Scared to Death

Last night around 9 I was hanging out in the Loony Bin (the office for those of you who don't know the family joke) talking with Landon while he did some homework. I had just settled in and had begun work on a scrapbook page and was quietly flipping through the orange and black paper attempting to find just the right sheet for my Halloween pictures. Side note: I've decided to start scrapping again, beginning with updating the Halloween and Christmas books that are about 5 years behind. Back to the story: I was sitting with my back to the door and deep in concentration. All of a sudden some man reached around me and laid a big kiss on my lips. I seriously screamed--it scared me to death. When I turned around and looked I beheld my hot husband standing there just grinning and laughing. He had come home from Alabama a day early. I was expecting him today (Friday) around 5 pm. What an awesome surprise! He had left right after work and rolled into our driveway around 9 and doesn't have to go back until Monday morning. We're so happy to have him home. He didn't get to come home last weekend because he was at a trade show in Reno so we were missing him more than usual. I can't believe I didn't hear him come in or open the garage door. What does that say about me? Anyone could walk in my house and I would be clueless. So glad our little stranger was the friendly kind!

Sunday dinner

Sunday dinners are a highlight for my boys because they love to EAT! They have a great appreciation for the good things in life. They always want to know what we are going to have--then I get an "awesome" or "mmmmmm". Last Sunday we invited our friends the Days to join us. It was four of us-me, Dallin, Landon, and Easton and five of them--Amy (my friend), Amanda, Connor (Dallin's friend), Ethan (Landon's friend), Molly (Easton's friend) and little baby Austin. We enjoyed a yummy Italian dinner with Lasagna, salad, and breadsticks. Dessert was a plethora of choices--Strawberry shortcake, Italian ices, or Rainbow Sherbet. We enjoyed the food and company. We missed Stephen because he was in Reno for work.

The Day family, minus one son, Brant who is at BYU Idaho.

Everyone is helping themselves to the fabulous dessert choices.

Shoes

While doing some returns at my store TJ Max, my eye caught a fabulous pair of silver flats on sale--a smoking deal! I tried them on. Feeling a little like Cinderella I was a flutter when I realized they fit perfectly. Ah, the joy of a new pair of shoes--I've wanted silver ones for a while but couldn't find the perfect ones. Upon arriving home with my treasures I began the examination process. You know, when you really look at your new purchase. I tried them on and gazed at their cuteness in the mirror. I even tried on a few outfits with them and oh, the possibilities. As I took them off I glanced at the inside label and was horrified! The brand name was Naturalizer! How could that be possible? I don't wear Naturalizer shoes--that's the brand my Mom has always worn. I remember searching for shoes at department stores with Mom as a child. She had long, narrow feet with a high arch and really had a hard time finding shoes that fit and were comfortable. She was drawn to the Naturalizer brand because they somehow worked for her strangely shaped feet. We knew we had found the Mother Lode when a cute pair of Naturalizers were found. I, on the other hand was never drawn to that brand. They just were not my style--seemed a little matronly to me. Don't get me wrong. My mother is a super classy lady and has always dressed very nice and is always put together. She's just a little more conservative than I am. Now I find myself questioning my shoe purchase. Have a become my Mother finally or has Naturalizer changed their style to fit mine? Am I just getting old and matronly? I've been thinking about this change of events with grave concern. It would be silly just to return them because of the stigma I have attached to their label. So...what was I to do? I stepped out of my comfort zone, embraced my matronly season in life and wore my funky new shoes last Saturday, feeling pretty cool and hip--I'm so loving my Naturalizers!

8:10

Happy to announce that I slept in til 8:10 today.
A wonderful thing!
Wasn't missing that little blackberry this morning.
Was missing it's owner.

See this little contraption? It's called a Blackberry and it's Stephen's connection to WORK! It really is quite an amazing piece of technology--it receives and sends email, makes phone calls, takes pictures AND you can watch TV on it. Now I suppose you're all thinking I need one of these hot little numbers. Think again.....this innocent looking piece of amazingness has it's own mind. Seriously. Stephen uses it as his alarm in the morning and I suppose it works quite grand for him, but when he comes home on the weekends it's quite a different story. I remind him every Friday night to turn it off so that I can sleep in on Saturday morning, a rare treat for me. I'm not a good sleeper inner--once something wakes me I CANNOT go back to sleep. I know I'm weird. There is hidden in the wires of this hand-held wonder an automatic setting that automatically turns it on in the morning. It has a mind and it's possessed! On numerous Saturday mornings (too many to count) this thing has come alive and the alarm has gone off at 6:40. Ugh.........Because it's fairly new it's taken a while for Stephen to figure it out while I have suffered. No sleeping in for me. But alas--this weekend the evil, possessed thing is in Reno with it's owner and I won't have to contend with it. We have a love/hate relationship. Love that I can communicate with my hubby anytime, anywhere. Hate that it ruins my blissful Saturday morning dreams. See you next weekend--you psycho little blackberry!!!!!

Service

Words of wisdom are always shared from my Dad whenever we are together. A long visit with Mom and Dad over Christmas vacation was time spent learning and listening. Dad shared about being in a meeting with the "brethren" at the church office building discussing the current status of working/paid custodians. A suggestion was made that maybe the members could help clean the church buildings that they attended, thus eliminating the need for so many paid custodians. The leaders weren't sure that members would do this. My Dad shared an experience of faithful members of the church in our little branch in Danbury, Connecticut who took ownership of their church building by cleaning it every Saturday in preparation for Sunday meetings. I remember cleaning the building with my family--it was our brand new building that we had worked and sacrificed for to even get built. We took great care to keep our building nice, new and spiffy. Families sacrificed their time and were happy to maintain it because we loved "our"chapel and were incredibly grateful that we had a building to meet in. We were appreciative of our building since we had been meeting in schools and other churches for many years. After great discussion church leaders decided to try having the members clean their buildings.

Because of the success of that inspired program being implemented with the help of Dad many years ago, my children had the blessing of being able to clean our building in Georgia this past weekend in preparation for our Sunday meetings. We were part of the assigned cleaning crew from our ward that wiped down bathrooms, mopped, dusted, cleaned windows and doors, gathered trash, tidied the chapel and vacuumed. My boys worked hard and did a great job cleaning the Lord's house. I'm grateful for the opportunity our family had to take time out of our busy lives to serve and care for the building that we are blessed to meet in. Stephen reads the list of duties that we must complete.

Dallin working hard to rid the building of TRASH!
Landon and Dallin make a great team.
I'm not sure when the last time the benches and all the trimwork in the chapel had been dusted but judging by the residue left behind on my cleaning clothe it had been a while!

Check This Out!

I was cooking in the kitchen today and I bumped a knife off the counter. Imagine my surprise when it just stuck right in the wood floor and stood straight up. Dallin and I were amazed and shocked. We laughed so hard for the longest time. It's a good thing it didn't poke into my cute little barefeet!

Last Saturday Stephen and I went with Landon and Easton to the Georgia Aquarium. Easton has been wanting to go for a very long time. We had decided to go on Saturday and then when the day finally arrived the bigger kids started wanting to bail on our family activity. They convinced us that they just didn't want to go. So we said, "Fine, we'll just save money and stay home if no one wants to go." Well, the tears started to flow and Easton became very upset. Right then and there I decided that it wasn't fair that he doesn't get to do things because the big kids have already done it or don't want to do it. We were outta there and on our way to the aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It was a great time and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Here's Mom heading down a slide that shoots out of a Whale's mouth.

Easton and Landon look like they are in the tank with the fish.

It was cool to be able to touch the sea anemone and the sea cucumbers. They felt rough like sandpaper.

The cool people that went to the aquarium. (Dad's taking the picture)

Check out the huge fish going past. The kids love this spot. It is this huge clear glass wall that looks into the hugest tank of assorted fish that you have ever seen. There are four grand whale sharks that cruise around in here.

This is one of the whale sharks.

My good-looking boys in front of the tank.

Loved this tank full of very colorful, vibrant fish.

This tank contained the most amazing, beautiful jelly fish just floating up and down. It's too bad they sting you because they are really fascinating to see.

Happy 2009

I'm finally getting around to posting about our New Year's celebration. And was it a celebration! With Mom and Dad here we have a good ol' time down here in the south. Dallin and Ashton got all dressed up--Dallin went to a tri-stake celebration. It was a black and white dance that didn't end up being very fun. They left early and went to a friends house. Ashton went to a friend's house from high school for a party. With both of them gone we were small in numbers, it always feels weird when we're not all together.Landon and Easton had a grand time playing the flour/quarter game. We filled a cup with flour and turned it upside down in a pie tin. We carefully placed a quarter on top. The boys took turn using a butter knife to slice chunks of flour. The object was to NOT be the one to knock the quarter off the top. It was a fun game that kept them busy for quite a while.After the flour game everyone gathered around the table for a game of "WhooNu" and some glasses of sparkling cider/juice. There were some new flavors this year. We loved the sparkling pear juice and didn't really love the sparkling cherry juice.

At about ten to 12 we gathered around the TV to watch the ball drop. We had our horns ready to blow. I have to say it was quite obnoxious at our house. It's amazing what happens when you give boys permission to be noisy and crazy. Grandpa was the worst!

We went outside in the frigid cold for a while and lit some leftover fireworks we had hanging around from the Fourth of July. I think Easton and Landon had a great party as it doesn't take much for them to have fun. We loved having my Mom and Dad here for one more special occasion. Happy New Year everyone!

Arrived

Little Easton reached a milestone in his eight years of life--Cub Scouts! Being eight means you are old enough attend Cub Scouts with the other rowdy eight year old boys at church. Excitement was in the air all week as Easton counted down the days until Thursday. He reminded me often that he needed a scout shirt. Thanks to older brothers, I was able to "recycle" an old shirt and we were ready for the momentous occasion. Easton walked into the room of loud boys with confidence. An hour later he was reporting about the evening. A great experience but we will be making changes for next week. Shirt must be tucked in and a cute little yellow scarf thing will be hanging around Easton's neck. How could I not know that Easton needed that? Oh well. Life is good when you're eight.

Life Lessons

During our lives we have little experiences that teach us life lessons. Reflecting on the past week, I'd like to share my learning. 1. Rotate, rotate, rotate! In my food storage 101 class I was always taught to rotate the food storage. Use it and replace it. Well, I didn't follow that important rule--haven't followed it for over 10 years. Thus, my big blue garbage can has been consistently fed with old cans. Check out the dates on these bloated cans of food. Cleaning out the basement in preparation for our move was an eye-opener for me. Because I haven't been doing the whole rotating thing, I have very old cans of food that I would never feed my family. I've been filling up our garbage can for the past three weeks with hundreds of dollars worth of out-dated canned goods. I watch out the window each Thursday morning with hope as the strong garbage man casually grabs our can to move it and then realizes that it weighs a ton. The last two weeks have been successful pickups. This week as I observed the manly worker, he looked in the can, paused, went back to his truck, wrote something down on his clipboard, then returned and emptied the trash. mmmmm.....I wonder what he wrote down.

2. I can fix anything in my house if I put my mind to it. For years Ashton's toilet has made this horrendous moaning sound whenever it was flushed. It seriously would rattle the house and it was so loud! I researched "moaning toilets" on the internet this week, bought the recommended flow valve replacement part at Wal Mart, and fixed the obnoxious toilet last night. 45 minutes of work and no more MOANING. Flush away!

3. When ones husband who always pays the bill lives in another state three hours away, sometimes bills don't get paid. mmmmm, Who knew? Stephen has always been an excellent bill payer, managing our bills online and getting them paid on time. Imagine my shock to receive a past due bill in the mail yesterday. This is rather embarrassing because our friends own this business and provide us with our bug control service. I hope they don't see this on the blog--payment will be in the mail today!

4. Making cookies is always a treat and everyone in the house loves eating them. The lesson for me is that if there is a whole Tupperware full of chocolate chip cookies and you are the only one home in the day--they will be eaten until they are GONE! I cannot believe that I single-handily downed a whole batch of cookies this week. I think I'll be going to the gym for some extra cardio!

5. When the beds aren't made, someone will come see the house unannounced! Yesterday the boys beds weren't made. The house was actually very clean--just unmade beds. I noticed a man walking around in the backyard. It made me a little nervous and I kept my eye on him. Then I noticed that he had our realtor lock box in his hand and he was getting ready to come in the back door. I quickly opened the door and scared the poor man half to death! In my most kind hostess voice I asked him if I could help him. He wanted to see the house and commented that it said "owner transferred" on our listing. I guess he expected the house to be empty and didn't feel the need to call us. Well, with beds unmade, I invited him to view our otherwise beautiful home. He liked it. Maybe he'll be back with the wife later. Beds are made today!

Downtown

Everytime Grandma and Grandpa visit we have been trying to go to CNN but just have never been able to pull it off. It seems like one of the kids has always been sick and we just couldn't get there. Well, on this visit we did it. A trip to CNN with the whole crew was great fun. Easton kept saying on the way that it was going to be sooooo boring. When we walked into the building it was buzzing with activity and Easton's eyes were wide open with excitement. It was a hopping place. We took the tour and were able to see the inner workings on CNN. We saw the live broadcast going on and that was cool. I did think they could have made the tour a little more child friendly and exciting. Some hands-on activities would have been great for Easton.

After our little tour we ventured across the street and walked through Centennial Park. This is the park where all the festivities for the Atlanta Olympics were held. They have water fountains in the shape of the Olympic rings that you can play in--very similar to the ones in Salt Lake. Grandpa promptly walked into the center of a ring when none of the children dared. The water was shooting very sporadically and people were getting randomly squirted. My kids didn't want to get wet. Easton cautiously made his way into the fountain with Grandpa and they hung out a while. It was a bonding moment!

On our way back to our car we had to walk a couple blocks. We were altogether in a group walking across the intersection. We made a quick turn and crossed another major intersection and just kept walking. All of a sudden we looked around and we didn't see Grandma. It was crazy. We looked around and noticed that she was still across the street and had an "I'm lost" look on her face. We yelled to her and she finally made eye contact. She had to wait a while at the light before she could cross. It was pretty funny to see her across the street by herself hanging out with the Atlanta riff-raff that were waiting to cross. We're glad she didn't get too lost!

Magic

Have you ever wondered how Christmas happens in your house and mine? About the beginning of the wonderful month of December the magic just starts happening. The Christmas tree appears in all its sparkly glory with treasured ornaments on each bough. Twinkling garlands grace the railings, doorways and mantles. Lights placed in windows, wreaths hung, Christmas books brought out from obscurity to be read. Nativities so tenderly arranged remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. All of these things that magically appear help us to feel Christmas. The feelings of Christmas surround us in our home.

Then of course there is the food. How does the yummy Christmas food that makes the season so tasty appear? We all love the sweets, the cookies, the holiday dishes, the table clothes, the centerpieces and the treasured memories that come with the special time of year. We love gathering with friends and family surrounded by the yummy morsels. Food and Christmas seem to go hand in hand.

The presents.....Christmas morning is magic too. Everything just happens. The kids are ripping open magically wrapped gifts and playing with long-awaited for toys. Oh, let the fun begin. There's enough fun and love to go around for everyone. The playing continues all through the morning and into the evening until the sun goes down on Christmas Day and the exhausted children are herded off to bed. What a glorious, magical day.

But seriously, how does the whole month of December happen? I think we all know. I'm sending out a belated thank you to all the women in my life who made all my Christmas holidays magical, special and perfect! Christmas is a season that I look forward to every year--the most magical, fun time of year. And for all you ladies out there that just finished making Christmas special in your homes, I applaud you. Carry on....you'll have it all put away in a week or so, just in time to hit those January sales to start preparations for the magic to happen next December!

Wishbone

The wishbone from our Thanksgiving turkey has been sitting on the breadbox in the kitchen gathering dust, waiting to be broken in hopes of a wish being granted. New Year's day seemed just the right day to make a wish as we looked forward to a new year and new adventures. I paused a moment as I tightly wrapped my pinky around my half of the wishbone. Oh, what to wish for......well, it really wasn't that hard to think of something. Something that would help our family be together in Alabama. I can't tell you what I wished for because it might not come true. I pushed the wish in my head and Stephen and I said together, "Ready, set, go!"Our weak little pinkies tugged on that bone with all the strength we could muster. Each of our fingers struggled to win. Pull. We tugged a little harder, the struggle intense. Which one of us would have our wish granted?

Pain moved through our joints, the wishbone unyielding. We waited to hear the crack of the bone. Pull harder!

Snap! I was victorious! My wish would come true. My pinky finger didn't let me down. I'll let you know when my wish comes true. Soon, I hope.