a birthday and a bit of sadness

This past week we celebrated a birthday and and a passing. Boo turned 17 on Monday. It is hard to believe that she is 17. Boo is becoming so independent, she has a job and a car and while she loves her family she is discovering the fun of having her own money and the ability to go out with her friends without having to beg Mom and Dad for money. I miss my little girl but I am so proud to see the wonderful woman that she is becoming. We spent some time today with all of D's family it is interesting to see how our dynamic is changing. Having the oldest youngest kids we have a different perspective than most of the others. While they still have babies and small kids we are not many years away from an empty nest. Having some of the oldest grandkids I see Boo holding her infant cousins and I see a glimpse into the future with her kids (hopefully a good many years away yet)

Now for the passing and the reason we were all together today. D's Grandpa Mark passed away on Boo's birthday. He was 91 years old and was quite a firecracker. We knew he was ill and failing and unfortunately did not make it to see him before he passed. Today was his funeral and while he had lived a full life it was still a sad passing. It was a strange gathering as the family dynamic with that side of the family is challenging. D's Grandpa divorced his wife many years ago and then remarried a wonderful lady that D calls Grandma. They both brought children into the marriage but many were older and I do not think that there was a lot of bonding that was done between the families. D's mom was very hurt in the divorce her relationship with her father was strained so as a kid D did not really have much to do with many of the cousins on that side of the family. He did see his grandpa and He and I have tried to visit them as often as we could as they were such an incredible couple that truly loved all of their grandkids and family.

I had met only a couple of D's uncles and aunts before and only a few of the cousins. Grandpa Mark left quite a legacy with 60+ grandkids, 96 great-grandkids and even some great-great grandkids and he and Grandma Reva were married for over 50 years. I hope D and I can be as happy as they were when we get to be their age. We will miss his humor and his wonderful stories and sitting in his backyard watching the hummingbirds.

One of the neatest things at his funeral was the American Legion Color Guard who came to honor Grandpa. Grandpa served in the Navy during World War II and so he was given the military funeral with the flag ceremony, the shooting of the guns and the playing of Taps. It was such a emotional experience to watch and to know that he was a hero for our county and a great man. Grandpa Mark we will miss you and Grandma Reva know that we all love you and are sending you comfort in this sad time of mourning for Grandpa.

miles to go on tired feet

So - how many people can fit into one theme park? All I know is more than I ever want to see ever again. Disneyland, the happiest place on earth, land of the giant strollers and electric scooters with no regards to toes or feet. Where you stand for hours to get into the attraction and then stand for hours just to watch the show with a disney host yelling at you if you sit down because then they can't shove in the 200 more people with no regards to personal space.

Enough complaining it was a fun trip. We are all exhausted and it will take days to recover. I will say that the kid were great. they put up with hunger and exhaustion and still, i think, had loads of fun. Bee was such a surprise willing to ride any ride we put her one including Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Railroad. She totally shocked us. G-bear rode everything we asked him to as well and really enjoyed Haunted Mansion and the Gadget coaster in Toon Town. We got great pictures with Jack Skelllington, Capt Jack Sparrow, Stitch and many other characters. Trick-or-treated in Disneyland and had an overall fun time.

We played at Balboa Beach and both G-Bear and Bee got soaked by waves in the ocean covered in sand and wanted to spend even more time at the beach. Traffic was good we only got stuck in Vegas in bad traffic. Weather wast cool and rainy but a misty rain. It was humid and if I don't see a plate of hashbrowns and scrambled eggs in the next month it will be too soon.

Learned that while staying further away is cheaper, it is really not worth the fact that you are at the mercy of the hotel shuttle and UEA week is not the best week to go. But I loved halloween at the park. The decorations are awesome, the fireworks were cool and seeing the Disney Villains is well worth the trip.

Enough time to get into trouble?

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
-- H. Jackson Brown

Isn't it funny how we always say that we don't have enough time. Time to accomplish all of the goals we set for ourselves in one day, one week, one month. That is my excuse for the lack of posts that have happened over the last little while. It is funny when I was truly busy going to school and working I seemed to have time to post yet now that I am not in school i have the hardest time fitting in the time to do it. Maybe it is not a lack of time but desire to share what is going on or maybe it is just that what is going on is so boring or simple that to take the time to write about it seems wrong.

We are all fine here at the crazy house. Ty and Boo are currently attending Banzai anime festival and we have all seen very little of them over the last two days. D and I are trying to get ourselves ready to take the kids on a vacation and it is amazing how hard it has been to find six matching Disney type shirts to wear on our little trip. We even went to Orem tonight to see if we could find some at the only Disney store in Utah but alas we were unsuccessful in our quest. We still have tons of stuff to do and only 3 days to do it in.

Puppy is doing well. She is such a trouble maker that often I think we should have gotten the calm puppy but it is fun to watch her run around. We did finally settle on a name and our little white girl is named Rayne. She looks just like our other Shiba except for being white.

Boo has her first job and we see much less of her as she is busy with school and work. She ended up working for the library, like me, except at a different branch. I think she enjoys her job but misses the free time she used to have. I worry about her keeping up with work and school but she is determined and seems to be doing alright. I know she enjoys the paycheck and having her own money instead of having to ask mom and dad all the time.

so as we end remember this about time and having enough to do all that we do-

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Louis Hector Berlioz

Libraries Will Survive (long version)

I know I know I just can't resist a library who pokes fun at themselves. I also tend to have days like the poor girl in the video. It is a long video, sorry about that but worth seeing it to the end. There are several people in the video who I swear I know. I also have staff who would totally make fun of themselves just like this. Fortunately my library is not suffering from these types of budget cuts, at least yet. We remain hopeful that it will not happen to us.

Anyway enjoy!

New Spice | Study like a scholar, scholar

This is a great way to promote a library. LOVED IT!

One of the few good things to come out of BYU, them boys had some skills. Made me laugh til I cried, especially the celestial sandwich!

Oops! We Did It Again

Say Hello to Denali, Sitka, Aneira, Neva, Yuki, Akira or any other cute suggestions-

Yes it is a new little puppy

She is a Shiba Inu and American Eskimo Cross ( I know in the old days this would be a mutt)

She is eight weeks old today, very fluffy and cute. We are having a hard time naming her as you can see. It is hard to get six people to agree on anything. The really funny thing is that her mom is a sister to our Shiba Inu, Kimiko. When we went to pick her up the lady who had her said that her mom came from a breeder in Wyoming. This of course made us curious because we got Kimiko from a breeder in Wyoming. As we talked we realized that it was the same breeder and if you see the two dogs together they look a lot alike even though this little girls mom is a cream Shiba and Kimiko is red.

Small world

Anyway put in your two cents worth on names, we would love the input. (D is motivated toward Sitka or Denali, I like Aneira which means golden snow and the girls like Akira which means intelligent). The lady we got her from had named her Richard which just doesn't work for me.

Happy Belated Birthday Ty!

While on our vacation Ty celebrated a milestone birthday. She is no longer a teenager as she passed kicking and screaming into her twenties. It is so hard to believe that she is already 20. I don't feel like I should have a kid that old.

Happy birthday Ty!

And many more birthdays to come!

Mountains, Men and Windy Plains

Well the Crazy Family just got back from a whirlwind trip to the badlands of South Dakota. D wanted to get out of town and so we did. Of course it was a long trip (10 hours there, 14 hours home) but worth the drive. We all saw carved mountains, caves of jewels, an alien mountain, and a crazy theme park with Fred and Wilma (although, only from a distance).

Mount Rushmore was great. It is truly an awesome sight to see these heads that were carved by men hanging off the side of a mountain.

Here are the kids in front of the Utah flag as you walk up to the mountain. We walked around the monument taking pictures of the faces from different angles. We then walked down to the studio where the man who created rushmore lived and worked. They had a cool model of what the mountain was supposed to look like when it was done.

After Mount Rushmore we went to Crazy Horse which is what will be a huge memorial to the Native Americans. When it is finished all of the heads from Rushmore will fit in the head of crazy horse. It was very neat. They have a museum and native american cultural center and during the day artisans sell their wares inside the buildings. We missed the booths as we went just before dark as they do a lazer light show on the mountain which we wanted to see. Boo got a couple of cool pictures of the mountain at night but my camera did not like the dark. We went back the next day so that the kids could shop at the booths. They had some really nice jewelry, carvings and blankets for sale.

This is a model of what the mountain will look like if they ever finish it. It is three dimensional and will be the biggest statue or carving in the world. There is no government funding for the monument it is all funded by donations and gate fees that they charge to see the monument.

We also went to Bear Country. I was disappointed in it as we did not see much wildlife but the kids really liked it. It is a big drive through park with animals and then at the end there is what they call "babyland" where they have cute baby animals. There were a lot of bears and this is one just sunning himself on a big rock. Bears walk right up to your car and wander around this huge enclosure.

This is a shirt that D and I wanted at Bear Country. Ty bought herself one but it was a bit expensive for me.

South Dakota is also full of really cool caves. We toured the second longest cave in the world called Jewel Cave that they have mapped at over 150 miles so far with no end in sight. It was a great tour and we saw some neat formations. This time I forgot the camera so I don't have any cool pictures from inside the cave.

The Flinstones theme park was across the street from our hotel. We did not go in but took some pictures of it.

On our way home we detoured to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We did not actually make it into the park but took some cool pictures just outside. I loved all of the alien stuff in the gift shops.

We had tried to stop at Independence Rock on our way to Rushmore but it was so windy that we did not get out of the car. On the way back the weather was much better so we stopped and walked to the rock.

The little dots at the top of the rock are Boo and Bear who climbed to the top of the rock. They saw some of the signatures and said the view from the top was great. Of course Boo forgot a camera so we don't have any pictures from the top.

It was a fun mini vacation that was very needed. There was a lot of stuff that we did not get to do. We wanted to tour more of Custer State Park as there are some neat stuff to do there and there was activities at Deadwood and Lead that we did not get to do. Rapid city has some fun stuff to do and we did not make it to Wall Drug. I guess we will have to go back some day. All I know is Wyoming is a really long state with a whole of nothing but wind and grassland. After driving across it I have new respect for my pioneer heritage.

We've been hacked

Imagine the frustration of trying to get into you email to find that your password has been changed and that you security question is now in Chinese. Not a lot of fun. D has had trouble with hackers, first his Aion account was hacked into and all of his characters stolen and then yesterday he found that his Warcraft account had been hacked. The trouble multiplied as he tried to get into the email today to do the Sunday program that whoever got into his Warcraft account got our email address as well. We are in the process of trying to recover our old account so that we can close it but we all know how helpful Microsoft is. So those of you who read this blog that we email regularly or email us, please call D on his cell so that we can update you on the new email and get you back into the old/new address book. I guess this is one more reason (as if we needed more) why we should be careful when working online.

Happy Birthday Bee!

Well little Bee is growing up

Tomorrow is her birthday

I can't believe that she is already 11

and just as feisty as ever

as the youngest she is, of course, spoiled rotten

loved and always wished to stay young

It is hard each year to see her grow up

one year further away from the memories of

wrapping her in cuddly blankets

dressing her in frilly little dresses

smelling that delicious baby smell

Now we get disaster area of a room

homework not finished

teenage hormones around the corner

but becoming a beautiful young woman

Happy Birthday Bee

Many more to come

I love you!

A fun bit of historical fiction

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

With the plague running rampant in London in 1797, Mary's parents and sister are soon counted among the dead. Left alone and penniless, the eight-year-old is taken in by a gang of orphans and learns survival skills. However, when their leader is killed, Mary decides to try her luck elsewhere. She strips the dead body, cuts her hair, renames herself Jack Faber, and is soon employed as a ship's boy on the HMS Dolphin. When the vessel sees its first skirmish with a pirate ship, her bravery saves her friend Jaimy and earns her the nickname "Bloody Jack." Told by Mary/Jack in an uneven dialect that sometimes doesn't ring true, the story weaves details of life aboard the Dolphin. Readers see how she changes her disguise based on her own physical changes and handles the "call of nature," her first experiences with maturation, and the dangers to boys from unscrupulous crew members. The protagonist's vocabulary, her appearance and demeanor, and her desire to be one of the boys and do everything they do without complaint complete the deception. This story also shows a welcome slant to this genre with an honorable, albeit strict Captain, and ship's mates who are willing and able teachers. If readers are looking for a rousing, swashbuckling tale of pirates and adventures on the high seas, this title falls short. However, it is a good story of a brave ship's "boy" with natural leadership abilities and a sense of fair play and humanity.

I actually listened to the book on cd of this novel because we had a patron who wanted us to move the audio from the young adult area into the adult area due to some of the situations that young Jackie finds herself in. I have to say I was not excited to read the book but found myself sitting in the car to find out what happens next and I really enjoyed the story. Jackie is quite a character and I was rooting for her to survive all of the interesting scrapes she seemed to get into. I have now finished the next two books in the series and find that they are exciting and fun to read as this one. It is meant for older teens ( 11 and up) due to the fact that Jackie and the other ships boys are all entering into puberty and there is a near rape towards the end of the book. Not many pirates but still a fun adventure story of a young lady doing what she needs to survive. Loved her sense of humor and fun.

A Little Bit of Steampunk

Carriger debuts brilliantly with a blend of Victorian romance, screwball comedy of manners and alternate history. Prickly, stubborn 25-year-old bluestocking Alexia Tarabotti is patently unmarriageable, and not just because she's large-nosed and swarthy. She's also soulless, an oddity and a secret even in a 19th-century London that mostly accepts and integrates werewolf packs, vampire hives and ghosts. The only man who notices her is brash Lord Conall Maccon, a Scottish Alpha werewolf and government official, and (of course) they dislike each other intensely. After Alexia kills a vampire with her parasol at a party—how vulgar!—she and Conall must work together to solve a supernatural mystery that grows quite steampunkishly gruesome. Well-drawn secondary characters round out the story, most notably Lord Akeldama, Alexia's outrageous, italic-wielding gay best vampire friend. This intoxicatingly witty parody will appeal to a wide cross-section of romance, fantasy and steampunk fans.

I enjoyed this book. It did take me a bit to get into the story. I brought it home, read the first 10 pages and then had it promptly stolen by Ty and D who both read it before me. It has an interesting prefix with Alexia having no soul and therefore she is like the anti supernatural being. Her power negates those of other creatures. If she touches a vampire he (or she) loses the ability to be a vampire. The play between Alexia and Lord Maccon is good, although you are pretty sure that the two of them will eventually get together. I just started the second book in the series "Changeless" and I am enjoying it so far. Not reading it every second like some of my favorite novels. I do like the addition of the steampunk elements using the victorian setting with technology.

Be aware there is a small love scene at the end and some foreplay situations in the story as she and lord Maccon dance around each other. Other than that the book is pretty clean.

what possesses people

This is totally yucky story so many of you may want to turn away. We have had a couple of instances of a group of young teens (13-14 yrs old) that have decided that it is fun and cool to leave a present on the floor of the mens room and then spread it all over the bathroom stall. I am talking all over including floors, walls, light fixtures, toilette and everywhere. I know, gross huh, I do not know why they would think this is appropriate let alone fun. It happened a couple of weeks ago and one of my poor staff members had to clean it up. It happened again last Thursday although when the group came in we had suspicions that it was them so we did watch them so when they got into the bathroom they had to do a rush job. Let me tell you I have never cleaned up anything so gross in my entire life and I am a mom! I mean what would possess someone to even think of doing such a thing and in a library to boot. Well we called the police and they were less than helpful about the situation although they did take a report and let us know that if the boys come in again to call. I had hoped when I caught a couple of the kids in the group last time and threatened them with police action that they were done but they came in again tonight. Police were called and I am not sure what was said or how this will all turn out as I was not at work tonight but I guess I will find out tomorrow. I have to say that this has really made me worried about those who we are looking at to run our country in the future. We think things are bad now what will happen when the "Poop Bandits" take over. These kids look like good kids. Not rag tag but well dressed and clean cut. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover because look at the result in this case. It really makes me sad that this is what things have become and that I may have to start locking our bathrooms and have a key on a toilette seat that patrons have to ask for to use the facilities.

Lets hope this is the end, I have doubts, but a glimmer of hope remains.

how do you let them go?

Those of you that have read Boo's blog you know that she is leaving to go to California tomorrow for orchestra. It is hard as a mom to let her go. When Ty went as a sophmore I went with her and was a chaperone. I couldn't go this year due to work and having several people off, one for maternity leave and one with a family emergency in Georgia. I can't say that I am not worried about her going. I know she will be safe but I worry, will she have fun? Will she run out of money? Ty went to New York as a senior but we were able to get her a visa card tied to our account so if she ran out of cash she had another source of money. With Boo this trip crept up on us and we did not get her a similar card so we are sending her with cash and hoping she doesn't run out. She is really excited to go but starting to feel nervous as none of her really good friends are in the orchestra or band and are not going. She has a few friends in the orchestra they are not the people she hangs out with much. Boo also hates rollercoasters and is worried people will not be nice if she isn't as willing to ride as they may like. I guess I just let her go with lots of prayers and trust in the leaders and chaperones that have been chosen to go and miss her while she is gone. It is not easy to see your kids grow up.

Work has been insane. I feel like I just get things figured out and have enough people to work when another catastrophe strikes and I am working the desk alone again. With many library staff going to Portland this week for PLA there is not a lot of help to be found. I was scheduled to go as well but some sort of inner voice said not to go so I backed out a couple of months ago. I am glad now that I did as I don't know what the staff would have done this week. I will be happy to have a full staff and hope that at least for the next four days that no one ends up calling in sick.

Crazy family is all good, I guess. D is starting into the busy time at work so he is working extra days. The overtime is nice but it sure makes him grumpy. Bee is hormonal. She is becoming a young lady and I do not know if I am going to survive her. G-Bear was ordained a deacon two weeks ago by D. He passed sacrament last Sunday for the first time. It is neat to have a husband that has a strong testimony and can pass this great gift on to his only son. While my testimony waivers often D is our rock and I love that he is so willing to get up early on a Sunday and make sure the G-Bear and Bee make it to church and can continue to grow and learn. Ty is working and taking a couple of classes. She seems to like it but you never know with her. She lives in her own world and while we tease her about living in the basement for the rest of her life we are so proud of her by taking the risk of going to college and to keep working at a job she seems to like. Boo cut her hair (12 inches) and is doing so well at school. I am so proud of her and the determination she has shown to keep up her grades and to participate in school as much as she does.

I am not going to be sick......

I know I know I have not updated for forever. It is not because of being busy but lack of anything to blog about. We seem to be in that winter rut of just having the blahs. I have no energy and am lucky to make it through work only to come home and want to just curl up and sleep. I did get my bathroom painted and one wall in the great room. Touch up still needs to be done but I am waiting for D to fix the calking so the paint will stick. He has a touch of the procrastination bug which strikes all the males in his family it seems.

Valentines was crazy. we had house guests for the weekend due to a lovely dinner prepared by D's sisters husband. He is one of the best chefs and he made us all filet mignon and shrimp for dinner. All of D's brothers and sisters were there. We then watched D's brothers kids so that they could have a night out for their anniversary. It was kind of unsettling as they have a toddler and we have not had to deal with young littles for ten years. We are a bit rusty.

D bought a new microwave as the one they installed with the house was crappy. It worked but was so noisy when on that you could not hear the t.v. when it was on. D finally tired of the noise and when we scored a brand new Bosh for over half off we went ahead and bought it. It is so much quieter and does all sorts of fancy things.

As I sit here watching the olympics trying to convince myself that I am not sick but swallowing is becoming increasingly uncomfortable and the chills and sweats are coming more frequently....I am not sick, I am not sick, I am not sick. (if I say it enough times will it work?) I cannot be sick there is no one to work at the library. I came home early and crashed hoping to convince this to go away. Increasingly worrisome is that I am about three weeks off an infusion and I have no immune system to speak of so this could turn ugly really quick.

Wish me the best, I have to work tomorrow....

Good news is Boo scored a 3.98 for term 2 at school, way to go! I have been so impressed this year with her determination to do well at school. She has worked really hard to keep these grades high. She is enjoying the freedom of a newly minted drivers license (hard to believe that she is already 16) and her own little car to drive around. It is a little blue Metro that was given to us. Ty won't drive it because it is a stick shift and totally beneath her standards. All the better for Boo, she doesn't have to share only with her dad.

By the way for those of you who live locally the Davis County Library is having a big booksale tomorrow from 10 until 5 at the north branch in clearfield. Lots of really great stuff at good prices. Check it out you won't be disappointed!

The City of Lost Wages

D and I decided to celebrate our anniversary the week between christmas and new years. D has been wanting to see Penn and Teller for a long time so we got tickets, reserved a hotel room and went to Las Vegas for a couple of days.

I have to admit Las Vegas is not one of my favorite places. I hate all the cigarette smoke and not being any sort of a gambler at all I just don't see the point. I do love the cool buildings and the shows but you always feel a little dirty after walking around with hispanic men shoving pictures of naked women in your face as you walk down the sidewalks.

Penn and Teller were awesome. We had excellent seats and enjoyed the show. It is amazing what they can do. Penn (the tall one that talks) does have some interesting political views which he expresses throughout but the show is well worth the money to see. Our hotel room was nice. D sprung for the view room so we were on the 17th floor with an beautiful view of the strip. We stayed at the Rio as that was where the show was. I do not know if I would stay there again. While it was all clean and the room was big and roomy the hotel reeks of smoke and even in a non-smoking room you still get a lot in your room.

We had hoped to get tickets to see Cique's Love at the Mirage but the show was sold out. We settled for looking at cool stuff at the Beatles store and taking pictures. We did go to the secret garden at the mirage and saw the tigers and dophins. We also stood in line (seemed to be the one thing we did everyday) at the Luxor to get tickets to see the Titanic exhibit. It was cool but I was very offended by the "Photo Opp" in the middle of the exhibit when they took your picture on the re-created grand staircase. I thought it was very tasteless and wrong when they took your picture when you went in the exhibit and then to spoil the mood of the exhibit by taking your picture in the middle. The best part of the exhibit was the "big piece" which is the large part of the hull of the titanic that they raised a few years ago and have preserved. I think the exhibit that came to Salt Lake a few years ago was a better exhibit with more artifacts and a better done set up.

Coming home was interesting we drove from Cedar City to Scipio in a major snow storm. It took us eight hours to get home. It was a fun trip but I did not like all of the long and slow lines. We spent so much time standing in line we stood in line for dinner, lunch to buy tickets to ride the shuttle back to the hotel. For a city that wants the tourist to come back (especially the adult tourist) they really don't seem to want to make you want to come back. I told D next time we were going to stay in the new hotel with no casino and such. I am willing to pay the extra!