-

Where do I fit?

Have you ever wondered where you fit in your family? As we get older I think we loose that place where we once fit. I feel so alien with my family some times. Like I am the one that it is easiest to forget or to not ignore exactly but gloss over, like an afterthought. I blend in with the furniture and seem to dissappear. I have two very beautiful and outgoing sisters who seem to be so vivid and so full of "look at me" I feel so frumpy and old and fat next to them. They both have beautiful little babies that along with a niece and her beautiful little baby always seem to steal the show. I have no cute little baby (not that I want one) or that ability to make everyone want to spend time with me.
I was always the good kid. I got straight A's, I did not date. I was the peacemaker and spent my time doing school work or reading. I loved cars, like my dad, so he would take me places and I felt a connection with him. I did not have a lot of friends as I was shy and had a hard time moving outside my comfort zone (I still do).
My mom and sister get to spend time together as neither of them work. They seem to have so much fun and I feel so left out. My other sister just has a lot going on in her life and demands the attention. My brother is always knee deep in problems that need solving. I am just me.
My mom tries to involve everyone and I love her even more for her efforts but when you have the choice of beautiful and interesting over frumpy and fat I know who I would choose.
This is not a pity me party (mom don't freak out), just mussings over how, as we get older, our place seems to shift and adjust. When we once felt like we mattered in the grand scheme we now find that we are less than we thought.
If we do get to come back, once this life is done, I want to be pretty and interesting.... not frumpy and fat and boring.

Just a thought

Soccer Update

Okay friends and family

Boo's truly last La Rocca game for the season (the makeup game) will be this wednesday the 15th at 5:30 at Ellison Park in Layton. (this park is on the road by Sam's Club in Layton that runs east west and is by the swan lakes golf course)

If you can make time to come you are very welcome. The weather is supposed to be better and I am sure that she would love to see anyone that can come.

Indoor will start in about three weeks. They are looking at playing at the Sportsplex in Kaysville.

Please come......

Support our soccer girl

Anyone for Octember?

We woke up to an interesting site for october 12. 

SNOW

not just a little snow but almost a foot and it has snowed most of the day. 

these pictures are after most of it had already started to melt

the kids have been in and out all day building snowmen, building a snow fort and having snowball fights

The puppy loves the snow and she has been bounding in and out and through all of the big piles all day as well. She comes in wet and cold and jumps on uncovered legs...

They are predicting highs in the 70's later in the week

welcome to Utah.......

Begging Pleading Asking

Boo's final LaRoca fall season game is tomorrow morning at 10:30 at North Layton Jr. High (this is the jr high on antelope drive accross from Chili's and Lowes). Any of you who can come we would very much love it. She could really use the support. She has worked so hard practicing twice a week and has improved so much. It does not even matter if you only stay for half of the game or come for the second half, it would still be nice for her to see her family and friends supporting her. The games usually last about an hour and a half so it will be done by 12:00.

So if any of you can clear some time and come support my super soccer girl please do!!!!!

They do not have a playground at the school but anyone can drop off kids at my house and they can play with G, Bee and the puppy.

PLEASE PLEASE COME, IT WILL BE FUN !

Puppy Crazy

Well the kids have found out how much fun puppys are. I would think that they would have remembered Izzy but I guess you forget after a few years. We named the puppy Kemieko (I know I am not spelling it right) Sakura (I know the kids did it). I call her CoCo for short but she is a little fireball. Her greatest joy is to tease Izzy. She will stand in front of her and bark and bounce and do all kinds of crazy things trying to get her to play. Izzy growls. The puppy loves to jump and chase and bite, like puppies do, and the more the kids scream and yell the more excited the puppy gets. The pupply likes to chew and although she tries to tell the kids that she needs to go out they sometimes don't get the hint in time and we have to clean up after her. Ty has been really great and has been sleeping on the couch up stairs in order to listen and take out the puppy at night. The downside is that the puppy gets excited when D comes home in the morning and jumps on Ty's head. Little claws, ouch!

This is what we did

She is a nine week old Shiba Inu puppy. She does not have a name yet so we are looking for suggestions. She hops like a rabbit and we are leaning toward something japanese so all of you cool people who speak japanese suggestions are wanted or anyone else who wants to. We are waiting to hear from you. All we ask is that it be clean and easy to yell at a puppy when she escapes. 

Izzy seams to be tolerating her so far. It was very cute tonight to see her bouncing around Izzy like a crazy rabbit trying to get Izzy to play with her. 

D says we can't take her back so we are stuck with her. 

The kids wouldn't give her back anyway, they are all in puppy love

have you ever done something..........

Have you ever done something.......crazy

without really thinking about it

just on the spur of the moment 

and then wondered 

am I crazy?

Who's idea was this?

But then again if you have to drive for 2 and 1/2 hours to do the crazy thing is it really spur of the moment?

Hmmmm...............

I know nothing

It is really sad when you have no idea what is going on. I have been so focused and stressed for the last six weeks that I have no idea what is going on around me. I don't know how the kids are doing in school, what is on in the news, except of course all of the financial crisis because we have had to study that in class oh and the hostage situation in Farmington since I work three blocks away from it.
It is very upsetting to think that you can become so out of it that you just shut down everything else. I can say that I am really tired and feeling somewhat strange. People talk to me and tell me things and I have probably forgotten to do things for people so I apologize ahead of time if I have forgotten to do something for you. I plead insanity.

The lights are on

Hello
you have reached my brain
we are sorry to inform you that the brain has packed up and left for sunnier locals
Please leave a message and if we find the brain we will be sure to answer you
Have a nice day

Garage Heaven

When we moved from the old house in North Odgen to the new house in West Point we lost some much needed space. Our old house had an almost finished basement with a family room and a couple of bedrooms. The new house has a basement but only one room is almost finished so, needless to say, we have a lot of excess stuff that has no where to go until we finally get the basement finished. D had hoped to have it finished within six months of moving in, I was a bit more skeptical. Well almost two years later we still have no basement finished. I give D a break because he does work an awful lot and does not have the stamina or drive that he did when he was younger. So where is all of the excess stuff - In the garage.
When we first moved in we had a large storage shed with all of our stuff in it because we sold our house in five days and did not have a house to move into. We had to store most of our stuff while we rented an apartment until the new house was finished. Eventually we had to move the stuff home as rent got to be expensive. So all of went in the garage and the cars moved out.
This past few weeks we have slowly gotten rid of a few things and D, being very sweet, cleaned and organized the garage enough that MY CAR NOW FITS, IN THE GARAGE!
I was way excited. It is really nice to have the car in the garage. It will be even nicer when it snows, or rains, or freezes as I won't have to scrap the car every day. D hopes to clean the rest out in a couple of weeks when we have a big yard sale and sell a lot of the extra stuff. As for the basement he has Boo's room almost sheetrocked, Ty's room is sheetrocked and she actually lives in it and he hopes by October to have both rooms done all the way ready for paint and then we can tackle the family room.
I am looking forward to having more room and the kids having more room and being able to seperate the two youngest again. Bee is a messy packrat and Bear is almost a neat freak so they do argue about who made the mess and who gets to clean it up. Besides boys of ten do need their own space without their nosy messy sister in it.

Disney Pics

Since my wonderful and loving daughter sent me all of the pictures off of the camera I thought I would share some of our Disney fun. The trip was great. We did a lot of fun stuff and saw many of the little shows and such that you usually do not have time for when you go with kids. Any one planning a trip to Disney really needs to check out the show at the Golden Horseshoe - it was so fun and we saw it twice, The Muppet's 4-D, and It's tough to be a bug (this will scare the little ones but was really neat). D's favorite rides were Soarin over California, Space Mountain, California Screamin and the new Toy Story Ride.

This is the Mark Twain riverboat which goes on the river around Frontierland. We were sitting on the top deck waiting for it to start when the captain came down and asked if would like to join him in the wheelhouse which is the little room you see at the top of the boat. D got to blow the whistle and ring the bell. It was very neat and I think D really enjoyed that part. Orlando was our driver and he was very nice and talked to us all about Disney.

Our trip home was a nightmare. Since we were flying standby there is always that fear that you won't get on the plane. We were flying from Long Beach to Vegas and then to Salt Lake. Our initial flight out of Long Beach looked like we would not get on but we did. The Long Beach airport is really small. You board and unboard the planes outside and the luggage returns are outside, very strange. We got our tickets and got on the plane and were on our way to Vegas. The flight to Vegas was really bumpy, there were storms between California and Nevada and the pilot tried to go around them so we went a ways out of the way. On our first approach to Vegas he had to abort because the weather was too bad. We finally landed, thank goodness, before both D and I lost our cookies. We were on the same plane to go to Salt Lake but they made us de-plane and go pick up new tickets (standby rules) and then get back on the plane. We were supposed to land in Salt Lake at 7:15 pm but due to the storms and such we did not leave Vegas until 8:00. We sat on the plane for almost 2 hours. Fortunatly the trip to Salt Lake was smooth and we landed without incident at 9:15 got in our car and drove home very thankful to finally be home.

my feet will never talk to me again

Three days, 

Two parks

90+ degree heat

humidity

a long walk from the hotel to the park

a long walk back to the hotel from the park

meeting many strange people (some even from utah, originally)

one spectacular fireworks show

four times of the same parade (dang that song is still stuck in my head)

five times soaring over California

five times magic mountain

three California Screaming

lost count of how many pirates

very tired

very soar

lots of fun

Ready to come home

It has been a fun three days. We rode lots of rides and discovered today the really nice shuttle that we should have been riding from the start but were too stubborn to get tickets for (D). We had really good crowds friday, we were able to ride rides will little or no wait. It got a little busier yesterday but still we could ride things pretty quick. Today the park was much busier and the crowds were a lot heavier. We wanted to do the toy story ride again but the wait was over an hour so we did not. We did decide that we do need to bring the kids again because there are some things that we did not do with them last time that they all would love. We will have to save our pennies and bring them, maybe next year.  It is a really long walk from one end of disney to the other end of california adventures. Our really special treat is that we had dinner yesterday in the restaurant that is the one that you go by in the pirates of the caribbean ride. It was good but very very very very expensive. I have never paid that much for dinner, ever. Now we can say that we did it. It was fun to sit and watch the boats go by but I would not do it again. D big wish is that he wants to stay in the grand californian hotel (we walked around inside of it today, it is very cool). 

home tomorrow

I've been tagged

If you get tagged, you have to list 10 things that make you happy. What are the things that tickle your fancy, make you smile or still give you that butterfly sensation? What things do you seek out and truly enjoy? The only rule is that you can't say your kids or your spouse...it's too easy.

My sis tagged me to answer this so here goes

10 - watching a great game of soccer played by my kids. I love to watch Boo play soccer, kick some butt and get better and better every game. Her team has so far won two games and tied one so way to go La Rocca 

9- Finding that special book that connects with someone - I know it is my job but there is something special when you help someone find a book that they really connect with and I love it when they come back and tell me how much they loved it. It is especially cool when it is a kid who hates to read.

8- really good music, I love music and I will listen to about anything. I enjoy sitting in a quiet room with my ipod listening to not only the songs I grew up with but some of the new cool stuff my kids listen too. I love instrumental music, soundtracks, oldy goldies, hair bands, you name it. 

7- A really good book, nothing better

6- Movies - I love to go to the movie. I don't get to very often but I love the smell of the popcorn and the excitement waiting for those previews to roll across the screen

5- A new car - this does not happen very often but I love the smell and how much fun it is to drive a new car that doesnt rattle, that no one has puked in yet and is just a little cool

4 - An A. I love it when I worked really hard on an assignment at school and I finally get what the teacher wants and end up with an A. Nothing is better than opening up that grade book to see that I was rewarded for all of the hard work 

3- Listening to my girls play Cello or Violin. I love to hear them practice and play and get better all of the time. It just makes me feel so good to hear them.

2- Going on vacation - Getting away from home and seeing new and fun things with my family. 

1- I know you said no spouses but I really love spending time with my Husband. With our totally different work schedules I love having free days that we can spend time together even just grocery shopping. 

I tag my lovely daughters, my cool california cousin and my sister in law in Idaho. 

Your turns-

Hello from the land of MIckey Mouse

I am sitting in a hotel room in Anaheim California typing away on my 'puter isn't technology great. We have run away from home for a few days sans children and are going to go play with pluto, mickey, goofy and various other cartoon characters. We will take lots of fun pictures and hopefully have lots of fun although we just found out no haunted mansion (bummer). 

Dan decided I needed to get away and after calling in favors of family flew us to california to spend a few days at the happiest place on earth. 

Our hotel is okay, we have a lovely view of a large brick wall and the hallways are like a sauna but the room seems to be okay it is clean and cooler than the hallways. We are next door to a seven eleven (can you say slurpee heaven). The flight was full and we did not get to sit together. D sat between two guys who managed to down two vodka's each in our 90 min flight. I sat next to a large, rather smelly lady and a young hispanic kid. At least it was Jet Blue who has inflight t.v's so I could watch x-men the whole way. 

Tomorrow it is off to Disney where we will hopefully ride rides til we are sick and have a great time.

Scary Neighbors

We live in a what is trying to be ritzy neighborhood. It is a mix of very big fancy houses and then a few smaller less ostentatious homes. We live in one of the smallest in the neighborhood and basically keep to ourselves. There are, however, some people who take advantage of their positions and such and feel obligated to push others around. Case in point. Last night we were running late to get Boo to her soccer game. There were some last minute changes and we had fallen behind. As we were leaving and trying to get to the soccer field two of the neighborhood ladies had decided to talk in the middle of the road. One was in a big SUV and the other was standing outside the suv and they were talking. In the middle of the road. We pulled up behind and they continued to talk. We sat there, without really enought room to go around and they continued to talk neither one making any notion of moving out from the middle of the road. We sat some more being very frustrated they continued to talk. Finally we tried to go around and we may have gone around a bit quick but that was due to the frustration of waiting for these two women to move out from the middle of the road. We got to the game a little late watched Boo kick but and win and headed home forgetting the incident.
We had no sooner pulled into the driveway when this womans husband pulled into my driveway (very quickly i might add) and began to yell at me for driving fast around his wife. I tried to tell him that they needed to not be talking in the middle road. He was very rude and mean and of course D is standing there like a lump letting this man yell at me. D to his defense did not know what happened but he could have said something - oh well
The rude very mean man finally drove off and said something to the effect of I will get you if you do that ever again. I did not sleep at all for being one scared of this man beating me up and then pissed for the fact that they can stand in the middle of the freakin road and talk and not let anyone pass who needs to go somewhere. Today I am just mad for making me feel like I cannot even use that entrance in or out of my neighborhood for fear of this man coming over and yelling at me again or worse. In talking to my daughters I find out that his older daughters are as rude as he is and act like they own the world and have been very pushy and rude to my girls. This guy also parks tons of cars on the street and considers the grassy area next to his house as his private property despite the fact that it is part of the whole neighborhood and we all pay a maintenance fee to take care of it but if someone else wants to use the area he kicks them out and if anyone else parks on the street he has their cars towed. I guess I should not let this bother me but it does. Oh and he can write people up for not having their yards in yet and he doesn't have his in either.

What a jerk

The Rites of Summer

There are always those things that you do every summer without fail. We go to the zoo go swimming at the surf and swim eat dinner at the fair and go to Lagoon. Because it has gotten to be so expensive we only go to Lagoon once a year when Coca Cola has their company Lagoon day. The company pays and the employees get in at a very reduced price and they provide lunch for the families. The kids look forward to this every year and lucky for us this year we convinced my sis and her family to come with us. It made for a fun day of riding rides and spending some quality time together.

We were very lucky this year the weather, which has been so hot, was actually really nice. Lagoon was way crowded which made riding some of the cool rides hard but I think we all had fun. Meemer and her family are always fun to do things with and it gave Ty someone to ride on the rides with. Bee loves to hang out with her cousins and with Fussy along it is nice to have lots of hands to help out.

It was really funny to see Meemer, Big D, Chilly, Harry and Ty racing to get back on the tidal wave ride after ride, it was late enough that the crowds were gone and they basically would ride the ride, get off and then race around to get back on before the next ride started. I rode twice in a row and got sick, after five in a row they all looked a little green.

Thanks sis for coming and lets make a date to go again next year.

zoom zoom zoom

I thought I would introduce our small blogging world to the newest member of our crazy Family.





This is Roxey Zoom Zoom (yes, we name our cars) which we purchased a mere 2 weeks ago. She is a 2008 Mazda 6 and both D and I are very excited about her. We have been car shopping since January when we knew that we needed a car with much better gas mileage than the Durrango. We have looked at Honda's, Nissan's, Toyota's and Hyndai's but we seemed to gravitate toward Mazda's. D and Ty share our old 2000 Mazda 626 and Roxy makes the fourth Mazda we have owned. We were going to buy a Mazda 3 in copper red mica but the dealership was able to give us a better deal on this one since the new 2009 mazda 6's are all redesigned and very pretty. My only request was that it look sporty and have a spoiler (shallow, I know).









Boo says she is not really sporty and D kept saying at the dealership that she wasn't sporty and why didn't I tell him I wanted a 6 instead of a 3 (that was the all important question of money and the budget. I did not think we could find a new 6 in the price range I was given)





Anyway she has lots of cool features and is very fun to drive and has that lovely new car smell.


Downside is that we have a car payment again. We haven't had a car payment for awhile so that is a pain but it is nice to have something with less than 100,000 miles on it and a warranty.






The pictures are hard to see but the car is a silver gold color with black interior. The color changes depending on the light and what is around. It does have a spoiler (yeah) and in my humble opinion fits the sporty just fine.

Hamster Heaven

Boo has a hamster named something weird in japanese. If you did not know it my girls are all Japan crazy and love all things Japanese. Their main goal in life is to save enough money to go to Japan.
Boo has this cute little teddy bear hamster named hakarao or something to that nature and today while out school shopping she found another one. Of course she begged and pleaded to please let her buy this new little cute black hamster, she had two cages and could take care of two as well as one so we said okay.

I now have two little rats running around the house. She is thinking of naming the new little hamster Kuma which we think means little bear in japanese (rather appropriate considering it is a teddy bear hamster)

D thinks the critters will soon take over the house.
They did have a cool cat at the petco that I tried to talk him into but he said no.

Just a zoo at the crazy house.

Join the text generation

I did it
I caught up with the technology of the day and got a cell phone.
I have resisted up til now but it was really hard to keep track of kids and husband and work without one. I do not know how our parents did it all of those years without cell phones. Mom and Dad I envy the simpler life when we were kids. How you did it without being able to call someone I do not know

I got this new nifty little toy and the day I got it I went to the store to pick up a few things. I was walking around the local wally mart and as I would round corners I would hear music. I could not for the life of me figure out what it was. Well it was the kids calling me on the phone to let me know that my sis needed me to watch fussy while she did school stuff with Harry and Chilly.

I hope to get more used to having it. I keep leaving it places because I am not used to carrying it around.

Sorry Mom

We went up to the parents house this evening to drop off a couple of things that we had borrowed as kids are known to do and show them our new member of the family and one of the first things that was said was why we haven't updated the blog in a while. So here you go Mom-

The last couple of weeks have been very busy at home, work and school so I apologize for not updating as regular as I should.

Anyway her is a quick update of the crazy family-

Boo has had a soccer tournement this week so she has had three games in the last three days. The team one the first game and then lost the last two. Boo got a ball in the nose and smacked her elbow hard and is feeling the three games worth of impacts. She did good, played hard and I hope had fun. Someday I will learn to take pictures and be able to post more on the blog. Boo also got her first cello last weekend. We had promised her when school got out that we would find her a cello and we finally succeeded so we hope to hear great things from her.

D has been busy at work. His new position requires him to be at work a lot more and we have not seen a lot of him this summer. There have been stretches when he has worked fourteen days straight. It makes it hard to spend time as a family but we do try to squish in some stuff. He is a great soccer dad and has not missed any of Boo's games so far.

I have been crazy. This statistics class wrapped up last night. It has been a long six weeks with lots of homework and hours spent trying to figure out formulas. It is a tough way to learn stats and I do not reccommend it. To compress five months worth of learning into six weeks with no face to face interaction makes it especially challenging. I did very well in the class and I am very glad to see it done. Next class is accounting and finance and that is almost as hard so we will keep our fingers crossed for the next six weeks to go smoothly.

Here is Izzy in our destroyed back yard. We finally got our air conditioning fixed (yeah) it has been a long couple of weeks in our too hot house. The new cement looks great and we are enjoying the additional parking. Of course our backyard now looks like they are testing missles in it as it is all tore up and full of big piles of dirt. The neighbors overwater their lawns so much that my backyard is a swamp and we will not be able to do anything until they quit watering for the year. Oh well at least we can sit on our new patio and look at the piles of dirt and dream of grass.

At my work they do employee appreciation days and have some activities for the employees and their families. They rent out the local surf and swim and let the employees and their families have a swim night. They have a golf tournement for those who golf and they have a bbq dinner at the fair. We always have fun at these activities and the kids look forward to the swimming and the fair every year. It has made for a busy week. Tomorrow we have Coke Lagoon day so the kids are very excited to spend the day riding rides and getting sick.

I am so bad at pictures and I should be better at taking fun shots of the kids. I do have a few from our recent trip to Idaho falls -

Here is our tiny hotel room -

here is the kids at the falls-

I would show you more but I can not get the pictures to flip the right way -

I will update more later hopefully with some better pictures.

Back to work

Ever take a week off of work
It is fun while you are gone
but then you get back to a burried desk
lots of questions
things to catch up on

Makes you want to take another vacation

Hi from the land of Idaho

We just got back from a little mini-vacation to Idaho Falls and Rexburg. The reason behind the trip was that D's brother Richard was blessing their new little bundle of joy. We decided to make a trip out of it and stay for four days. We packed up the old durrango (to the hilt i might add) and off we went.
We spent thursday night getting aclimated to our tiny hotel room (six people one bathroom, with two teenage girls not the best idea) and the kids went swimming.
Friday we spent in Rexburg where the little bro lives and went bowling with his family and then the adults went out to dinner and to see the new mummy movie (it was okay, not as good as the first one. I hated the new Evie)
Saturday was fun. We spent the day at Rerie lake waterskiing, tubing and having fun in the sun as all of our sunburns can tell you. Boo decided to try waterskiing and actually got up on the skiis after much determination. She only lasted about a minute but she did get up. Way to go. We also watched Keri's dad waterskii. The man is awesome. He at 60+ years put to shame all of the kids out on that lake. This is a guy that refuses to get old. Keri is pretty good too and Richard is good at wakeboarding which is what Boo wants to try next. The day was hot and fun and tiring. The kids then came back to hotel and went swimming.

Sunday was the baby blessing playing with lots of cousins and then the long trip home.

it was fun but I think we need to start getting two hotel rooms, too many kids squished into one. We also did not get to see some cool stuff in Idaho falls that we would have liked but it was very nice to spend a couple of days with family that we don't see very often.

Sorry kids that this is the extent of our summer vacations this year. Too many needs at the old homestead, too many car repairs. Next year we will have to go on a big trip.

Thanks sis for watching the dog and hamster

Nothing much more exciting than that in our boring old lives.

No air conditioning totaly sucks!

My house is hot

My house is muggy

who ever thought it would be a great idea to put in concrete in the middle of freakin july and unhook the central air for a week, and now it seems like no air until first of next week if the little man working on my concrete actually does something more than make a mess and actually finishes the job.

Not fun

Surprised and excited

I haven't updated the blog in a few days (okay a week) when I logged on today to see if my sis had posted comments like I love her to do I found a comment from my cousin who I haven't talked to or seen in forever. It was really great to once again have that connection with someone. Thanks black sheep it is great to hear from you. You totally rock. This blog thing is pretty cool and thanks to meemer for getting us all started. It is neat to be able to talk to people, piss people off (only sometimes on purpose) and feel like you reconnect with family and friends. I love to check out the blogs of my niece and my cousins and it is fun to see a little piece of their lives and stay a little caught up in what they are doing and so wrapped up in our own little worlds.  I live probably two whole miles from my sis and yet I know more about what she is doing by reading her blog and I get to see really cute pictures of her kids.

so thanks meemer for all you have done

black sheep keep posting and by the way Boo thinks you are very cool and would love to meet you in person some day.

By the way Boo totally rocked at her first tournament game today. Although the team lost I am so proud of how well she did. Way to go!

In class

Here I sit waiting for the next six week oddisey (wow, i am falling apart already, i can't even spell) of learning to take place and let me tell you I am somewhat scared of the latest proposition. I am in a statistics class and might I add not looking forward to it. Like finance and accounting which happened several months ago it deals largely with math. I hate math. Math sucks. I became a librarian just so I did not have to do math. This class is required so here I sit. 

Wish me luck all of you math wizzes. 

I wish I were one of you

Washing machines and teenagers

My washer was very old and when you put too many clothes in it the basket was so rough it would put holes in the clothes. The dryer quit last year and I had hoped for new ones then but crafy D fixed it (dang). With our tax return this year we bought a fancy new washer and dryer pair. We bought the nice new front loaders so that we could stack them in our tiny wash room giving us some much needed storage space.

Yesterday poor Boo went to wash a load of her clothes and the washer wouldn't work. Knowing how expensive the washer was it put her in a bit of panic thinking she had broken my new washer that I had waited for a long time to get. Poor girl. She did not dare call and tell me that it wouldn't work so she waited for dad to get up hoping he could fix it.

Well apparently there is a little arm at the back of the soap dispenser that gets stuck every now and again and you have to take out the soap drawer and push it until it gets unstuck. ( thanks to all of those who figured out this problem). All is well with the washer. I hope this doesn't scare her away from doing laundry, it is sure nice to have the help.

comp soccer What the Heck?

As many have read both in Boo's post and in the previous one of mine Boo has made a comp team in soccer. Boo has played soccer since she was six and we discovered AYSO. She loves soccer and has consitantly played for eight years but it was not until three years ago that we heard about Comp Soccer, up until then she had only played AYSO.
The first year we found out she was too late to try out for any team so we promised her the next year that we would make sure to keep tabs on tryouts so that she could make a team. AYSO was just not challenging enough for her and she needed something harder to develop her skills. The next year we watched for tryouts and I still missed the team she wanted but she did try out for the Rampage team in Roy and became an alternate but never actually got on the team.
This year I promised her that we would do our best to make tryouts. During her indoor season we found out that one of her indoor coaches was started a comp team so we were very excited because she would have a good chance at this team. We kept tabs with him and he knew Boo was interested and when tryouts came he made sure that we knew so Boo could tryout.
Since we knew she had a great chance at this team we decided not to try out for any of the other teams.
The first day of tryouts went great and Boo looked like a shoo-in to make the team. Second day of tryouts all was not so well. In looking over everyones applications the coach made a discovery that Boo is too old to play on his team. Despite the fact that she has played on a U-13, 14 team all year with comp soccer she is actually a U-15 player because her birthday is in November. BIG BUMMER so we made a mad scramble to find out which teams were still having tryouts.
She missed the tryouts for the team she really wanted and there were only two teams locally still having tryouts once we discovered our error. La Rocca and Wasatch Soccer. Of course both second day tryouts were on the same day. She hit La Rocca first day and did very well but was told that the teams were pretty much set and she would probably not make the team, Went to the first day of Wasatch and there were fewer girls there so she decided to hit their second day figuring she had a better shot. Well she did not make Wasatch and was very upset thinking we had, again, missed the boat. Imagine her surprise when she actually made La Rocca. Good job.

She is on the La Rocca classic U-15 Team (this is the lowest of the teams but gives her the chance to move up if she does really well this year)Her dad and I just paid out a small fortune for her to play for the year (just under a thousand dollars with team fees, uniforms and training fees I know pick your chin up off the floor, I know I had to pick up mine). but I hope that this gives her the opportunity to improve and become a really good player and feel like she belongs. Coach seems really knowledgable and she made a few friends on the team already.

So good luck and we will post game times and such for her so that if people would like to come cheer her on they can.

The week from Hell

Sorry not to have blogged but the last week has been one of too many things all in a four day period.
Tuesday Boo had soccer tryouts in ogden at 6:30, Tuesdays I work late so it was up to dad to get her to tryouts and back in time for him to go to work at 8:30. Needless to say he was late for work.
Wednesday we had Bee's birthday and more soccer tryouts for Boo in Kaysville. We went to dinner in Kaysville at the artic circle and then took Boo to tryouts took everyone else home so Dan could get to work and then I went back to pick her up at 8:30 after tryouts were over.

Thursday was the worst day of all-
We had Graduation for Ty - YaHoo! at 4:00 in ogden, Boo had tryouts at 6:30 in Kaysville and I had Class at 6:00 in Layton. Needless to say we were only on time for graduation. Why so many things in just one day, I have no idea. Boo was 45 min late to tryouts (sorry Boo) and I was an hour and a half late to class. Good thing I had cleared it with the Prof in advance.

Friday was the day we had our new couch delivered but unfortunatly it came in two different colors I would think that they could see the difference between brown and red. I had to go find stuff for a birthday party the next day

Saturday was the day to get ready for Bee's first all-girl birthday party. We had invited six little girls from the neighborhood and then we found out another girl in the neighborhood had her party the same day so we did not get all the girls we had invited but I think she had fun making bracelets, dream-catchers, decorating little bags and hats. I think everyone had fun.

Sunday was the day for the family party with my sis and my parents. We had a bbq and opened presents with Chilly and Bee, played the wii and had a good time until Fussy fell down my stairs and hurt his head. Poor baby.

After all of this Kelsey did not make the soccer team she wanted instead she made the other team that she tried out for and only went to one day of tryouts. More about that latter.

In others words a busy week with more stuff than we all should have to do.

Graduation is over Congrats Ty- we are very proud of you
Bee is Nine going on 20
Boo made a comp team (Yeah!!!)

May be crazy, but it is our life

Happy Birthday

Today my baby is nine years old. She was our little bundle of surprise after being told that we would not be able to have any more children after the birth of her big brother but she showed all of those doctors. Born a mere 14 months and 25 days after her big brother she has been our stubborn little diva. She refused to turn around in-utero so she was our only c-section and even then it took the Dr. a lot of firm convincing to get her out. She was six pounds 11 ounces of pure fire.

Even now she knows what she wants and expects everyone to fall in line to get it for her. She loves to talk, loves horses and tries her best to convince both of her parents that she needs a horse desperately. She loves making friends and is rarely at home once summer hits as she and her friends all run around and play every day.

Happy birthday to my little fireball, you may be small but you are mighty. You are usually always the smallest in the class but you don't let that stop you from doing anything. You are so cute and smart and loving. You never let your dad go to work without a hug. It is hard to see you grow up because you are my last baby but it is so much fun to see you discover all of the cool things that you can do.

I look forward to seeing you continue to grow up. To get involved school, soccer and achivement days. I look forward to seeing you as a beautiful young woman, strong, sure of yourself, smart, kind and a wonderful person. Your family loves you including all your grandparents, your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. You are the sunshine in my life and I love each day I get to spend as you mom. Have a super day and many many more to come

Happy Birthday -

Love Mom

Tagged

I have never been tagged before, It seems rather silly

5 things I was doing ten years ago-

having our third baby, the only boy

Trying to sell our first house

baptising the oldest child

getting pregnant with 4th baby

taking a great trip to New York to see  my  younger sister who had moved there

5 things on my to-do list

clean my messy house

get ready for a birthday party for my youngest

plant flowers in the front yard before the neighbors boot us out of the neighborhood

find a cello to purchase

graduate my oldest child from high school

5 favorite snacks/foods

prime rib at the Timbermine (honestly to die for)

moolate at Dairy Queen

baby carrots

peas fresh out of the garden

reeses peanut butter cups

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire

buy a new car

pay off my house and build a bigger one

pay off my parents house

pay off my in-laws house (just to be nice)

travel the world especially egypt, china, japan, australia, new zealand, italy

5 bad habits

taking on too much

letting people take advantage of me

doing things myself instead of giving others opportunities to learn

not making my kids clean their rooms

being a pessimist instead of an optomist

I also don't spell so well

5 places I have lived

Hyrum Utah

St George

21st street Odgen

North Ogden

West Point

(also preston Id, Garden City, Logan Utah)

5 people I tagg

My Crazy Daughter

My Niece who blogged a couple of times (come on Amber, time to update that blog)

Big-D because I am tired of the weekend update too and if both Meemer and I tag him maybe he will change it.

Crazy Daniel from work who also bloggs

Teenage Girls

Is there anything more moody and hormonal than teenage girls? I have three girls, two of which are between the ages of 18 and 13. Usually they manage not to kill each other. Last night they fought, one took off to cool off. I came home to one gone, one upset knowing that she had made her sister take leave and then mom in a panic because we all know how scary this world is and to have a 14 year old girl wandering around in the dark is more than a little scary.

It all ended up okay. Mom had her heart attack added many many new grey hairs and today they are friends again (well almost).

I feel bad for the younger one. She is experiencing the nature of friends of that age than can be your best buddy one minute and hate you the next. It makes my heart hurt that she feels so left out and like nobody is her friend. She is such a loyal girl and tries so hard to be a good friend that I feel bad when others treat her wrong. 14 is such a tough age. I think the pressure from those last few days of school, friends, soccer, track and then a sister who wants nothing more than to sit and do nothing leaving the majority of the work to her she finally had had enough.

To my sweet girl boo - it will all get better, stay true to yourself. You are such a talented beautiful girl. We love you and will always support you and be there in your corner. You have great ambition and you will accomplish so many things and I treasure each day with you. You make me laugh, you make me angry at times, you make me marvel when you show such fierce loyalty to your younger brother and sister and when you show such gentleness with you little cousins.

To my other beautiful girl - remember that you are also a talented beautiful girl and we only push because we want the very best for you. You have such potential that we know what great things you can accomplish when you put your mind to it. Remember that your family will always be around to pick you up when you fall, to be your friend, mentor and shoulder to lean on. We will be with you to celebrate you accomplishments, and to help you through the tough times.

one of those days

Do you ever have one of those days that no matter what you do it all turns to crap? No matter who you talk to or what you try nothing works out well. I hate those days and seem to be having more of them than my share. Yesterday no matter what I did it was wrong. I posted the wrong paper to my class and had to re-do it, my shirt had a big spot on it that I did not notice until someone pointed it out. Patrons at the library were grumpy and we did not have the item in that they wanted. Kids were onery because they had to do homework. There was no food in the house because I have not had time to go grocery shopping so dinner was a find what you can affair. Traffic was horrible and I am already really tired of road construction. They have every possible road I can use to get home either torn up or are stringing wire along it or it is a detour for some other road all torn up.

I hate those kind of days

fifteen out of fifteen

I started back to school last fall to get my masters. It was not the program I really wanted but was the best option for all of us. I had to write a paper last week the biggest I have ever written. I stressed all week spent hours and hours and hours working on it. My kids were scared of me and my husband was ready to commit me. I finally got it done, posted it to my teacher and thought "oh well there goes my A average" We got the results tonight and to my surprise I got a perfect score. 

It goes to show what we can accomplish when we put our mind to things or in my case I think just pure dumb luck. 

I hope to graduate next March if all goes well. 

An object in motion stays in motion

Poor Bee

today at school someone was chasing her and she glanced back to see how close he was and missed the large pole in her way, when she turned back.......As Newton said an object in motion stays in motion until-

Poor girl

Ouch!!!!!!

Crazy Kids

Since the kids started this lovely blog but have left it I thought I would get involved and start posting to it. I hope to add things, of course I will have to ask them all how to post and what all the passwords are all the time because they are so much smarter than us parents, when it comes to all of these electronic gadgets. 

trial of pictures just to make sure this works! nice picture taken by boo