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.