luck of the family strikes again

D was on his way home from work yesterday morning

It was very slippery and snowy

Unfortunately he and a Semi had a meeting of the bumpers

He lost

The semi won

This is the car that we just put $2,500 in a new transmission



It is currently at the repair place and we hope that the repairs are not more than what the insurance company will total the car at because we just put the $2,500 in the transmission

D is fine

The car

well,

let's hope for the best

Who Needs a Cat When You Have Kimi!

Our dog is a mouser. In the last three weeks she has caught 9 mice. Unfortunately she loves to leave their little bodies in pathways where people walk (I know icky). The first one she caught she placed right by G-Bear and Bee as they were watching t.v. as if to say look what I have caught. A little friend to share with you. G-Bear looked over and screamed liked a girl and jumped up and down. Poor puppy hid under the table wondering what was wrong or what she had done. Yesterday she left a mouse on a sock on the floor like an offering to her masters. Because we wish to encourage her to catch the little critters we praise her and give her puppy treats while we dispose of her little friends. Boo just stepped on one while checking the fridge for milk. She was not pleased. We wondered if they were frozen mice that she was just finding but we found that they are in fact fresh kills as the last few have still been twitching when we have found them.

Good Puppy

Maybe we won't have mice in the garage this year!

Puppy Pics

Watching t.v.

Just chilling with the peeps!







Looking for trouble

An Echo in the Bone

I

I love the Outlander series I think the first three books were the best and the last couple of the series have not been as successful. However I think she did redeem herself in this latest offering. While not up to the storytelling of Outlander or Dragonfly in Amber I think she is moving back in the right direction. Her books can get very tied up in the history of the era sometimes to the detriment of the story. In this latest book she gets back into the story of Jamie and Claire who are facing the beginnings of the revolutionary war. Claire, being from the 20th century, knows what is coming and tries to decide how best to use the knowledge that she posses. Brianna and Roger are back in the 20th century living in the family home Lallybroch and trying to adjust to modern life after living in the 18th century for so long. Roger, with the loss of his voice through the terrible injury he sustained in the last book is left without a clear idea of what he wants to do. He was once a great singer and musician an now has to find a new identity. We also get the story of Jaimie's illegitimate son William, who has been raised by Jamie's good friend, Lord John Grey without knowledge of who he really is. He has no idea that he is the son of a scottish rebel he believes he is the son of an earl that died the night he was born. William is in the English army, a part of General Gages forces.

Gabaldon has such a gift at storytelling and makes you love each and every character. I loved her introduction of Benedict Arnold into the story and how she is able to weave those real characters from history into the world of Jaimie and Claire. The love between Jaimie and Claire continues to grow and you truly love these two and read deep into the night to find out how they will survive their latest adventure.

I love these books and re-read the series at least once a year. There are some love scenes in the books and once you start the series you will not be able to put it down. These are hefty books over 700 pages for each.

Happy Sweet Sixteen Boo!

Yes people it is time to stay off the sidewalks

Boo is sixteen today!

Happy sweet sixteen

and many many more

Woo hoo! Way to go Boo!

Yes!

It can be done!

That, my friends, is a 4.0

in her first term of High School

Boo, You Rock!

Her Fearful Symmetry and halloween

From Amazon.com

"The endurance of love animates this gothic story set in and around Highgate Cemetery, in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her estate, including an apartment overlooking the graveyard, to the twin daughters of her twin sister, from whom she has been estranged for twenty years. When Valentina and Julia show up to claim their inheritance, they soon discover that Elspeth is still in residence, in ghostly form. Niffenegger’s writing can be wearyingly overblown, but she has a knack for taking the romantic into the realm of creepiness, and she constructs a taut mystery around the secrets to be found in Elspeth’s diaries and the lengths to which she will go to reunite with her younger lover. It’s no small achievement that the revelations are both organic and completely unexpected."

I finished this book last week and it has taken me since then to decide whether or not I really liked it. I read it specifically because I did not like the time travelers wife as much as the popularity at the library would dictate so I wanted to see if the author had improved and that this book would be better. The book was very interesting but it felt like so much time was spent leading the reader up to the big event of the book but then minimal time was spent on the big event and the ending which made it somewhat unsatisfying. It was a ghost story and that part was very interesting, her take on what a ghost could or could not do, and I like supernatural stories. I thought she did make some interesting characters but I did not see the point of one of them. His story felt very out of place within the story. It took me awhile to read the book which in my case is a sign of disinterest, I usually devour books and will finish them very quickly (I read very quickly). This one took me the whole two weeks that I got to have it checked out from the library to actually read it. I let other, less important books pull me away. I am glad I read it as I can give an honest opinion on the book to patrons who ask but I am still on the fence as to whether or not I really liked it.

Halloween was interesting. I have kids getting older and trying to find fun things to do without the trick-or-treating. Boo ended up staying home instead of going out with friends. She often gets frustrated at being the one who gets everyone together and us having to be the driver to all of the activities. She did go to a birthday party on Friday for a friend from school and dressed up for that. G-Bear was a dark reaper, basically a skeleton in a robe. I painted his face and got to get a big sword (I think that is why he wanted the costume). Bee was a ninja, I know no princesses for my girls, so we got her a cool red ninja costume. Ty had to work but she did dress up for work. She was a elf (like lord of the rings, not christmas) with the pointy ears and everything. It was interesting because she bought white hairspray to make her hair white but her hair is so dark it just ended up looking like she had grey hair. She ended up washing it out before work.

The fun part of halloween is that D usually gets soda to hand out to the kids. It is so fun to hear the kids as they run back to mom and dad "I got pop! These guys are giving out pop!" it is really fun.

G-Bear and Bee

Bee as a Ninja Hero!
G-Bear as a Dark Reaper. His face looked really cool. I am improving on my face painting skills. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of Ty as an Elf or Boo as a vampire.

Book suggestions

Since people tend to ask me what I have read lately that I liked I decided to add some book recommends to my blog (also because I seem to live a boring life and have nothing much to say lately)

"The Girl Who Could Fly" by Victoria Forester

Piper McCloud comes from a household that does what they do because doing otherwise would break tradition—they don't handle change well. When her conservative parents realize that Piper has the ability to fly, they forbid her to do it since it's just not their way of living. It's not quite so easy for Piper to give up flying, however. Once her "gift" goes public, news crews from around the world camp out in her family's fields in the Low Country. When a government agency comes to take Piper away, saying that they help all sorts of children with exceptional gifts, Piper does not realize that she will be attending a place that has harsher punishments than her parents could ever enforce—and she still isn't allowed to fly. It is in this underground clinic that Piper determines to find the truth, while helping the others, and herself, escape the evils that entrap them. This novel is an unforgettable story that will challenge many adolescents in their quest to decide between right and wrong, good and evil. The bravery and courage of Piper McCloud will give confidence to anyone, no matter how extraordinary or ordinary their gifts may be.

This book has a horrible cover but inside is a great story. I loved the book and even though it is a children's book it has a great story about being true to your gifts and celebrating what is unique about all of us. Be aware that while the main characters in the story are children there are some scary instances. I read the book because we had a question as to whether the book should stay in the children's collection or be moved to the Young Adult area. After a group of us read the book we decided that the situations in the story did not warrant being moved. Piper is a courageous heroine that really shows some spunk and determination in living her life the way she wants and being a true friend.

not much to say

It has been a boring few weeks at the crazy house. With school going on and not a lot of extra money we have been staying pretty close to home. My first student loan payments came due this month and I feel so guilty about it. I got a raise when I switched positions that will cover the payments but I still feel really bad because for the last few months we have really had some breathing room with finances and now we are back to budgets and I am very worried about christmas. I know the loan was necessary to getting the new job and so it all had to happen it still does not stop the guilt of the costs. D keeps saying don't worry but that is an impossible task.

The older girls are at an anime convention this weekend. Last night they rode the train back home (first time for them) I was proud that they were brave enough to find a way to get back and forth to the convention without driving but I worried about them getting home okay. It is hard to see them growing up and becoming more independent. I took Boo and her friends to the convention yesterday after school. They have been so excited about this for the last few months.

G-bear is in a funk. He had a swimming party for scouts this morning that we missed. He did not get the time from his leader so when he went to find out what time this morning they had already left. He was very sad and depressed. He was looking forward to the party all week.

D is outside trying to get areas ready for sod. The issue is that he is alone and with no-one to help he is feeling overwhelmed which makes him grumpy. I know he really wants to get some sod laid on part of the backyard but no-one wants to come and help or he just doesn't know who to ask for help.

D's sister offered us two buddy passes on jet blue to go wherever we wanted. The sad thing is that there is no where to go. New York would be fun but we would need to convince my sister and her husband to come as well. Maybe if we split the buddy passes so that each would only have to pay for one ticket ($246 round trip) we could get them to come? It could be fun. We will leave the kid with auntie Ty and maybe grandma?

Work is work. The library has been busier than usual due to the sucky economy. People are really watching their money and using the great free services that we provide. The bad part is that while we are busier and that is nice people are grumpier and tend to take it out on poor underpaid workers like us. Really we are doing are best and people need to chill a bit. Traffic to get to the library is horrible. They have all the roads tore up and so by the time a patron gets to the building they are already mad and then we don't have exactly what they need they seem to get a bit more angry than usual. Of course I would too having to drive through the construction mess.

And I Saw Her standing there-

All I have to say is amazing graphics and way cool music. We just got and have been playing Beatles Rock Band. The game is way cool and if you are even a little bit of a Beatles Fan you will find yourself singing and bopping along with each song.

By the way if you were like us when we tried to decide which platform to buy on a band game we liked the guitar hero stuff better not knowing about the future release of the Beatles Rock Band (which may have swayed our decision) so when this new rock band game came out we were afraid that we would have to buy another set of guitars and drums. All is well, the makers of rock band got smart and made the game cross compatible. All of our guitar hero stuff works fine on the beatles game despite being a different brand (at least on the Wii) so thank you Rock Band makers!

You are all invited to come and play!

It's my job?

As many know I work at a library, these are some of the classic questions that I have gotten asked. It does make we wonder at the state of the world.

phone call-

patron- do you have any books?

Patron "why do I have a fine?"

Library clerk "it is for such and such (lost book)"

Patron "it's not lost I know exactly where it is"

Patron (different patron) "you mean I have to bring those items back?"

Patron on phone "Hi, I was wondering if you had some dinosaur sounds"

Librarian "like dinosaur sound effects"

Patron "no, actual recordings of dinosaurs"

Librarian " Well no, I might have sound effects"

Patron "Why not, I figure dinosaur recordings would be popular"

Librarian "because tape recorders did not exist when the dinosaurs were around"

Patron "do you have a picture of george washington?"

librarian "I have some pictures here of famous paintings of george"

Patron "No I need a photograph of george washington for school"

Librarian "Sorry no pictures of george of washington exist"

Patron "why not? he was really famous"

librarian "there were not any camera's around when George Washington was alive"

Being careful

I was mumbling the other day about having to be more careful about what I post due to the fact that there are more people that I know that read my blog. It was a lot easier to get mad vent frustrations or feelings when I knew that only a few people, mostly just my family, that read my blog. Now I have family from both sides and friends that read it so I often feel I must censor what I say. D told me that I could always take the blog private and then I could muss and fuss all I want without worry. I have thought about this since then but I have decide to keep my blog just like it is. I like letting people read it, I don't have too much interesting to say but it would be boring if it was private. This being said I may rant and rave and take out frustrations but be aware that this is my blog and if I offend I am sorry. It is a way for me to let go sometimes and blow off steam. I love my family and I love D's family but there are times I may get frustrated and say something I shouldn't. If you don't like it don't read it.

Another note to my blog. As my wise younger sister said on her blog the internet is a scary place. This being said I am very careful to not mention names on my blog or mention any addresses or locations. I do this for a reason. I love my kids and my family and I want to keep them as safe as possible. Those of you who know us and comment on the blog please respect this and do not use names. If I include pictures of your kids with my kids you will notice that I will also not use their names. If you do mention names I will delete your comment and re-post it without the names in it. I do not do this to make you mad. Please keep commenting it is nice to hear from you I just want be careful. I know not many people read my blog but all the same I just want to be as safe as I can. (thanks Meemer for the inspiration for this, I stole it from your blog, love ya!)

family times and a long hike

This last weekend was D's family reunion with his brothers and sisters. I of course had to work as no one had thought to call and see if there was a better weekend to do the reunion. I guess I should be used to it by now after almost 20 years but sometimes it still bugs me to be excluded from events just because I am the only wife and mother who works full time. Anyway I am rambling and this discussion is better served for another time. Friday the family went to the zoo and Saturday they went hiking up to Timp cave in American Fork. I did catch the last little bit of time at the zoo but I missed the hike which was sad because I have always wanted to see the cave.

This is the way cute new baby giraffe at the zoo, we did not get good pictures of the 3 baby tigers or the snow leopard as my camera batteries were low

Here is a picture of Boo at the Zoo, notice her way cool t-shirt (I got this when I was 16 at an A-Ha concert) she found it in a box of my stuff and stole it. I think it is cool that she likes it.

Group shot at the zoo with kids and one of D's little brothers and his wife. The zoo was fun and it was nice to see everyone although part of the group I did not see until we were leaving as they were all at the playground. After the zoo a group of us went to Cafe Rio and had dinner (love the pork enchiladas.)

Saturday D took the kids and went up Provo Canyon to have lunch with the Family and then they all had tickets to the cave. This is Bee with two of her cousins from Idaho who she was so excited to spend time with. I love the picture because it was so funny. Bee shows up and immediately is covered in cousins. They have so much fun together and they miss each other so much when they don't get to see each other very often.

One of D's best friends is a ranger at the cave. She made arrangements to take D and the kids through as their guide. She has worked in the cave for almost 20 years so it was great for them to have such a great guide. She did rib D about how long it took him to get to the cave. I guess it took them almost an hour and she climbed it that morning in 32 min. The trail is 1.5 miles to get to the cave but it is straight up and not an easy climb. G-Bear in the cave. He looks not so excited but when they got home I asked what he thought about the cave and he said that he loved it and wants to go back. He had lots of fun and thought it was really neat.Just some great shots of the beautiful scenery from the trail. It is a long way up!Bee and two of her favorite cousins
All in all I think that they all had fun. I wish I could have gone.

Shopping with a boy versus girls

School clothes shopping with G-Bear is way different than with Bee. Case in point. We go to the ever evil Wal-Mart since that is the only place to take him since it is in and out, quick and dirty. Of course there is only 4 pairs of pants in his size in the whole store (not three different styles just four pairs period) we go to the dressing room to try on two different pairs of pants. First pair great he likes them we put them in the cart, they are the same as his old ones, by the time we are to the second pair there is now a line at the changing room so I ask him to let me in so I can see without him leaving the little room (we have issues with length versus width of pants, my kids are very skinny with long legs so to get them long enough without drowning them in width can be tricky). He lets me in once he has them on I ask do you like them, "no the belt is stupid" well you can take the belt off, they look nice. He of course still doesn't like them because he likes the other pair better, I told him we were going to buy two pair of pants so do you like them now "no, the belt is stupid" so we take them back to the area and I find one remaining pair of size 12 pants hold them up to the other pair they look about right and I ask him do you like these? "no I like the other ones" I told him again we are going to buy 2 pairs, do you like them now? " Okay whatever"

With Bee we try on everything, hope to find something small enough to fit her and that she likes. It has to be cute and sparkly and have lots of embelishments. G-Bear Okay whatever. He just wants in and out of the store as fast as possible. I picked out a shirt for G and that is fine. I pick out a shirt for bee and she hates it. Sometimes I really wonder if mothers of boys don't have it easier. With Bee we spent three hours shopping in just one store. G 20 minutes tops. In fact he did not want new clothes it was me that felt he should have something new to wear to school. Backpacks G picks the blue one just like last year. Bee we are still looking for just the right one and she is pouting because I would not go to 15 stores today for her to find that right one.

It is great to have cool cousins

The crazy family just spent 4 great days playing in the mountains with cousins. Kids ran around creating games, swimming and hiking in the mountains. At the place that we go there is a big old crane left from when the ski resort was first built. It was very cool to see these four kids make up a game around the crane. At one time or another it was a pokemon, spaceship, crane, dinosaur, dragon and a car. It was great to see g-bear do something other than sit in front of the t.v. playing games he actually got out and played. We love spending time with our cousins at the condo and are always happy to go up and play.

I wish we could have spent the whole week up there as it is really nice to get away from phones and the stress of home. Thanks to Meemer and Big-D for allowing us to crash their vacation.

This is my favorite picture showing the kids up on the ski lift. It just shows how much fun that they do have together. It

is really great to have cousins your age that you enjoy spending time with. While I have way cool cousins myself now that we have gotten older, when I was a kid none of them were close to my age. My brother and I are the oldest by quite a few years so we missed out on having kids our own age in our family to hang out with. I am so glad that my kids have kids close to their age that live close and that they love to play with.

Alone on a holiday

D just left with Bee, Boo and G-Bear for a trip to his parents. Boo needs to get some hours logged for her learners permit so when she turns 16 she can get her drivers license. Since I start my saturday shifts tomorrow for the next 8 weeks D decided it was a good weekend to go to Richfield, letting Boo drive from Provo on. Ty is at work so I am at home alone. It feels strange, the house is very quiet, the puppy is asleep at my feet. 

Summer has been going really fast. We bought the kids a pool a couple of weeks ago and all they have done since is swim. It was a good investment as it has kept the two younger kids busy. Work has been very busy. The library is feeling the economic conditions as we have been busier than usual. As a library system our circulation is up over 30% over last summer. People are cutting back on their spending and finding things to do closer to home. Makes for busy times. While the days go faster as we are running around like crazy people it sure makes me tired once I get home. 

I can't believe how fast the summer has gone. Soon the kids will be back to school. Since our San Diego trip turned into a transmission we have been trying to think of something to do with the kids that is less expensive and closer to home. Yellowstone was an option until we priced hotels and decided that it was more than I was willing to spend. I think we are going to just go and spend a few days with my sis and her family in the mountains and then have a huge yard sale for two days, hoping to make some extra cash that we can possibly turn into a mini-vacation. I would love to clean out my garage so that I can put bikes away and D can work on the basement once the weather changes in a few months. I would also like to have a backyard someday so D has promised to get the sprinklers finished in the backyard so we can get sod. We have spent so much money cleaning up the weeds in the back and leveling but to look at it know it is as bad as ever. It is amazing how fast the weeds grow versus the grass or flowers. 

How do they know?

Why is it that cars always know when you have money "socked" away for a family vacation?

D's car had bad day last week when it would not go into reverse. I thought oh know here we go again. Ty got into it the next day and it seemed fine. She drove it too work and while it made some funny noises it seemed okay. D took the other car to work for the next two nights but by Friday he felt it was okay to take it to work. At 9:00 pm he called saying he was stranded. He got as far as the Golden Corral in Layton before the transmission exploded all over the freeway. Boo and I hoped into the car to go and save him. When we got to where he was he had been on hold with the insurance company for over 20 min trying to get the okay to call a tow-truck. After another 15 min he finally got ahold of them and they called a tow-truck to take the car to the repair shop. Today he called the shop and they said they could put in a new one for $2000 (this is transmission #3)

So now comes the decision. Do we sink that kind of money into a car with 200,000 miles on it? logically how many more miles can we get out of the car before anything worse breaks. Do we spend the money hoping to get another 100,00o miles or do we find the money in the budget to purchase a newer car with fewer miles? I wish I had a crystal ball that could foresee the future. It is tough to decide. We know the car, the engine seems okay but I am scared that we spend the money, we drive it for six months and the engine blows up. Lately it has been a couple of hundred dollars every other month to fix this car. It is like having a car payment without a new car. 

We had planned on taking the kids to San Diego this August for a week. We have not been on a family vacation for many years. I guess I must have thought something might happen because I had not booked hotel rooms yet. Who knows what will happen. The last time we had to replace the transmission it took the majority of our tax return. Same now. I just feel so bad that the kids have to miss out on something fun because of a dumb car that we need. How does it know?

Oh and to top off a great weekend the HOA from hell sent us a lovely letter saying if we did not take down the temporary fence that is keeping my dog from escaping they would begin to fine us by the day. I now have to pay for vinyl fence so that we can keep the dog in the backyard. Talk about kicking us while we are down. 

Lottery anyone?

Okay Okay Here they are -

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Francisco

One of the biggest reasons for the trip was to be able to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan Town. We were there on Sunday which was the last day and had the costume contest and the big parade.

These guys were the winning entry in the cherry blossom festival. There is a person in the wolf costume.

The announcer had said that this group has won the last three years and were not going to compete again but then changed their mind. They are characters from the game Zelda and the Twilight Princess

This person wore this and walked in a parade and all around the festival for several hours in 90+ heat.

This costume was way cool because the cat could actually talk and the mouth moved and everything. He is from the movie the Cat Returns
Most of the kids at the festival love to pose so here were a couple while we were at the big mall in Japan Town.
This is one of the really cool costumes I thought. It is a nintendo DS and was funny.
Ty and Boo at the cable car museum - Very cool museum and also free. If you get a chance to go to San Fran make time to go. It is on two of the cable car lines and easy to get to.

This the the entrance into the administration

side of Alcatraz. If you look close you can still

see where the sign was changed in the 70's

when the indians were living on the island



This is one of the cells at Alcatraz. It is one that they have fixed up and made to look like they did when there were prisoners there. The cells are very small, in fact that was the one part of Alcatraz that surprised me. It was very small. The area that actually had the cells was not a large space and there were not a lot of cells. Boo went into the cell in solitary that was the worst in the prison. The picture did not turn out very good because it was so dark. It was a creepy cell and gave you goosebumps to go into it.

D, Ty and Boo walking down from the cellblock. They were all feeling Johnny Cash that day and dressed in black (D's sweater is actually blue) I thought it was a neat picture and shows how steep it is to walk around Alcatraz. It is like climbing up a thirteen story building from the bottom where the dock is up to the cell block. It is really steep and not for the faint of heart.

This is the building where the prisoners went to work everyday. They made all kinds of stuff in this building. You could not get very close to it as it is not safe but is one of the areas that they hope to open someday. The only areas you can tour on the island is the cellblock building at the top and in the old fort at the bottom where they have a cool museum set up and a movie about the history of the island.

There were also some cool burned out buildings from when the indians had taken over the island. I did not post them because the picture thing on the blog drives me nuts trying to make them all work.

This is from the cable car looking down one of the really steep streets

Memorial Day

We look so forward to Memorial Day as it is the first official day off from work for several months. It seemed like this year the time from presidents day to Memorial day both speed by and dragged. It has been such a crazy couple of months catching up seems to be the mode of the days. 

Yesterday we met D's parents at the cemeteries in Ogden to put flowers on his grandparents graves. As we drove into the very busy cemeteries we were somewhat taken back by seeing hot dog trailers. Thinking these places had sunk to new lows to sell hot dogs at the graveyard! We were much relieved to find that in fact the wagons were simply giving away free drinks. Still somewhat weird but at least they were not selling something. 

D's parents 47th wedding anniversary is this thursday and to celebrate they are going on an Alaskan Cruise this coming weekend. I hope that they have a nice relaxing trip. My parents anniversary is a day later and I apologize for not remember the year exactly. I think is it either 43 or 44 years. I think it is a great example for my kids to see that marriages can last and to have both sets of grandparents who have both been married for many years and still seem to like each other. 

Short update pictures to follow

I know I am bad. I have not updated in many days and I am sorry. So much has been going on in our days that by time we have a chance to breathe it is too late to do anything. 

To start 

Boo is back in track and playing soccer two games a week and three practices a week. She is really busy and because she can't drive yet, we are really busy driving her to various practices and games. There is not enough hours in the day to get her to everything.

Two weekends ago we took the older girls on a trip to San Francisco for the weekend. The four of us rode cable cars, went to the cherry blossom festival and alcatraz island. We also hooked up with my way cool cousin and her parents and had dinner. It was a fun trip, very busy. It was Boo's first plane trip and she seemed to handle it just fine. We left the younger two with my awesome sister who graciously babysat for four days. Thanks sis we appreciated it and hope to be able to pay you back. That is the pictures will follow. We took some good pictures of the festival and alcatraz. By the way it was the hottest ever in san francisco at the festival and D and I got a bit of heat exhaustion. 

Graduation is Saturday and to top off the busy week I just went through grueling three hour interviews for the new position at work. 

I promise to post pictures (as soon as i figure out how to get them off the camera)

Oh and I got the job

How do you say goodbye?

It was a tough weekend at our house. Our beloved Izzy passed away yesterday of kidney failure. She has been failing for several weeks and we had been back and forth to the vet with her. The response of the PA over the last month has been simply - she needs to lose weight, she will be fine. By Tuesday of last week she was very lethargic and had not eaten for several days. By Friday she was loosing fur and D got mad enough to take her back to the vet in insist that there was something really wrong and they needed to find what it was and now. After several hundred more dollars worth of tests they finally determined that she had been suffering from kidney failure for the last year and her kidneys had finally failed completely. There was nothing that could be done her body was full of toxins and infection. This must have been a genetic problem because they don't see kidney failure in dogs until they are usually ten or eleven. Izzy was almost eight.

D brought her home Friday so that we could all say goodbye. The kids took some great pictures of her and gave her love and hopefully made some good final memories. D then took her back to the vet Saturday morning and had her put to sleep and out of her misery. The Vet had said that she would not make it through the next week. We had her put to sleep to prevent her from suffering any further. D brought her home she was put to rest in our backyard. We plan to put a tree over her this summer so as we can all remember her.

We are all sad and feel like a part of our family is gone. I walked into the kitchen all weekend and missed seeing her laying by the couch. I miss her greetings when we would come home and she would run to the door with her tail wagging. I miss her love of treats and how she would play tug of war with the puppy. I miss her coming up under my hand and wanting to be scratched. I miss her getting in the way when I tie my shoes and how she would push and get in the way so that you would have to scratch her.

This has been the first big loss for the kids and I am glad that we do have Kimiko to help them not feel the loss so badly.

Izzy we did not want you to go, we all loved you so much. I hope you are happy in puppy heaven and getting to chase balls and toys until your hearts content.

We love you!!

AWWWW!

Today started out to be a let down. I took the day off work because class finished last night. 

I had hoped either mom or my sister would want to do lunch or go celebrate. D had said that he would take me to lunch but then he just slept. When he got up nobody really said much about school and I was feeling pretty down

D said take Boo to soccer practice and I will cook dinner. This was not really what I wanted to hear. I wanted to go out to dinner since D has to work tomorrow. I sucked it up and took Boo to practice. 

On the way home Boo asked to go to meemers house for just a minute to show off her learners permit. I was cranky and tired and mad but after a couple of miles of puppy dog eyes and quivering lip I turned into Meemers street. 

To find that my family had planned a surprise party to celebrate school being done.

We had yummy chicken and salads and my mom bought a cake and there were presents. 

Thanks family, you are the best!!!

I got a really cute frog planter and an awesome Jack sparrow shrunken head to hang in my car. 

I love you guys and thanks for the surprise and to know that I am loved. 

by the way 

YOOO HOOO I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!!!!!

sad puppy and tired mom

Well it is the home stretch. School is done on thursday. I have one big team project due on thursday and then I can hopefully become sane once again although I think sanity may be overrated. I have been working Saturdays for the last couple of weeks and I have one more to go. I hate working Saturdays because nothing gets done at home and I come home to mess cause the kids are home all day, no dinner because everyone is on the computers and forgets. It really sucks. 

The sad puppy is that Kimiko got fixed or broken, however you choose to look at it. She went into heat early and we were scrambling to get her to the vet. She missed puppy school graduation because they did not want her to come and be a distraction to all of the little boy puppies. Poor girl.

Work has just become interesting. One of the branch librarians is leaving and going to St George to be an assistant director which opens up his job. This is why I have gone through the last eighteen months of school so that I could qualify for this level at work. I am a little freaked because I did not expect this for a year or so. I am stressed because I don't know if I can get my transcripts and such all updated in time to apply. I am one of the only ones qualified for the job but the library insists on putting you through horrible interviews so it is not a guarantee that I will get it. I have hope but you just never know. 

Boo has her learners permit and I really feel old. How did I get to have two kids old enough to drive? We finally move Bee into her own room and we have had fun decorating it. It is purple with pink and green accents and is actually turning out cute. Her dad bought her a cute canopy to go over her bed and I did some fun letters that spell her name on the wall. Next we will put G-Bears room together, paint it and make his cool loft bed again. Slowly I will start to decorate my poor little house. It has only taken  two and half years to get this far. 

Happy Birthday G-Bear

Happy Birthday G-Bear

I can't believe that you are already 11

Thanks for being such a good kid and I hope you have a happy birthday

I still remember the day you were born. We had such trouble getting you here. 

lots of close calls and worries and we were so excited when we found out you were going to be a boy. After all of the problems we were excited to round out our family with a boy. When the Dr decided that it was time I remember going over to the hospital from his office and getting already thinking it would be many hours of labor. Instead you decided to rush things along and the Dr almost missed you. 

When we brought you home we kept saying you looked like baby Elvis with your sideburns and black hair and you used to curl your lip. 

Happy birthday 

Last First day of class

Here I sit.

The Last first day of class

six more weeks to freedom

I am looking very forward to no homework, posting, papers, presentations. 

This may be the hardest class yet because I am so ready to be done.

Let's hope I do not screw it up.

Wish me luck

Final Crazy lady update

Well she did not get fired but is on probation and has to be nice to everyone. If she does anything negative to anyone or tries anything funny she is gone. She has a personnel action letter in her file and so work life goes on hopefully with less drama. She still won't talk to me but that may be a good thing. If anyone remembers the song "your so vain" Well that fits.

Valentines rememberance

Ty is a funny girl. She found an old movie that I used to watch in college for the hot lead actor. I used to have a picture of Dolph Lundgren in my college dorm room hanging on my bathroom door. You know (those of you who are old enough to remember) Dolph as He-Man in Masters of the Universe in his skimpy little outfit. That horribly acted and terribly scripted movie from the late eighties. Ty bought me the movie on dvd. 

Thanks Ty, it brings back memories. 

It was weird that you found it and bought it. 

Cute but weird. 

Rights of Passage

Oh how time flies. 

We are currently in the process of filling out Boo's high school sophmore schedule. Time passes so quickly it seems like only yesterday that we were filling out the papers for her to go to kindergarten. Boo will be a Titan next year. She seems to have found some fun classes to take including ceramics, PE (Boo loves PE, unlike her mom), orchestra, and the traditional english, math, biology, world civ. I keep forgetting that in nine months she will be sixteen. 

I feel so old. 

Puking Kids

Well we have officially caught the puking flu. Boo started Monday morning early. Poor girl tried to go and play soccer at her tournament but could not play due to being in the restroom most of the game. D finally gave in and brought her home. Boo feels better today but did not go to school yesterday. Bee was also sick yesterday but how much of it was actually being sick or not wanting to go to school who knows. Bear woke up today green and sick so he has been home all day. I am not looking forward to catching this horrible bug. I do not think that it was from the trip last weekend. You cannot catch the flu in 2 days. D's brother, you are officially off the hook for spreading the sickness. I think we had already been exposed before we came to visit. lets hope we didn't spread a new version to you guys. 

I hate tummy flu!

Crazy Psycho lady update

Well

Last Monday the bosses sat each of us down alone and told us the incident was over and done. It happened not on work time and we were not to talk about it or let it interfere with work. We all had jobs to do and we needed to get them done. 

Fine with me. I continued to say hello to her and she ignored me. 

Wednesday she continued in her crazy behaviors and did something that has since sent the Director and the crazy lady's supervisor to personnel. I think that there are to be severe repercussions to the crazy lady. When the Director tells you to leave something alone you best do it. 

I will keep you posted. 

Freezing Cold and Great Curry

So we went to Rexburg to visit D's brother and go play in the snow. As we were driving there we were a bit worried as we seemed to have more snow than they did. Once we reached Idaho Falls did we finally see big snow and in Rexburg they have lots of snow. We checked into our hotel and were surprised to find a empty swimming pool. We had planned this vacation with time for the kids to swim as it is one of their favorite things. Of course the hotel decided to do their pool fixing this weekend when we had planned our trip. The kids were very bummed and I felt bad as we had chosen this hotel to save a little money instead of going to the more expensive ones that had, of course, pools not being repaired. It is our luck 2/3 of the time we go somewhere with a pool the pool ends up closed. I guess we should really make that a question when we book hotel rooms. 

Rexburg is cold. The girls had fun watching the thermometer in the car drop lower and lower. At one point it was at 4 degrees. BRRR. The hotel room was warm except by the big window where I was sleeping. 

We spent all day Saturday at D's brothers and had a blast. The kids played in the deep snow and pulled long and tall icicles off of their house. Boo drove the snowmobile and got lost in the big field. The snow is white it was snowing and the clouds were low. It is very scary and D and his brother had to go and find her. I did not participate in the outdoor fun but stayed inside and watched the baby. After a fun day in the snow we snuggled the kids up in front of a movie and we went to a nice dinner with D's brother and his wife. Keri no worries about Jessica and the throwing up. Clothes wash and she did not mean to. I felt bad that she was sick. 

Thanks Rich and Keri for all of the fun this weekend. We will have to come again to play in the snow. The kids had a blast and so did we. Thanks for letting us come. 

We came home on Sunday because we had planned a nice dinner with my sis and her family to make up for the birthday dinner that did  not happen because of sick kids. Big D was making us curry and Japanese food for dinner. We were all very excited for the fun. 

The curry was yummy and wonderful and we had lots of fun. The kids always play pretty good although I think my kids were a bit tired and grumpy. Fussy was so cute we brought over his birthday present of a nice cars blanket and some hot wheels. One of the hot wheels had a roof that came off and he kept pulling it off and then insisting that you "fix it". He is getting so big and fun to be with. 

The girls got big D and Meemer watching a video on the computer and my D thought it would be fun to sneek out. I tried to stop him but he was determined. Sorry Meemer, he did not mean to be mean. Thanks for our really  nice dinner. It was fun. We will have to do it again in a couple of weeks for Bears B-day.  

Happy Birthday to my wonderful fella

I have been very busy and lax about posting and I missed his actually birthday...but

Happy Birthday to my great husband.

Thanks for putting up with all of our craziness and being the great guy that you are.

You are the best and I love you more everyday.

Happy Happy Birthday 

and many many more!

He took me to Disneyland on my birthday and I wished I could have taken him somewhere cool for his birthday but maybe in a month when I get done with school. We did take him to one of his favorite restaurants and he did get some cool gifts. 

Anyway

Happy birthday honey

Love you!