In the Salt Shaker

Our Punk'd out Back-to-School Adventure

2010-08-24T15:42:00.001-06:00

Back-to-school is always an exciting time of year. My boys thrive in the structure that school provides. There is a schedule to follow and less time at home to be bored and get into trouble. I'm a much better mom when my boys have school. So it was with much anticipation that I looked forward to the start of school this year. A new school. New teachers. New friends. New clothes. You know - Back-to-School! Woo Hoo!

This year, our back-to-school adventure was one for the books. It almost felt like a plot line to a really bad family sit com. It started on Sunday afternoon around 5:30 p.m. We had been down in Orem visiting my brother's family and celebrating the blessing of my new niece. As we drove into Davis County I looked to the west and noticed the ugliest sky I've seen since the Salt Lake Tornado in 1999. I told James that did not look good but I didn't want to mention the "t" word since I have AJ who is obsessed with natural disasters.

Thank goodness there was no tornado, but we did have some very severe weather. As we approached Farmington, we notice a news crew and several police cars around Legacy Highway. As we got closer to our neighborhood, the traffic light was out. And then as we approached our street, I noticed that everyone had their windows open and it was awfully dark. Yep, the power was out. Five power poles were taken out by wind gusts up to 75 MPH right by the Davis Justice Center.

Now normally, we are a prepared family. We may not have a year's supply of food and water, but we have enough supplies to last us a few weeks. We have a gas stove so we can cook and a gas log so we can stay warm. But that is only helpful if you can actually GET INTO YOUR HOUSE!!!

Yep, since the move, we haven't actually put the keys to the house on our keyring. We always use the garage door openers to access the house and have never given it a second thought. Who needs keys when you just push a button and the door opens. But that doesn't work when the electricity is out.

Not only that, but James had double and triple checked all the doors before we had left for the day. So our house was very secure. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be married to a cop. ;)

Our neighbors had already called Rocky Mountain Power and were told it would be about six hours. That is midnight for those of you keeping score at home. Midnight on the night before the first day of school. You have to laugh or else you'll cry right?

James called the first locksmith that came up on his Blackberry search. When they finally arrived, the guy worked on the lock for about 10 minutes and then concluded, "Those are the best locks money can buy, I can't pick them." Of course it cost us $60 to get that tidbit of information. So we gave him the credit card and he calls it in and it comes back DECLINED! WTH? We are no where near our limit. The bill isn't due until next week and I had just used the card the day before with no issues.

This was the moment I started thinking that we were going to be on the next episode of Punk'd. (Is that even still on the air? I'm so unhip I don't even know). My cell phone -- that was already beeping at me because the battery was dying -- starts ringing and the credit card security department called not once, but twice to find out if we had authorized the charge and no they couldn't tell us why the charge was declined.

Luckily I had grabbed my wallet that morning and I had enough cash in it. Both unusual circumstances for a Sunday afternoon. But now what?

Thankfully, our overly generous, kind neighbors took pity on us. First they shared their dinner. Then they opened up their camping trailer to us. The idea was we would try and get the kids to sleep and wait out the power outage and then we'd go home.

We finally got the boys to sleep by about 9:30. James and I drifted in and out of sleep waiting for the power to turn back on. Thank goodness for Blackberries and iPods that could provide us some entertainment on a very long dark night. At some point in the middle of the night, James called Rocky Mountain Power to get an update. New estimated time for power: 7:30 a.m. So we tried to get some sleep off and on.

When the sun finally came up we were still in the same predicament. And still in our church clothes. But now we had to get our boys to school -- the first day of school in our new school. I couldn't send my boys in the same clothes they'd been wearing for 20 hours at this point. And what second grader wants to wear a white church shirt to school anyway. Never mind the hundreds of dollars we'd already spent on school clothes that we couldn't get to. And the power company now said it would be at least 11:30 before we could get to those clothes.

So after a quick breakfast at McD's we ran into Walmart and bought new clothes for both boys and new tooth brushes and tooth paste for all of us. After all, you can really do anything if you can just brush your teeth. In fact, I had a very "Where the Heart Is" moment as I was brushing my teeth in the Walmart bathroom.

We did manage to get AJ to school pretty much on time. I'm sure I looked like quite the site in my wrinkled skirt and blouse and my bed head. Word was starting to spread around the neighborhood that we'd been locked out and spent the night in the trailer. We've been getting lots and lots of laughs out of it. Again, you have to laugh or else you will cry. I can't wait until the next Provident Living Lesson in church when we are turned into the object lesson for everyone on preparedness.

Fortunately, the power did finally come back on and we did finally get back into our house right before it was time to take Spencer to Kindergarten at 11:25. It was quite an adventure. One we will not soon forget. And hopefully it is a lesson to everyone about having a non-electric way to get into your house. You know, something old-fashioned. Like, I don't know, a key or something.

With all the other excitement going on, I didn't have time to focus on this other aspects of going back to school. You know, as excited as I get for back to school, it is also a reminder to me that my babies are growing up too fast and time is passing too quickly. I will never have a preschooler again. But I am proud of the smart and confident school-aged boys I do have. In all the excitement, we did manage to get some pictures with James cellphone:

Uh . . . What do you say when it's been a year?

2010-07-23T12:13:00.000-06:00

Hello . . . is this thing on? Uh . . . ya. I know it's been over a year since I blogged. And oh my, how embarrassing is that.

When it's been a while since you've blogged you wonder if anyone would actually read your blog if you did post anything. So this is a test, a test of the emergency blogger network if you will, to see if I post it, will you read it.

It's actually been kind of an exciting year. I don't even know where to start so maybe I'll just show you the year in pictures and go from there.

Last I left you, we'd just been sealed in the temple to our Spencer. :) After that, we took off for Monterey for a couple of days with my brother Hyrum and his family. We tried to go tide pooling, but it was too late in the day to see much. And we went to the aquarium there. I'm more of a lake town girl myself, but we did love Monterey.

It wouldn't be summer for me without the Stampin' Up Convention. While everyone else was clamoring to get their picture taken with Shelli Gardner, I was thrilled to get mine taken with my favorite board member, Thurl Bailey. And if you have to ask who Thurl is, then you are obviously not a Utah Jazz fan.

In August, AJ started first grade. He had the best teacher ever and flourished in a lot of ways.

And in September, Spencer was off to preschool. He actually went to two different preschools last year and had a great time.

In October, we went to McCall, Idaho and stayed on the shores of Payette Lake with our good friends the Butlers. We love hanging out with them and I fell in love with McCall. It might be my new favorite lake town. (Sorry South Lake Tahoe.)

Then for halloween this year, we had a Clone War Trooper and a fireman. We always go trick or treating with the Millers and always get a picture all together. Fun times!

November brought basketball back into our lives. The Utah Jazz season started and our boys played Bitty Ball at the West Valley Fitness Center. See the bitty boy in the back, yep. He was the bittiest on the team. And the tall one back there, he was the tallest in the league. No more bitty ball for him.

Ah Christmas. The time when two little Wright boys get more toys and candy than any two little boys have a right to have. We had a low key celebration at home and loved every minute of it. Much better than the year we had food poisoning.

What? Stampin' Up convention in January? Yep, Leadership Conference was in Phoenix this year. Can you say "golden opportunity to get out of the inversion?" Perfect chance to shake the winter blues. Here I am with my Stampin' Addict Sistahs who made the trip too: Dixie, Sharon, Stacy and me.

Also in January, we had the first reported siting of two Wright brothers actually sitting next to each other and not fighting. Doesn't happen very often so you have to capture the moment that it does.

Now to the really exciting part. We got this kind of crazy idea that we should try to sell our house. So most of January and early February was spent getting it ready to list. Little did we know that we'd get a full price offer in EIGHT DAYS! So goodbye to our first house -- the place we brought our boys home to -- and to all our good friends and ward family there. It was very bittersweet.

Here is where the boys birthday pictures belong. Except, there was a error when we were packing to move. The camera that the pictures were on got packed away in a very safe and secure location. So safe and secure, months later, they haven't been found.

Oh and right here is where there should be a picture of the rental we moved into for seven weeks. Thanks to the Benzons for not leaving us homeless when we didn't have a clue what we were going to do next.

It's a long story I'll have to share another time, but in April we were lucky enough to get this house under contract in Farmington. It was a foreclosure and we really feel like God had a hand in bring us to this neighborhood. We moved in May 15 and two months later, we still have boxes that need to be addressed.

Also, in May, Spencer graduated from Preschool. He now knows all his letters and the sounds they make and can count to 20. Oh and he's just about mastered his S-blends. What a kid! I don't have a picture, but AJ graduated first grade with perfect attendance and on the honor roll. So proud of both of them.

One of the best parts of moving to Farmington is being 5 minutes from the Lagoon Amusement Park. We have season passes this summer and have had a lot of fun over there.

Earlier this month, we went to Boise for the baptism of the Butler's oldest daughter, Brynn. We're Brynn's godparents, but since Mormons don't really have those, there wasn't anything official for us to do other than to just support the family, and be proud of Brynn for making the decision to be baptized. Oh and to steal her gum, but that's a story for another day too.

And guess what that brings us back to? Another Stampin' Up Convention! Except this time, sadly, I didn't get to go. It's actually happening right now, even as I type this. My friends are enjoying a chocolate fountain at the Salt Palace 17 miles from here. Boo Hoo! James is out of town at a training this week and I couldn't get the logistics worked out. But I did get to go to the fabulous Stampin' Addicts Meet and Greet on Wednesday. So here's a picture of my swap buddies.

So that is, in a quick and dirty nutshell, our past year. Hopefully, it won't be another year before I post again. But just so I know if it's worth it or not, post a comment so I feel the blog love. :)

Our Forever Family

2009-06-27T21:58:00.004-06:00

It's fair to say that the best days of my life have all involved my family and the Temple. Now I have another day to add to the list. Today, our eternal family grew by one more as Spencer was sealed to us and became an official part of our forever family.

We came to Oakland to have him sealed to us because my parents are serving a mission here. They couldn't come to us, so we went to them. James and I were also married in the Oakland Temple so it seemed fitting that we would complete our family here as well. But while we were blessed to have several close friends and family members here with us, we did miss many of our wonderful Utah friends who have become like family to us.

We've been trying to prepare the boys for this day by talking to them about what would happen and what a special day it would be. I'm not sure how much of it sunk in but Spencer kept singing "I Love to See the Temple" all day. It was very cute.

When they brought him up to the sealing room, he was a little apprehensive. He looked around the room and didn't see me, so he started to hide behind the nice sister who brought him up. Then he peeked back out and looked around and finally saw me. He ran across the room, launched himself into my lap and buried his head into my shoulder. I couldn't see it, but apparently he flashed one of his famous Spencer smiles on the way to me.

After the Temple, we all headed to my brother Eric's house for Spencer's Blessing and lunch. James blessed Spencer that he would make correct choices in his life and grow up to be an honorable man and priesthood holder. It was a wonderful blessing.

And Eric really out did himself with the food and festivities afterward. I'm lucky to have a brother in the party planning business and he was gracious enough to let us use his backyard and his brother in law as top griller. He even got the squirt guns out so the boys could get wet and cool off on this hot summer day.

Today has also brought up wonderful memories of another wonderful day six years ago when our Bubs was sealed to us. I will never forget when he came into the sealing room, he looked around at all the people and just beamed one of his famous AJ smiles. He was feeling a bit bent out of shape because of all the fuss over Spencer today. I tried to tell him that we made just as big a fuss over him back in the day, but he was just too young to remember.

And now we have two wonderful boys who are all ours -- forever.
I know this post is missing some of my usual writing style. I think it's because I am so tired but I really wanted to get these pictures and historical record down today, while it is still fresh. I promise to be back to my sometimes-snarky self soon.

A Family, At Last

2009-05-28T12:29:00.006-06:00

I'm interrupting my posts about our recent travels to bring you the lastest breaking news from our house. It's official, legal and all the rest: Spencer is ours and we are his with all the rights, duties and responsibilities that entails. Judge Denise P. Lindberg made it all official this morning and we close one chapter of our lives and open another one.

Building our family has been a long and drawn out process. If you had asked me in 1995 what my family would like in 2009, never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured it this way. But God works in mysterious ways and he built our family under his plan, not ours. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Bringing Spencer into our family has been the hardest thing I have ever done. The poor child didn't deserve what had happened to him in the first three and a half years of his life. And the emotional wounds were deep. There were plenty of days where I didn't feel like I was up to the task of being who he needed me to be to help him heal and live up to his potential.

But at some point, we moved out of crisis mode and realized a new normal in our home. We got Spencer off the sippy cup, out of diapers and into speech therapy. We spent a small fortune on therapy bills for all of us and begain to sharpen our parenting skills. We addressed Spencer's anxiety issues and adjusted medication. We rid the house of peanuts and tree nuts and got an epipen, asthma inhaler and a new reality.

We have two energetic boys who are real brothers now. They play together, they fight together, they tease and taunt and do all the things that real brothers do.

I feel a huge sense of relief too. For most of the past seven years, we've lived in the "waiting-to- adopt" world. In a lot of ways, it's a life on hold -- never knowing when the call might come and your whole life will change in an instant. No more squirreling money away into the "baby fund" or holding on to baby stuff just in case we need it. It is very freeing knowing what our family will look like and be from here on out. I can make a plan without wondering in the back of my head how we might have to change it if we get a call from the agency. There will be no more calls from the agency. We are done. And that just feels right.

God works in mysterious ways. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Southern Utah Tour Day 2: Grand Staircase and Bryce Canyon

2009-05-26T13:51:00.006-06:00

The second day of our journey took us on one of the most scenic byways in America: Utah's Highway 12. I can see why they say that it is. The terrain is so varied and so amazing. We took off out of Torrey and down towards Boulder. And by down, I mean south because you have to go up and over Boulder Mountain to get there. The views from the top are amazing. You can see all the way to the La Sal Mountains which are on the far eastern side of Utah. And of course, up there at over 9,000 feet you are in Pine trees and Aspens, but you are overlooking the red rocks and swells Capitol Reef.

One the other side of the Mountain, we stopped in Boulder to go to the Anasazi State Park where we saw the ruins of an ancient civilization. Very cool. Could not imagine living in something that small. But very cool. A few pics:

Then the road continues down through the tip of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. There are a lot of hard feelings over how President Clinton created this monument - even going to Arizona to announce it's creation instead of coming here. I worked in the Governor's Office at the time and it really was one of the nastiest political *screwings* I ever witnessed. But I will have to say, the part of it I saw was spectacular. (Although I understand the rest isn't as amazing. And how could it be? The thing is HUGE!) So here's our collage of the Scenic Drive:
Then on to Bryce Canyon. My grandfather brought us here when I was a teenager, but that was a long time ago and I only remember driving up and looking at it, not spending much time there. At Bryce, you are mostly at the top of the canyon, looking down and out on all the hoodoos (fancy rock formations). Not a good place if you are afraid of heights. We didn't do any hiking down into the canyon, but we did do some at the top: even hiked to a Bristle Cone Pine tree. And we tried not to let the rude German tourists ruin our whole day. (They were just sure we were going to let our kids fall over the edge. If they had been in a car with them for two days straight they might have let them too. ;0)) That night we stayed at the world famous Ruby's Inn just outside the park.

The kind of strange thing about the trip to this point was the lack of other families. We saw a few kids in Capitol Reef by the campground but none at the hotel and none at the restaurant. And in Bryce Canyon, I would say 90% off the people we saw were older European Tourists. I felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb. But really, I can't complain about the boys. They did really well on the whole trip. Tomorrow I will share more of our trip including St. George and Zion National Park.

First Stop on our Southern Utah Tour: Capitol Reef

2009-05-26T12:16:00.003-06:00

Earlier this month, we took the opportunity to go explore Utah. James had a conference to go to in St. George and I convinced him to bring us along since AJ was out of school that week anyway. Then we decided to throw in some national parks while were were at it. So I am going to spend the next few days showing you the wonders of the western half of Utah's red rock country. (We're hoping to do the eastern half in the fall.)

I've been to most of places of any consequence in Utah either when I was working for the state, or just for fun. But the first day of our journey took us to a part of the state I'd never been to before: Wayne County and Capitol Reef National Park. We drove through the tiny towns of Sigurd, Loa, Bicknell, Teasdale and arrived in the booming town of Torrey. (Not much booming there, but compared to the other's it's a real big town complete with an Internet Cafe.)

Just past Torrey you enter Capitol Reef National Park. While you might think all the Red Rocks look the same, the ones in Capitol Reef have more variation in color. And you can't really tell from these pictures, but the middle of the canyon is lush an green. Here's my picasa collage of our day there (click on it to see it bigger):

In Capitol Reef, you are mostly at the bottom of the canyon, although there is an area where you do over look the Goosenecks that is really cool too. The other really cool thing about Capitol Reef compared to other National Park's I've been to so that there is an ever so tiny pioneer town right in the middle of it called Fruita. It gets it's name from the orchards that are there. It really did amaze me how much grew right there in the desert. If you ever make it there, be sure to get some truely yummy pie at the Gifford Farm house too.

The boys loved climbing rocks and checking out all the petroglyphs too. I loved finding all the wild flowers in bloom at all of our stops along the way. We kept the boys entertained by pointing out rock formations and trying to explain how they came to be. (Wish I'd taken more geology classes in college.)

If you ever get the chance to do it, go to Capitol Reef. It is a little remote and out of the way, but well worth the trip for sure. Come back tomorrow and I will share the second day of the journey.

Spring in Utah

2009-05-16T19:14:00.004-06:00

I've been very absent lately. I've been busy with the boys and with my business lately. And we've been out of town twice in the last two months too. But more on that another time.

Last week, Spring was in full swing in my yard. Here are a few of the treasures:

Creeping Phlox

Tulips

Flowering Cherry Tree

And my very favorite: Lilacs

If or when we ever move away from here, I will definitely miss these flowers. I know you can grow these things other places but I love that they all bloom right around Mother's Day.

25 Random things about Me

2009-02-03T10:09:00.002-07:00

This is going around Facebook. But I thought since it has been a while since I posted here I would put it here too. The rules are you have to write 25 random things about yourself. If any of you aren't on Facebook, you could do it on your blog too.

1. My prefrontal cortex is unusually large and that is why I hoard so many thing. (That's my story and I am sticking to it). From cute little brads to bags of candy. What if I use them up and then need more? What if I can't find more when I need them? What if a better project comes along? My new years resolution is no more hoarding. Especially craft supplies. I mean, really, just how many packages of Stampin' Up's Dashing Designer Series Paper does a girl need? They'll eventually make something else I like just as much, right?

2. I can't watch TV shows on TV anymore. I have to wait until they come out on DVD so I don't have to watch (or fast forward) through the commercials and I don't have to wait a whole week to find out what happens next. I also have to watch shows in the order they originally aired. But that means I am always a year behind on the shows that everyone is watching right now. The only show I will watch on regular TV is the Amazing Race.

3. James and I met the first day of classes, our freshman year at Ricks College in Math Class. He was only 17. We got to be good friends first. We didn't go on our first date though until 3 years later and then we got married a year after that. I hope my boys get to have that friendship part first too. (And it will always be Ricks College to us. Never BYU-Idaho)

4. When I was a child, I wanted to be a primary chorister when I grew up. I would line up my dolls and play primary all the time. And as an adult, it's the best church calling I've ever had.

5. I love to sing in choirs and small groups. I've sung every part from first soprano all the way down to tenor. I prefer to sing Alto though because I hear harmony, not melody in my head when I hear music. The highlight of this for me was singing in General Conference with a couple hundred other people.

6. I'm a political junkie and always have been. I remember liking Jimmy Carter better than Gerald Ford because he was smiling in the cartoon drawing on the front of my brother's Weekly Reader when I was four. Ronald Reagan was my childhood hero. I still believe he made the world a better place. In college, I really wanted to do a congressional internship in Washington DC but was always the backup choice instead of the first choice. That is how I ended up settling for an internship in the Governor's Office which lead to a job there.

7. I've been watching the Today show almost everyday for more than 30 years. It probably turned me into a political junkie. I still mourn the loss of Tim Russert.

8. When I watched the 1994 Winter Olympics I decided I really wanted to be involved in the execution of an Olympics some day. The next year, Salt Lake City was awarded the games on the day I was officially hired by the Governor's Office. I took a job at the Department of Public Safety in 2000 so I could have an official assignment with the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command. I was lucky enough to attend the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, a hockey game and a speed skating event. I love the Olympics.

9. I saw KISS's final live performance with the Stanley/Simmons/Frehley/Singer lineup, but I am not a fan. They performed at the Closing Ceremonies but so did Bon Jovi so it was all worth it. Other concerts I've attended: Beach Boys, Joe Jackson, Depeche Mode, Billy Joel and Elton John. I still hope to see U2 before I die.

10. I gave up chocolate for my new year's resolution in 1990 and now it makes me sick. But I love sweets, especially caramel and peanut butter. Raspberry Coconut Zingers are especially yummy right now.

11. I used to consider myself a craft reject. Now I get paid to make hand crafted items and teach other how to do it too. Creating is my therapy. It makes me happy to see other people discover it too.

12. I have selective OCD. Some things that set it off include: stamping, scrapbooking, shopping, Disneyland, cars, Facebook, Split Coast Stampers, food, swapping, Wii, the Utah Jazz, (ok, maybe it's not so selective). I wish I could have it about things that were good for me like exercise, veggies, etc.

13. I'm a procrastinator. I will never do today what I can put off til tomorrow. But I work well under pressure and I'm pretty good on my feet with very little preparation. I think that is why I loved the PR work I did. It was always flying by the seat of your pants. It drives the planners in my life absolutely crazy though.

14. I have a strange kind of shyness/social anxiety. I would rather give a presentation to hundreds of people than to make small talk with someone I don't know one on one. The larger the group, the more comfortable I feel.

15. I have this fear that my hair style will be so out dated that everyone will know exactly what year I graduated from school or got married. So I change it frequently. That's led to some really awkward hair styles. But it's only hair and it grows back.

16. I cry way too easily. I have a hard time talking about things that are really important to me like family, friends, faith, God without turning into a blubbering idiot! I hate it and wish I could just shut the tears off. I also cry during almost any movie. I just can't help it. Even the ones that aren't suppose to be sad.

17. I'm allergic to too many things. Like the sun, avocados, most other fresh fruits and vegetables in addition to pretty much anything that grows and pollinates. Unfortunately, my boys have allergies too and I hate it. It's a life sentence for them.

18. I hate to fly because I get claustrophobic, restless leg syndrome and air sick. But I love to travel. I have visited 27 states in my life time. My goal is to get to the other 23. I like to visit the things that make that area unique, like the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, the Chattanooga Choo Choo in Tennessee, Manitou Springs in Colorado and Harpers Ferry in West Virginia.

19. I grew up in California and never went surfing. I now live in Utah and I've never been skiing. I actually hate the beach because of the sand that gets everywhere and I hate the snow because it makes me cold.

20. I've lived in my current home for 10 years and it's the longest I've ever lived in any house my entire life. I would really like to move, but we're afraid James will just get transferred as soon as we buy a new house.

21. I would love to live in the Washington DC area for a few years. It's part of the political junkie and history buff in me. But even though it's a real possibility that it could happen with James' job, because I really want it to happen, I doubt it will.

22. I love it when my boys smile at me. I also love it when they are playing nicely together. I feel like a successful mom when these things happen. But most of the time, I worry that I am not doing enough to help them become successful adults. I love them more than I could possibly say.

23. The most spiritual experience of my entire life was A.J.'s birthmom placing him in my arms. It's the only time in my life when I have ever been so overwhelmed I was speechless. The most heart wrenching experience of my life was watching Spencer's previous adoptive mother say goodbye to him. I still cry when I think about it.

24. I am thankful to come from a good family who offers unconditional love. I don't have to worry about being disowned or written out of the will because that's just not the way they are. I wish my brothers lived closer so that my boys could know and love their aunts, uncles and cousins.

25. I am blessed with many wonderful friends. I get strength from them to face the hard days. I worry about them when they are sad, lonely, sick or hurt and I love to celebrate with them when things turn around for the better. Women are so lucky to have other women to laugh and cry with. Men don't know what they are missing.

The Case of the Mysterious Missing Socks

2009-01-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

We have quite a mystery at our house. Even though I buy lots of socks for every member of our household and James does a great job keeping up on the laundry, no one EVER seems to have clean, matching socks. NEVER!

When Spencer came to live with us, I went out and bought a brand new package of socks for him. I think there were nine pair. Then there were the socks he came with and several pairs of hand-me-downs from A.J. The kid must have 18 pairs of socks. Yet every day, it's the same thing: NO SOCKS!

I have the same problem. It's rare that I wear socks from May-October so I forget until the snow flies that I don't have any socks. Then I go out and buy six or so pairs and by January, it's the same thing: NO SOCKS!

A.J., well, his foot is getting so big these days. I frequently find his socks mixed in with my socks (did I mention he told me this morning that all his size 3 shoes are too small for him?), but still not pairs of socks. Grandma sent two more packages for Christmas so he is doing a bit better right now but I am sure by Valentine's Day there will be the same thing: NO SOCKS!

Where do they go? That seems to be the question that everyone is asking. Do a "missing sock" search on Google and you will find 368,000 hits. Really? Does Chris Hansen over at Dateline NBC know about this?

I think our soon-to-be President Obama needs to form a panel study the missing socks. It very well could be a serious national security crisis. What if terrorists are taking all our socks to throw us off our game? At the very least, it could be the cause of our economic woes. Families are forced to buy more and more socks, leaving them with less money to spend on mortgage payments and durable goods. Think about it.

In the mean time, I will keep looking for our missing socks and sending Spencer and AJ to school in mismatched socks so no one look underneath those pant legs. K.

PS - If you have any theories about what happens to the socks or where I should look for mine, feel free to share in the comment section.

TV and Spencer Updates

2009-01-08T20:53:00.002-07:00

First of all, since so many people have asked, yes, we did finally buy a TV set. The 42" inch Vizio from Costco . And then we had a whole cable issue that took most of a week to fix. I just hate that a certain cable company has a monopoly on high speed Internet access in my neighborhood. I could seriously rant about this company for an hour. But I won't because no one would read it anyway.

I do looooove to watch the Jazz in HD. (Hence the need for cable.) What an improvement over the old way of watching the games. Last night I was exhausted (not much in the way of sleep the night before) so I went upstairs to watch the end of the game from bed on our tiny TV. So not the same experience.

And I actually picked out a new TV stand in less than a week. Not bad if I do say so myself. I don't just love it but it wasn't too expensive anyway so when I am sick of it, or we move, we can get a better one.

Second, everyone asks how Spencer is doing and how our family is adjusting. The answer is great to the first and depends on the day for the second. He's a wonderful addition to our family in so many ways. I love his little smile and how the first thing he says to me every morning is, "Will you make me some Oatmeal please?" (OK, sometimes that's the second or third thing but it is very cute the way he says it.) He can still throw a good tantrum and is easily frustrated, but he's three and that's pretty standard.

AJ, on the other hand, has not adjusted so well. He has regressed back to age three and is throwing as many tantrums as Spencer and his are a little harder to deal with because he is so big. (I can pick Spencer up and put him in time out. AJ is getting ready to try out for the Utah Jazz next year so I can't lift him anymore.)

Spencer started his therapeutic preschool program this week at the Children's Center. It's only costing us a small fortune and James' right kidney (but he still has his left one so it's OK) but we felt strongly that they had the right program to help him through this rough patch in his life. Here he is on the first day of school:

AJ will also be seeing a therapist at the Children's Center to help him sort out why his world has turned upside down. It might be a bit of over kill, but I'd rather him get all his frustration and anger out now than when he's 14.

James and I are also taking a parenting class there too because we need all the help we can get right now. The first class was Monday and covered the importance of playing with your children. Seems like such a basic concept but really, how much time do I really spend on the floor playing with my kids?

I've made a concerted effort this week to do that with both boys, one on one. And it's been fun. Of course that mean playing trucks and geo trax, but it is fun to see what "story lines" they come up with to go along with the play. AJ's was all about Krakatoa, the massive volcano that erupted in 1883 in Indonesia, (in case you missed that documentary on the Weather Channel). Spencer is always about the "bad guy."

I think the other thing I learned there this week is that mine aren't the worst kids around. There are three and four-year-olds pulling knives on their parents out there people. We are so OK here.

But there are some interesting things about becoming a parent mid stream in a child's life. Like he told me his ear hurt yesterday. If AJ told me his ear hurt, I would rush him to Insta-Care because he has never told me his ear hurts and he's had some pretty bad ear infections. I don't know what Spencer is like when he is sick. He didn't sleep well the night before but that isn't unusual when James is out of town. He also has been exceptionally cranky this week, but also, dad is gone and he started school and his life is all different, again. I took him to the doctor today and he got a clean bill of health. So now I am officially one of those crazy moms who take their children to the doctor when there is nothing wrong.

But we managed to survive Christmas (barely). Spencer was so cute on Christmas morning. Every time he opened a gift, he would say, "Thank you! Me love you!" A.J. ran around saying, "Mine. Mine." Not so cute. Maybe I should show him the video tape so he can see how it looked. I didn't take any pictures on Christmas, just video. But this one was taken the Sunday before Christmas. Aren't they handsome:

P.S. Try not to read too much into the fact that I talked about the TV before I talked about my kids. I do love them more than the TV. Really.

Can we just buy a TV already?

2008-12-28T15:20:00.006-07:00

It's happened again.

Last time it was a new refrigerator. Back in 2005, our 6-year-old, contractor-grade refrigerator started leaking water from the freezer down to the fridge. So we did what any homeowner would do: we went to Home Depot, Lowes, RC Willey and Sears to look at fridges.

I thought I wanted one of those french door models with the freezer on the bottom. I ooed and awed over them trying to decide whether to get the white that matched our other contractor-grade appliances, or stainless which might match the appliances in the home we might move into someday. And was it worth it to play all that extra money for the french door fridge when I could get a side-by-side for a lot less. And none of them seemed to have all the features I wanted all together. I poured hours of Internet research into it on Consumer Reports, Good Housekeeping, and we asked everyone we knew what they would do.

At Sears, we met a nice young salesman named Hector. He showed us all the models and answered all our questions. We told him we needed to think about it some more. A few months later, we went back to Sears and talked to Hector again. The new models were coming out and didn't we want to buy one of the old models on clearance. Still needed to think about it and do more research. Came back in a few more months, and then again few months later, etc. Each time we left with a "let's think about it." It got to the point where Hector would see us and just start laughing because he knew we had more questions, but weren't really going to buy anything.

In May of 2007, Sears was having a great sale on appliances and we finally settled for a white side-by-side that had some of the features we wanted and was a lot less than the french door one I really wanted. We headed to Sears to finally buy that refrigerator only to find that Hector had the day off. We made a special trip back to Sears the next day so we could buy it from him. I bet Hector never had to work for 2 years to get a sale before or since.

Now, it's TV's. The main TV in our house is a 27" set we received as a hand me down from James' parents shortly after we were married. Since tomorrow is our 13th anniversary, that gives you some indication on its age. Needless to say, HDTV wasn't even a consideration back then. The tuner in the TV went out several years ago so we have to use the VCR's tuner to do anything (it's the entire reason we still have a VCR). Now the power switch doesn't always work.

About a year ago, when we started get inundated with all the HD-switch talk, we got all confused and thought we'd better go get a new TV right away. I think it was really a ploy by the electronics industry to make us believe we had to have a $2000 HDTV or we would be lepers. We learned that because we have cable, we really didn't have to do anything to be lepers. Whew.

Then we got a Wii and Mario Kart last Spring. For those of you who are Wiiophytes, when you play Mario Kart with 3 or more people, it divides the screen into four sections. On a 27" TV, you get what seems like a 2" square of screen to drive your kart down. So we have to get a bigger TV if we are going to play Mario Kart as a family. And isn't that why we bought a Wii in the first place?

So off to the Internet to do lots of research on Consumer Reports, CNet, and every other website imaginable. Do we get one that will fit in our entertainment center (very few 37" ones will) or do we go for broke and get the 47" and a new entertainment center. LCD or Plasma? 720 or 1080? What the heck is an HDMI and if our current TV has none, how many do we need? And if we get a new HDTV won't we have to get a blu-ray too?

And we harrassed lots of Hectors at lots of different stores. The HDTV guys at Costco probably think I am stalking them. Twice I have gone to buy a TV thinking I had my mind made up, only to either be talked out of by the sales guy or find it not available in the store.

I think we finally have it narrowed down to two choices: a 37" Toshiba that will fit into our entertainment center from Costco.com, or a 42" Vizio that won't fit but is available at our Costco. How we pick from the two could drive us crazy for another six months. And by then, a whole new batch of TV's will be out and we will have to start the process all over again.

I wonder if Hector sells TVs?

Days 10-12 and the BIG REVEAL

2008-12-23T07:37:00.007-07:00

I am so sad to see this secret elf swap come to an end. I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but it's been so fun to have something to open everyday. The last week has been kind of rough around here with my boys (well, one of my boys in particular) and her gifts have made my day, everyday.

So to back track a bit. On Sunday, I had a bit of a dilemma because I had two gifts without day tags on them. And I really didn't want to open day 12's first because I didn't want to spoil the next few days. My Secret Elf found a way to let me know that this is the one I should open first:The wrapping was so cute I almost didn't want to open it. (I said almost. Of course I wanted to see what is inside.) And I wasn't disappointed when I found this:

Homemade Pumpkin Butter. I love all things pumpkin and can't wait to try this out. She included a recipe for a fruit dip that includes this. And the jar is wrapped so cute in Haiku paper too.

Then yesterday, I found this cute thing under my tree:

It's a lip balm holder including an Stampin' Up lip balm. These are really cute and I need to figure out how to make them so I can share it with my customers. And I love this striped paper. It was the first from that pack of paper to get all used up at my house. And the stamp (From this year's Ronald McDonald House set) should have been a clue as to who my elf was, but I didn't catch on. After all, we all got this stamp set at convention.

Then this morning, this cute box was sitting all lonely underneath my tree just crying to be opened:
A box made out of ski slope paper and wrapped up with that wonderful stitched chocolate ribbon and those cute felt flurries. Inside was this wonderful surprise:

A beautiful hand made card with this stamp set that I have always admired but never bought. It accompanied these yummy soaps direct from North Carolina. That means my secret elf is:

Angie!!!! (This picture is of Angie, me and Amy at convention). I got to know Angie at convention this summer. She quickly became one of my favorite people because it seemed like we have so much in common. We were both moms to one (at the time) who's sons have spent time too much time with doctors (although her son has spent way more time than my AJ). And as we talked, our views and experiences seemed very similar. I am lucky to count her among my friends. Thanks Angie for making this holiday season so much fun! Love ya!

And I have to say that I had no idea it was her. I guessed a few different people at different times, but never Angie.

Now almost as fun as opening my gift has been seeing what my elfette has said about her little gifts. Want to see what I made for my elfette? Check out Lisa's blog. I had so much fun being Lisa's elf too. Love ya Lisa!

Days 7, 8 & 9

2008-12-20T13:10:00.003-07:00

I hope my secret elf knows how much I have loved getting a little something everyday. Even if I haven't been the best at posting my bounty every day, I do love everything and it has really made my day to open a gift. Here is what I received the past three days:

On Thursday, the box of really yummy smelling candles. And Jen from New Hampshire reminded me that candles aren't for hoarding, they are for burning. I was shocked to hear that. You mean, people actually burn candles and don't just leave them in the box smelling all nice and pretty?!?!? Oh boy, where have I been.

Yesterday, we had a very rough morning. When I was in the middle of my total meltdown, I remembered that I hadn't opened my elf gift yet. Whew. Made my whole morning better to find this really cute mug with candies in it. It even has that gorgeous striped Stampin' Up! ribbon on it. (Which I am hoarding an entire, unopened roll of if you must know.) It says, "Dear God, do you hear every note?" I hope not, since I haven't been to choir practice all season and will be singing with the impromptu choir tomorrow at church.

And today, I found this cute snowman under my tree. I love snowman. And this one is just adorable. Thank you elf! You are the best!

I should also mention that I finished off the tin of shortbread cookies I opened last weekend yesterday. I think those were the best non-homemade shortbread cookies I've ever had. Yummo!

Better Days

2008-12-18T08:17:00.003-07:00

I love all kinds of Christmas music. I love the traditional Christmas hymns we sing in church this time of year, "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger," and "Joy to the World." I love the crooners singing "White Christmas" and "Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire." It just isn't Christmas for me until I here the Carpenters sing "Merry Christmas Darling," Wham sing "Last Christmas" and Band Aid sing "Do They Know It's Christmas Time."

But the last few years, a new favorite as emerged: The Goo Goo Doll's "Better Days." Here are just a few of the lyrics:

"And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again."

2008 has been a rough year for so many people I care so much about. In my family, we've had deaths, a cancer diagnosis, a heart attack, major surgery, failed classes, tough economic times, struggles with our children, etc, etc. Among my friends, more deaths of loved ones, more cancer, more health troubles, financial troubles, marital troubles, etc.

Every time I hear this song, I think of all of these people, all of you. What better wish could I offer any of you than the chance that maybe we'll find better days. (I know I could use a whole lot of better days.)

So that is my holiday wish for all of you: may 2009 be full of better days for all of us.

Secret Elf Day 5 & 6

2008-12-17T09:50:00.004-07:00

Yesterday turned into a crazy day with absolutely crazy children. I think copious amounts of counseling are in order for me and for them. Not sure how we are going to survive two weeks of no school. But when the new year comes, we'll have Spencer in preschool too and that should help both of them.

I have two more wonderful elf gifts to share. Yesterday was day 5 and I opened this really cute picture frame. I initially was going to put a picture of my three BFF's and me in it, but it seemed way more fitting to put a picture of my Swapper Anon friends from convention in it. This will have a place of honor in my stamping room to remind me always of these amazing ladies who provide me so much inspiration both creatively and personally.

Today is day six. This cute gift box got a little smashed en route, but it is so cute. I love that taffeta ribbon. And inside I found this really cute post it note holder and matching pen in the very lovely Parisian Summer paper. (Love this paper too. I have a whole pack that I am hoarding.) THANK YOU ELF!!! I love everything.

I can't believe we are half way through our swap. We are already talking about another one like this since we are having so much fun this time around. You better believe I will be signing right up for that!

Secret Elf Days 2, 3 & 4

2008-12-15T08:28:00.004-07:00

We had a busy weekend with the Butlers coming for a visit. It was lots of fun to have the kids together and Clara and Spencer get a long as well as Brynn and A.J. It's so fun to think about how long we've been friends (17 years) and how far we've come during that time. They are family to us and our kids see their kids more often than they see their own cousins.

But in all the fun, I didn't get my elf gifts posted. I really didn't finish the explanation the other day. So there's this group of people who like to swap and support each other through all of life's ups and downs. In October, one of our group, Jen, suggested we do this 12 Days of Christmas Secret Elf swap. I almost didn't sign up because it was about the time that Spencer came to our family and I was taking things off my to do list and not adding new things.

But I am so glad that I did join in the merriment. It has been so fun to have a little something to open everyday and my kids are just as excited as I am. And it's been a blast to hear about all the other Secret Elf gifts that others in the group are getting. One of the highlights is hearing my elfie post about what she is receiving too. I hope she is having as much fun as I am.

On Saturday, I opened a tin of shortbread cookies. Yummy! On Sunday, there was this cute dish towel with a flower on it and the Stampin' Up's Statement of the Heart on the belly band. Today, there is a wonderful book called "Everyday Encouragement." (And boy do I need a little encouragement everyday so this will be great!) A BIG THANK YOU to my elf for making my holiday season so much fun!

The 12 Elf Gifts for Christmas - Day 1

2008-12-12T12:58:00.003-07:00

On the first day of Christmas, my secret elf gave to me:

The cutest thing I've ever seen! I *heart* Dashing Paper (from last year's Stampin' Up catalog) and these tags are so cute. The little binder is a bitty book and it stores the tags. Do you think they are too cute to use? Thank you secret elf friend who ever you are!

I guess I should explain for the rest of you. I belong to an *exclusive* group ;) of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators on Splitcoast Stampers: Swappers Anon. We started together last spring before convention and kept each other going when we all over committed for swaps. Now we keep each other going through life's ups and downs, as well as exchange business ideas, enable purchases (you all know who I am talking about) and of course, swap. They come up with the best projects and I am never disappointed when I get a package of swaps back from them. They are all very talented.

I love these ladies and I am blessed to have them a part of my life just about everyday. I can't wait to see what the next 11 days bring. Keep checking back and I will keep sharing these wonderful treats!

Believe

2008-12-07T14:55:00.003-07:00

Yesterday morning was our ward Christmas party. This year's theme was "Believe" and was based on the Christmas book and movie "The Polar Express." My neighbor Jen is the activity chair and since I drag her along on a lot of my adventures, I went a long for a ride on this one with her. Whatever she needed, I tried to help as best I could.

A lot of people come out of the woodwork for these things and there were more people than expected. A food shortage quickly became apparent and several of us started scrambling to figure out how to feed a few more people (and more than just eggs). I found my friend Teri and asked if Spencer could sit with her while I ran home to get some more sausage.

In the mean time, the Polar Express arrived at the North Pole and Santa appeared. While I was in the kitchen cooking sausage, Spencer came in to show me the new trinket he received from Santa. I couldn't believe I had missed it. My new son's first visit with Santa and I missed it. I heard from several people that he was really cute and answered all of Santa's questions and called him, "Ho, Ho, Ho." It is one of those moments you'll just never get back.

A felt a little bad about it, but when A.J. went up to see Santa, I brought Spencer a long too so I could get a picture of the two of them together on Santa's lap. Here is the result:

A member of our bishopric, Ron Stagg, wrote this little message that was put on the tables about believing that really sums up what Christmas is all about:

"At Christmas time there are many things to believe in. We believe in family, in traditions, in gifts, in yummy food, and even in Santa Claus, but our true beliefs must be anchored in our faith in Christ. This is the true reason for Christmas: to celebrate, to remember and to believe in the miracle of Jesus Christ.

Believe in the prophecies that foretold His life.

Believe in the marvelous events surrounding His birth.

Believe in the countless miracles He performed.

Believe in the truthfulness of His teachings.

Believe in the life that He willingly surrendered.

Believe in the salvation that He gives.

Believe. . ."

It's Really Not Looking Like Christmas - yet

2008-12-06T19:56:00.003-07:00

Here we are, the 6th of December and I am having a hard time getting that Christmas feeling. The tree is up. I've been listening to Christmas music non stop for the last week. I've been to two Christmas parties. Lots of shopping is done. My secret elf gifts are done and en route. Still not feeling that Christmas spirit yet.

Why, you ask? This afternoon when I came home, A.J. was playing outside. He was wearing shorts and a tee shirt and no shoes. It is December 6. In Utah. What the heck? I did make him put on his shoes and he added a jacket. But the jacket wasn't totally necessary. His friends didn't have them on.
I am not complaining really. As a California girl at heart, I can live without the traditional cold and snow that come with winter in the salt shaker. But after living here for 15 years, I just can't get into that Christmas feeling without it.

Never fear though, Monday it is suppose to snow. And by time I pick A.J. et al up from school, I will be cursing the white stuff. But at least it will feel more like Christmas.

Giving Thanks

2008-11-26T21:17:00.003-07:00

I love Thanksgiving. I love turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and green bean casserole and pumpkin pie and hot fresh rolls and I could go on all day.

But I love Thanksgiving for a lot of other reasons too. It's the one holiday that is just about the things that really matter: family, friends and giving thanks to God for our bounty. Thanksgiving has escaped a lot of the commercialism that has crept into Christmas and Easter and all the other great holidays and detracted from their true meaning.

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I have been richly blessed in so many ways, big and small.

-My three handsome, wonderful, charming guys: James, A.J. and Spencer. They make my life very interesting, keep me on my toes and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

-The gift of adoption without which, I wouldn't have my two boys. My heart is full of thanks for them and for everyone who made it possible for them to be in our forever family.

-The rest of my family. My brothers and their families, parents, in laws, aunts, uncles and cousins and for the amazing grandparents that went before us too.

-This free country where I can vote, go to the church I choose and say whatever I want. And for the men and women who have sacrificed so I can have those freedoms.

-The knowledge that I am a child of God and that he loves me and wants what is best for me and my family. And to know that he hears and answers prayers.

-My many varied and wonderful friends. I am very lucky to have so much friendship and support in my life. I would be lost with out it.

-That we have a home to live in, cars to drive, clothes to wear, food to eat, toys to play with, heat in the winter and A.C. in the summer and no one is threatening to take them away. In these tough economic times, so many people can't say the same thing. We are blessed.

-Technology. I'm an internet junkie. I love blogs, Splitcoast, on line shopping and now facebook. I love how easy it makes it to keep in touch with my friends and family.

-Creativity. Elder Uchtdorf at the last general women's broadcast said it is one of the keys to happiness. For me, it is a big one. I am happy when I create, and I slip into the doldrums when I don't.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Me?!?!? On Facebook?!?!?

2008-11-23T20:47:00.003-07:00

Last Spring, my childhood friend Linda Valentine sent me an invite to join Facebook. I just didn't want to go there. After all, part of James' job is to find people using social networking sites for illegal purposes and I did some work for an internet safety group a few years back. Those sites are evil, right?

Well, this last week, I got two more invites from people I know. So I decided to check it out and see what it is all about.

If you know me, you know that I don't just do something, I do it big. I started by accepting the invites I already had and then I went to town finding people from my past and present.

And people have found me. My prom date, Mark Davidson, found me yesterday. Not even sure how that happened because I don't know enough about the site yet. But it was fun to reminisce about the past and reconnect with an old friend.

Here is the strange thing to me: I have always lived my life in a very compartmentalized fashion. When I was a child and a teenager, I had school friends and church friends. I didn't mix them up much and I actually acted quite differently around them. At school I was a quiet, studious, a band geek and a "GATE" kid (another word for nerd.) At church, I was loud, fun and the life of the party.

I've kind of carried that on to today. I have friends from work, friends from college, friends that I've kept close to from my growing up years. I have friends from my neighborhood and church now, and friends from our old apartment days. And I have my SCS stamping friends. (I used to call them my virtual friends but I actually met most of them at convention last summer so they are virtual to me no more.)

Occasionally over the years, there was overlap among these groups, but in general, they all fit nicely in their own little compartments. I kind of liked that because I could share what parts or me I wanted with each group.

On Facebook, there is no compartmentalizing. (Or at least if there is I haven't figured it out yet.) My old high school classmates are right there with my old church friends, my new stamping friends, current church friends (including my Bishop), my family, work friends and an assortment of other people I have known through the years. It is a strange concept for me and I am still trying to figure out if I am OK with that.

I must be because I keep going back for more. I am having fun and feeling very nostalgic about the whole thing. One of the girls I went to school with posted these pictures her grandmother saved from the newspaper of various events. There was a picture of me the one and only time I ever got straight A's. It was one of my awkward phases but here it is:
Too funny! I even got in on the fun an uploaded some of my own photos from MJHS and AHS. Now do I find photos of the rest of my friends and post those too?

New Look!

2008-11-19T20:02:00.002-07:00

I've been meaning to go out there and find a cute template for my blog but the one time I tried, it turned into a disaster.

My friend Brodi just started a blog with a great background and my SCS friends Kathy and Amy just updated the look of their blogs and they are so cute. It was time for me to figure it out.

I found this one with Paisleys! Any one who has known me for a long time knows I love paisleys. And I thought this looked a little Christmasy without just being a holiday look. And it was so easy!

Polar Opposites

2008-11-18T19:16:00.002-07:00

It's been three weeks and counting since Spencer became part of our family. We still have our good and bad moments but it's a bit less sticky around here. The hardest part right now is that he wants to be around me all the time. If I go downstairs, he follows. If I go upstairs, he follows. If I leave without him, he cries. He wants me to be the one to feed him, change him, play with him, rock him to sleep, etc, etc. It's a bit exhausting and overwhelming at times, but it's an honor to be wanted too.

I know as a mom we aren't suppose to compare our children to each other, but the differences between A.J. in Spencer are so stark, it amazes me. For instance:

- A.J. is right-handed. Spencer is left-handed. The funny thing about that fact was I didn't even notice until we went to the doctor and she asked him to draw a circle for her. He picked the pen up with his left hand and she commented on it. Great, a stranger spends five minutes with my son and notice something about him that I hadn't after a week of living with him.

-A.J. loves to watch TV. Spencer doesn't. A.J. can be a little couch potato. Turn the TV on and he will watch it for hours and still complain when you turn it off. So far, Spencer doesn't care if it's on or off and if it happens to be on, he might watch it for a minute but then he is on to something else. That's good because TV isn't the best for you, but it's bad because it doesn't entertain and distract him so I can get something else done.

-Spencer loves toys. A.J. is mildly entertained by them, sometimes. Spencer can play with the same toy for a long time. He drives a car or a train around and around. He can build Mr. Potato Head over and over again. Or play with duplos forever. Toys have just never held A.J.'s attention for any length of time. He would play with one for a few minutes maybe and then is on to something else (likely TV).

-Spencer is a good eater. A.J. is picky (like me). Spencer will try anything and loves fruits and vegetables. His appetite isn't huge but there isn't much he doesn't eat. A.J. takes after me and has a discriminating palate. Apple Sauce and carrots (with Ranch) are about his extent of fruits and veggies. I know that is probably my fault for not exposing him to more at a younger age.

-A.J. is very verbal. Spencer, not so much. A.J. spoke very early and has talked like a little adult since he was a toddler. Spencer is speech-delayed and hard to understand. We are getting better about figuring out his words, but we need to work with him some more and get him caught up.

- Spencer is agile and fast. A.J., not so much. Spencer is a fire ball of energy. He can outrun us all and can turn on a dime. A.J. is good at running and jumping and all of that, but tends to take after me in the klutzy department. I think part of that is A.J.'s ear issues and the fact that he grows so fast that his coordination can't keep up. I'm sure that will change as he gets older. I think Spencer will be a good soccer player or sprinter.

-Spencer is in the fifth percentile for height. A.J. is in the 97th percentile. Just by looking at them, people are constantly amazed that Spencer is three and even more amazed that A.J. is five.

- Spencer loves to be a big helper boy. A.J., not so much. Spencer generally will pick up his toys, help cook dinner or any other chore I am trying to accomplish. A.J. is happy to just let you do it for him, or whine and complain the whole time he is doing it.

I think all these things have helped me recognize that they are individual people with different likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses that make them who they are and love them even more for them. Now if we could just get a bit of the good for both of them to rub off on the other, we'd be golden!

Dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s

2008-11-06T13:26:00.003-07:00

This morning, Spencer's legal father relinquished his parental rights to LDS Family Services. That was the last hurdle we needed to make Spencer officially part of our family. It is a huge relief to have that behind us. It wasn't that he didn't want to sign, it was just getting his caseworker to call our caseworker back. James made a strategically placed call yesterday to someone he knows and, viola, we it's done.

We also found out that there was a Child Protect Services hearing yesterday and the judge, attorneys and caseworkers were all supportive of his placement with us. Not that there was much they could do at this point, but glad to have that behind us as well.

Now if we could just get the insurance company to add him to our policy, the world would be as close to perfect as we need right now.

On a whole, this week is going much better than last. Instead of molasses, it feels more like maple syrup. Still sticky, but the progress is coming a bit faster. A few less temper tantrums and a few more smiles and hugs. And just like A.J., Spencer's smile can light up this whole place.

Tomorrow, we are going to take him for a check up and medical evaluation at our clinic. It will be nice to get a doctor's opinion about his medications, development issues, etc. Next week we start counseling with him.

And tomorrow, we are also going to get new family pictures taken. A few times in the last week, Spencer has looked at our wall and pointed to our family pictures. I want him to know we think of him as part of our family when he looks at those pictures, even if he is not quite ready to do so himself.

A new day for America

2008-11-05T09:21:00.003-07:00

Like a lot of people, I am relieved that the elections are finally over. It's been a long two years full of twists and turns. I look forward to the top stories of the news being anything but who said what about the other.

Sixteen years ago, I was very involved in the election cycle. As president of the College Republicans in one of the most conservative counties in America, I had a hard time picturing that the world could go on when my candidate lost. There were so many dire predictions about what would happen to this great country because it had been turned over the Bill Clinton and his crowd.

Not that I ever became a fan of Bill Clinton, but somehow our country survived eight years of him. We've also survived eight years of George W. Bush. One of the great things about America is that the political parties really agree on the big picture: a free and united country.

It is not like we are choosing between communism and democracy when we vote. We are choosing between two slightly different versions of the same government. OK, maybe a bit more than "slightly" but if you look at our parties in the scheme of the world, the major differences tend to be social issues that, while very important to a lot of people, aren't nearly as important as the right to vote, assemble, worship as we please and say what we feel without fear.

The founders also set up a government system with checks and balances. One person cannot have all the power and all the say so. And while one party is in control right now, history tells us that will change in the next few years. The American people tend to balance out the power between the parties every few years.

This year, my candidate didn't survive the primaries. I found myself a bit conflicted about the final election. Should I vote for the guy who fought against funding for Salt Lake's Olympic security plan? Should I vote for the guy who looks like my sons? Should I vote for the guy I would most like to sit down and have a conversation with? Should I vote for the person that I thought could be the best leader? Should I vote for the guy that most closely matched my views? Even my sons were divided on the issue with A.J. rooting for McCain because he reminds him of his grumpy grandpa (his words not mine) and Spencer who said "Rock Bama" when I asked him who he wanted for president.

By yesterday, I decided regardless of the outcome I would be excited. Either we would have the first woman vice president, or the first African American president. How amazing is that? And how exciting that so many people felt like they had a voice in this election and actually went to the polls. How can you argue with that. Democracy at work.

And when I heard President-elect Obama's speech last night, I was almost over come with emotion. He said the things that our country needed to hear. He seemed very presidential. His ability to unite our country will be tested in the next several months but I believe it will happen.

And on a very personal level, I love what it means for my boys. As a mom, I want the very best for them and I want them to grow up thinking they can be anything they want to be without any limits. Barack Obama proved that is true for them and for all people who look a different than our founding fathers. This morning I told A.J. that Obama's win means that he can be anything he wants, even president of the United States someday. His response, "I'll get to be the boss!"

It is a new day for America and I can't help but feel optimistic some how. I know there are still tough days ahead with the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but I believe America is a great country and will overcome the challenges before us. And even if they other guy had won, we still would have.

Brothers

2008-11-02T19:04:00.003-07:00

The adjustment to having a new brother has been rough on A.J. and Spencer. But we have caught them in a few tender moments this week.

Here's A.J. pushing Spencer on the swing:

Here's James, A.J. and Spencer carving pumpkins on Halloween:

And here's our little trick or treaters ready for action:

Keep your hands inside the ride at all times. . . .

2008-11-02T18:39:00.004-07:00

This week has been quite the roller coaster. There have been wonderful, tender moments when I think we are just so lucky and blessed. Then we have those moments where I wonder in the heck we've done to our family and will we ever have "normal" again.

Spencer is so full of ups and downs. He can be such a cute, fun kid one moment and hitting, scratching and screaming "NO!" the next. I know he is just going through regular adjustment phases, but it sure wears me out. He is testing the boundaries and trying to figure out how he fits into this crazy home full of weird strangers.

But we've come a long way in a week too. When we took him to Carl and Meg's for dinner last Sunday. He sat on the floor the whole time by himself playing with a truck and blocks and wouldn't eat a thing (until the carrot cake came out and that only lasted until he found a raisin in it.)

Today we went to see my cousin Andy bless his new baby and to a family dinner afterward. Spencer played with the other kids and actually ate quite a bit. Progress. Slow and steady. But progress.

I've compared it to swimming in molasses. We're making lots of motions, but hardly moving at forward at all. I think that is how it is going to be for awhile. Meanwhile, I am just trying to breathe in and out and put one foot in front of the other.

And I keep reminding myself of something Elder M Russell Ballard said at General Conference in April, "The joy of motherhood comes in moments." Motherhood isn't all happy, all the time, but there are those little moments that bring you joy. We are hoping in the near future there are more moments of joy and less moments of tears.

Welcome Spencer - the Bitter and the Sweet

2008-10-28T13:03:00.006-06:00

We got the call at 2:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon that we could pick up Spencer at 5:30 p.m. and sign paperwork and bring him home to our family. Wow! It was really going to happen. It would be a legal-risk placement but actually less of a risk than we took with A.J.

We arrived promptly at 5:30 p.m. but Spencer and his mom were running late, stuck in traffic. We went ahead and paid our placement fee and waited. It was about 45 minutes later when they arrived.

Five years ago, it was hard to watch A.J.'s birthmom say goodbye to him. But I couldn't even imagine how hard it was for her because I was pretty naive in those days about a mother's love.

Last night, it was excruciating to watch Spencer's mom say goodbye to him. I can't even think about it without crying again. She held him close and kept whispering, "I love you. I love you." My heart just shattered right there for both of them. What a brave, strong woman.

Once his mom left the room, he totally broke down. "Mommy. Mommy," he cried over and over again. My heart broke all over again. There was no consolling him, or me at that point. We just cried together. That was the bitter.

I signed my portion of the paperwork through tears and James was the strong one, thank goodness one of us could be.

Once that was done, I asked Spencer if he wanted to go home and play with the trains. He stopped crying, got in the car and we came home.

I had all the images in my mind of pictures at the agency and going out to dinner to celebrate. By time we finished it all, it was about 7:20 and we were in no shape to take pictures or to go out to dinner. We just came home.

Spencer did pretty well once we got here. He played trains with James and A.J. while I fixed dinner. He didn't each much dinner but that was OK. He took his night time medicine, but an hour later was still just as wound up so we gave him the rest of his dose.

We read for awhile and then it was time for sleep. Spencer cried for mom again but he let me hold him and sing to him this time and he went ot sleep pretty quick. That was the sweet.

He only woke up once at about 12:30 this morning and I got up with him, rocked him back to sleep and then decided to sleep on a mat on his floor in case it kept happening. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well and woke up with a stiff back this morning.

He woke up hungry and ready to eat a good breakfast. Apple sauce, yogurt and oatmeal. Not bad for a boy I've hardly seen eat anything. Here's A.J. and Spencer eating breakfast:

We've had a pretty good day so far. We went to Costco for a few more things, had lunch, took A.J. to school. All the usual things. We'll have to see how haircuts go this afternoon.

We did manage to get a family picture this morning, even on the first try:

There was a Child Services hearing this morning about Spencer and his siblings. They were hoping to get a relinquishment from the legal father at the hearing and it didn't happen. Because they scheduled the hearing on such short notice, it was a new judge and new attorney's involved. In the first bit of wisdom I've seen from the state in this case, the judge rescheduled the hearing for a time when the original judge who is familiar with the case could hear it. So we are back to hoping they can get relinquishment from the legal father before then. I guess he told today's judge that he was ready to sign and the attorney representing him asked for that to be struck from the record. Oh bother!

I am sure there is more to say, but I am still physically and emotionally tired from last night. Watch for more about Spencer and A.J. soon.

Spencer meets Geo Trax

2008-10-24T20:01:00.006-06:00

Adopting a three year old is so different from adopting a new born. When we adopted A.J., we met his birthmom before he was born once, and then we picked him up when he was two days old and that was that. Well, not really because we had that whole issue with his birthfather later. But really, the adjustment was much like what every first time parent goes through and A.J. doesn't remember anything, except being apart of our family.

This time, we are trying to bring a child into our family who already has a mom and a dad. He has a sister and a brother who he lives with now. I can't even imagine what he must think about what is going on right now. He doesn't talk much. Mostly just nods. So all we can do, is read his body language. But we are trying to make the transition as smooth as possible.

This afternoon, we brought him over to our home to get to know us better for a few hours. In the car on the way to our house, even with a movie on in the car, he seemed completely freaked out by what was happening. But he walked right in the door, took one look at the Geo Trax and went right to work. Pretty soon, James had built him quite a track to make all the trains go round and round.

A.J. brought over Addison to meet him too. Then he told Jen (Addison's mom), "Allow me to introduce you to my brother." So Jen and Keaton came over too. Again, Spencer's little face showed he was a bit freaked out. A new surrounding and so many new people. We put the bounce house up outside but all Spencer wanted to do was play Geo Trax. Thank goodness for Geo Trax.

A.J. played some too. Here they are together:

They look like good brother huh? Even if A.J. dwarfs Spencer in size.

We had dinner but Spencer didn't eat much. I guess the medication he is on doesn't leave him much of an appetite. After dinner, he went right back to playing Geo Trax. More neighbors stopped by and soon we had a house full again, and everyone, young and old was playing Geo Trax. Spencer just kind of sat there, trying to take it all in but a little scared about all the new people.

We took him back to his current home and he was soon back to his old self. Running around and playing with his brother and sister there. A.J. even joined in with the running around and playing for a few minutes.

As with A.J.'s adoption, things aren't going so smoothly on the legal side right now. For two weeks, LDS Family Services has been trying to get a reliquishment from Spencer's legal father. So far, it hasn't happened. Because he is in prison, they have to work with a Correction's social worker to arrange a time for him to sign. So far they've had little luck getting Corrections to even call them back. So placement will not happen this weekend like we had planned.

At first I was really disappointed because it's what we had planned. But now I think it will be nice to give Spencer a few more days to transition. We will see him tomorrow when we go to Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point with his current extended family. Then on Sunday, we will bring him over here for a few hours before we take him to meet some cousins and an Aunt and Uncle. It gives us time to get his room finished and all ready for him. It's all cleaned out, but there is no furniture in it yet. Just toys and his name on the wall, thanks to Jen who made a name swag for him.

The other major challenge to this adoption is Child Protective Services. Because a negligance complaint was filed on his current mother, the state is going to hold a hearing on Tuesday and possibly place Spencer and his siblings in supervised custody. If that happens, she can't place Spencer for adoption through a private agency. We are hoping for an end run that will make it possible for us to have him in our family by then. Right now we are left with convincing everyone to do a legal risk placement on Monday or hoping they can get a relinquishment from the legal father before the hearing on Tuesday.

The hero of the story is the lead adoption worker at our LDS Family Services office, Lorna and her fellow caseworkers who are working on this case. When Spencer's mother came through the door, Lorna immediately thought of our family for him. When her boss was ready to through in the towel and conceed to the State, she convinced her the fight wasn't over. She told us tonight that she feels strongly that this placement needs to take place for Spencer's sake and for ours.

We're just praying she is right and leaving it in God's hands. To be continued, I'm sure. . .

Introducing Spencer

2008-10-21T19:32:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago today, we got a call from the head caseworker at our LDS Family Services office. She was wondering if we would be open to consider an unusual adoption situation. An adoptive mother was looking to place a three-year old with some special needs. She had narrowed it down to three profiles, including ours. Would we be interested?

I hung up the phone and called James and ran it by him. Of course, he thought of dozens of questions I hadn't even thought of. But James is very skeptical of these situations. I knew when he didn't rule it out in the first five minutes, that this could really happen.

We took the night to think about it and called the caseworker back the next day and grilled her for more information, like his name: Spencer. My final question to her was if there were still two other families being considered. Well, no. One withdrew themselves because they have a pending adoption. Between the other two families, she preferred ours. The adoptive mom had also shown the profiles to her father and to her best friend. They both picked ours. I asked to see a picture and she told me to come get it. This is what I got:

Cute, huh? At this point we were overwhelmed and wondering what we were really getting ourselves into. Could we welcome him into our family and give him the structure, love and home that he needs? Would I be able to keep up with a boy already being treated for ADHD?

After a day of fasting and prayer, we agreed to meet him on that Friday. What can I say? James and I fell in love with him right away. He warmed right up to us and loved the truck we brought as a little present. His engaging smile sucked me right in. Our Spencer.

That night we told A.J. he would be getting a new brother. He told Addison and McKenna (our neighbors) that he wouldn't be able to play as much with them because he would be playing with his new brother.

Then we left for vacation. I woke up from a nap on Sunday afternoon at the hotel and looked around with a distinct feeling that someone was missing. Spencer.

Today, I took A.J. to meet him. Holy cow are we in for some crazy days ahead. Spencer was showing off for A.J. and they were running around together throwing things and having a grand old time. Spencer was a bit rough with him, but A.J. was a great big brother and didn't get rough back. When Spencer ran off, A.J. went after him and brought him back. They were even holding hands.

Spencer reminds me a lot of A.J. at three and a half. He puts everything in his mouth. He likes to run away. Get into everything. Gets aggressive when he doesn't get his way. Maybe all three-year old boys are like that? Or maybe I just got two from the same mold.

But Spencer is speech delayed and isn't potty trained yet. So we have some fun days ahead. I am going to have to step up my game a bit and be a better mom. Lots of structure from day one and lots of love. And I've got to get the house child-proof again. We used to joke that there was child-proof and there was A.J.-proof. I fear that Spencer-proof might be an entirely new level of security.

On Friday we get to bring him over to play for a couple of hours and if things go well, we will bring him home for good on Saturday after we meet all of his current family.

Spencer is not the name we had picked out for a boy. Our good friends named their son Spencer earlier this year and I am pretty sure we would not purposely use the same name. But it fits him and it was his birthmother's last name. So even though we have the option to change it, Spencer it will be.

With A.J. I had lots of promptings along the way that let me know that he was coming. I was talking to my friend Leigh about this a few weeks ago. She is also an adoption worker and an adoptive mother. She asked if I had any feelings about the next one. I told her that I had in the past, but nothing that made any sense. About three years ago, I had a feeling that my child had already been born and that we wouldn't be getting a newborn. When nothing came of it, I figured that I had been wrong. Now it makes sense. God prepares us in many ways and sometimes it doesn't make sense right away. It's one of those lessons I apparently have to learn over and over again in my life.

My friend Angie said the other day something that has really stuck out to me: "If God leads you to it, he will lead you through it." I am going to cut that out of vinyl and put it on my wall some where were I can see it every day.

Home At Last!

2008-10-19T20:12:00.004-06:00

This morning we returned from our eight day adventure to Southern California. We are exhausted and I have quite the sun rash on my arms, but I even got James to admit he had fun today. The next several posts are the highlights of each of our stops along the way.

We started out our trip, flying to Orange County on Saturday, October 11. We arrived at about 9:30 in the morning and headed straight for Disneyland. We will never do that again. Combine the stress of last week (more about that in a future post) with the stress of packing and the stress of getting up early and getting to the airport and we were all too tired to really enjoy our day.

We spent most of Saturday at California Adventure riding the various rides there. We LOVE Soarin' over California! It is the best ride ever. I was sitting next to some ladies that had never been on it before. That's the best because they really started ooing and awing over everything. A.J. really wanted to catch the golf ball, but didn't. (Of course, it's just a movie so there is no golf ball.) We also decided to stand in line for Toy Story Mania. It's also a great ride. It's kind of like Astroblasters where you are shooting things, but the games change everytime you move. And it's 3D. Worth the wait for sure! We did make it over to Disneyland and went on the Jungle Cruise and Pirates. But we were too tired to do anything else and went back to the hotel. We heard the fireworks going off, but were too tired to even go look and see if we could see anything.

Sunday we had early entry and took full advantage. Because we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, we even got to ride the Monorail. A.J. discovered his favorite ride at Disneyland is the Matterhorn. We spent the day getting on all the rides we could before the lines got too long. By that evening, the crowds were so big and we were so tired that we sat on a bench near the castle and waited two hours for the firework show. We also bought A.J. a Mickey Mouse Light Saber that he just loves. He played with it for those two hours while we waited for the fireworks and kept the family next to us pretty entertained. This is my fourth time at Disneyland with the same firework show, but it is AMAZING so it's well worth it.

Monday was so windy. The Santa Ana's were blowing hard and shut down a bunch of rides at both parks. When the park opened, we rushed over to ride Finding Nemo. If you've been to the park in the last year, you know that this ride routinely has a 60 minute wait even just a few minutes after the park opens. We were in the first group that got on submarines and it was still 30 minutes before we got on the subs and went for the ride. I'll never wait for it again, but it is a cute ride.

It was really fun to be there in October when the park was all decked out for Halloween. The Haunted Mansion is transformed into the Nightmare before Christmas this time of year and it is very cleverly done. I am glad we rented it and let A.J. watch it a few times so he understood what was going on. They also have Woody's Halloween Roundup going. Over all, it was a great time to go. Although maybe not on the weekend because of the crowds and the weather could have been a bit better.

But I got my churro and my Dole whip so all is good. That is why I go to Disneyland ya know.

It was also our first time staying on property. The Disenyland Hotel was conveinent but you are really paying for the location, not the rooms. They were just fine, but nothing too spectacular. But it was really cool when Chip was standing over by the elevator one morning.I also forgot to mention that we finally saw the prize patrol, not once but twice. This is my fourth trip to the park since they started the prize patrol thing and I've never seen them before. This time we saw them twice. Once when we were leaving the hotel the first day and again the last day in Downtown Disney. We got a "Year of a Million Dreams" lanyard and pins and also a "Year of a Million Dreams" mouse ears. Not too shabby.

Read on to hear about the rest of our vacation. I'll post more about our other big news tomorrow.

Moving Day

2008-10-19T19:57:00.003-06:00

Tuesday was moving day. We spent the morning at Downtown Disney eating breakfast at the Rain Forest Cafe and blowing a wad at World of Disney.

Then we waved goodbye to Mickey and headed south the San Diego. We thought we left late enough to miss traffic but we didn't account for an accident in San Clemente that shut down I-5 or for a fire on Camp Pendleton that might as well have shut the freeway down. A.J. got car sick on the way down and we had to make another unscheduled stop to take care of that.

Our first stop in San Diego was Old Town. James and I discovered the Old Town Mexican Cantina on our first trip to San Diego and have been back each time we've gone. They have fresh homemade tortillas that you can watch being made right in the front window. The only problem, somewhere in the last ten years, they decided they need to put cilantro in everything. Who came up with that idea anyway?

Then we checked in at the Bahia Resort. The resort is a bit on the old side, but we were extremely pleased with the size of the room and the location. I would stay there again. They have their own private beach on Mission Bay and it is just a short walk to Mission Beach as well.

That evening, A.J. and I walked to Mission Beach to watch the sun set. It was so beautiful. It ended up being the only time we spent on the beach. A.J. enjoyed putting his feet in the water and I enjoyed watching him and watching the sun slip behind the Pacific Ocean. Here are some pictures:

Shamu! Shamu!

2008-10-19T19:37:00.004-06:00

Wednesday meant Sea World. James and I went to Sea World years ago and didn't really enjoy it. Let me just say, it is sooooooo much better with a kid in tow. Even though he was whiny and told us he wasn't going to have any fun.

James favorite show was the Dolphins but A.J. and I loved the Shamu show, Believe. Even though we sat in the "Wet zone" and didn't get a drop of water on us, it was spectacular.

There are only three "adult" rides at Sea World. Wild Arctic is a helicopter simulator ride that is kind of like a weak version of Star Tours. I got a bit sick, but not too bad. We got drenched on Shipwreck rapids (just fine since it was very warm that day). Then there is Journey to Atlantis. I don't even know how to explain it except that I read it is Splash Mountain meets the Matterhorn. Very different ride. Lots of fun and pretty wet. Here's A.J. and I on it:

They also have a new area with a Sesame Street theme with some kiddie rides and a big play area. And of course, a character greeting area where we got to give Burt, Ernie and Cookie a big hug!
All in all, a fun day. We will be going back to Sea World again someday, but not too soon.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2008-10-19T19:11:00.003-06:00

Thursday was our San Diego Zoo day. I love this zoo! So many cool animals to see that our local zoo either doesn't have anymore (polar bears and hippos) or never had to begin with (Pandas and Koalas). The exhibits are amazing and you can just tell the animals are well taken care of.

This was my third time at the zoo and we actually got to see the Pandas this time. The first time we went, the line was too long. The second time we went, the exhibit was closed because there was a new Panda cub. I've seen them other places, but this time, there was no line and all the Pandas were out frolicking and eating.

A.J.'s favorites were the hippos. They were really active when we saw them, swimming around and playing with each other. We had to wait a few minutes to see the polar bears, but it was worth it when they came out and started eating and walking around. And of course, who doesn't love the Koalas. We even got to see a mommy and her little joey.

Here's some fun pictures from our day:

Just monkeying around

We warned A.J. to never smile at a crocodile.

It was a great day, with great weather and our feet weren't too worse for the wear. We went back to the hotel to swim and hang out and get to bed early to be ready for another day of adventure.

Come On Let Me Take You on a Habor Cruise

2008-10-19T16:48:00.008-06:00

Friday was all about the San Diego Harbor and Beach.

We started the day on the USS Midway, a decommissioned air craft carrier that has been turned into a museum. This was all for James who loves military history. It was very interesting though and A.J. enjoyed it too. The tour goes through the bunking quarters to see how the sailors lived when they were on board. Can't believe how little *personal* space there is on such a big ship.

We took our turn being locked up in the brig:

A.J. took a turn in the *Boss* chair in the air traffic control center of the tour:

And a turn at the wheel: The hanger and the flight deck also have a few dozen aircraft. Of course, A.J. and James both loved that part. Here's A.J., ready for take off:

Next, it was on to the Harbor Cruise. Last time James and I visited San Diego, this was the favorite part of our trip. We took the two hour cruise that features both the North Bay and the South Bay. I love the North Bay with it's views of Downtown and Shelter Island and Point Loma. James loves the South Bay with it's views of the ship yards and Coronado. We also saw sea lions, lots of birds and several different airplanes and helicopters taking off from the US Naval airbase. A.J. thought the whole thing was great until we didn't get off the boat after the first half. Here we are at the front of the boat headed out toward Shelter Island:The USS Tarawa was coming into port while we were out on the cruise. We got to see it come all the way from the entrance to the bay, all the way down to where it went into the pier. We even got to see a Navy patrol boat push a sail boat out of the way that got too close to the ship. Here's James checking out the Tarawa.

After the Harbor Cruise, we went back to our hotel and walked to Belmont Park -- an old fashioned amusement park right at Mission Beach. We rode the old fashioned wooden roller coaster a couple of times and the bumper cars a few times. But A.J.'s favorite ride was this one that went up and down randomly called the vertical plunge:

They really made what out of Legos?

2008-10-19T15:27:00.007-06:00

The last day of our trip was spent at Legoland. We had heard a lot of mixed reviews of this place. We put it on and off our agenda several times but in the end we went. No regrets from me. I think A.J. might have liked it better than Disneyland.

I felt like I was at a serious disadvantage here, because I know how to do Disneyland. I know what rides to hit first thing in the morning (before the crowds) and I know what is just not worth waiting in any line for. Not so at Legoland. It's all new and no one has written an "unofficial guide" yet. But we did our best. We started out the day going to the right (because I'd heard most people go to the left first).

The best ride there is the Technic Coaster -- a great little coaster that is tame enough that A.J. didn't hide, but with a bit of a "wild mouse" flavor to it. The worst ride was Treasure Falls -- a log flume ride that was too short, too wimpy and too slow loading. Of course, the degree to which we liked these rides is almost directly propotionate to how long we spent in line waiting for them. We hit the coaster first and walked straight on. We hit the Log Flume ride around noon and waited 45 minutes for a 30 second ride. When I saw the sign that said it would be 45 minutes from this point, I thought it couldn't be possible. You could see the loading point for the ride and it wasn't that far from the end. But it's about the slowest loading ride I have ever seen!

But my most favorite part of the day was running into (well, actually she ran into me) my *old* friend Ali Paxton (or as I like to call her, my friend formally known as Alice-Marie) who was also in Legoland with her family. We were waiting in line for the Knight's Joust and I heard this "Excuse me, can I get up there with my family." I knew that voice sounded too familiar and her kids looked familiar to me too. How ironic. We grew up together in Martinez and now we both live in the general Salt Lake area, but we had to go to Southern Cali to run into eachother. I wish I had thought to take a picture.

The thing that I loved the most about the park though was Miniland USA. I wasn't prepared for how much I would love to see some of USA's great cities and landmarks made entirely out of Legos. New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Las Vegas etc. I just couldn't stop taking pictures of all the little buildings and all the details put into them. Here's my beloved San Fran:

Over all, I would recommend Legoland to anyone with little kids who have had any exposure to Legos. The rides are geared for younger kids (very little for the true thrill seeker) and there are lots of places to get really wet if that is on your agenda. Here are some more pictures:
A.J. fighting Lego Darth Vadar with a Lego light saber with Lego R2D2 standing watch.

A.J. and James with Lego Indy.

One of many water themed areas of the park.

A.J. got eaten by a Lego Lion!

We stayed the last night in Santa Ana, very near the John Wayne Airport. Not fun to have to move again, but we still had to get up before 6:00 a.m. to make our flight this morning and any earlier might not have been worth going to bed for. It's good to be home though. We have lots to do this week!

R.I.P. Curls

2008-10-07T11:49:00.007-06:00

I love A.J.'s curls. James loves A.J.'s curls. I love that they are big and soft. They are so much a part of who he is. Or should I say they were so much a part of who he is.

Last Friday, A.J. was upstairs being too quiet. I should have suspected something, but I was sick and was enjoying the peace and quiet for a few minutes. When he came down stairs, this is what I saw:

It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but he cut the front part of his hair, almost down to the scalp. I asked him why he did it and he said it was because he hates his curls. Too sad.

This is what he looks like now:

Maybe I will be able to convince him to grow them back someday. This does kind of expose his scar a bit, but he's not worried about that at all.

One more picture to show. This is how we found A.J. when we went in to check on him after he was asleep on Sunday night:

Yep, that is the head from his Rolie Polie Olie costume that he wore for Halloween when he was two. And while he doesn't usually sleep with that on his head, he does really sleep with all of those animals and blankets everynight. He calls them his "family." We call it his nest.

Cousins and Math

2008-09-24T20:34:00.005-06:00

My brother Hyrum and his family are in Utah this week from Houston. They stayed with us this weekend for a couple of nights. We are mostly just glad they survived Hurricane Ike and were still able to get here.

A.J. loves to have company here and all the better if they are cousins. He tends to get a bit wild though running around and being LOUD! When I took him to school on Monday, I couldn't believe how quiet the house was, even though Reed and Lucy were still here. Here's some cute pictures of A.J. and Reed playing the Wii and Lucy being cute and silly.

A.J. has had a string of naughty days this week too. If it doesn't get better soon, watch for us on Super Nanny. Seems to happen more when James is gone. He'll be back Friday and maybe things will get better.

But twice in the past week or so, he has brought me some math workbooks off the book shelf and told me he wants to work on them. Another sign that A.J. is adopted is that he wants to do math for fun. He didn't get that from me for sure. Here's the proof:

TGIF

2008-09-19T16:09:00.008-06:00

We managed to survive another busy week. I swear I don't know what makes me feel like I am so busy all the time. It could be that I waste too much time on splitcoaststampers.com but I haven't even done that too much this week. So here is a look back at the week that was:

Sunday- We had regional conference. One thing about living in the Salt Shaker is that these regional conferences take place at the Conference Center. Another thing about living in the Salt Shaker, it is really easy just to skip conference all together. No one will notice if you're not there. I know that's not the right attitude to have, but we didn't go. I still had a headache; James had to catch a flight at 12:30 p.m.; and A.J. simply said he didn't want to go. I spent the day finishing up a swap and creating some projects for an upcoming class. We also watched musicals: Singing in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and My Fair Lady. Of course we found out later that Pres. Monson was the presiding authority at conference. Here's the swap I did. It uses one of Stampin' Up's exclusive Big Shot dies (that was the theme of the swap) and that basket on the front is actually a gift card holder.

Monday and Tuesday - Two weeks ago, I did a Super Saturday for my friend Brynelle. I ended up having 29 sign ups to do my "Countdown to Christmas" Cookie Sheet calendar. And if that wasn't enough, there were two ladies there who wanted to make seven more. So I spent Monday spray painting cookie sheets and cutting out letters and tags for the calendars. I ran out of spray paint and ribbon and had to go buy more. (Too bad Lowe's doesn't sell 1/8" red grosgrain ribbon.) Tuesday, these nice ladies came and spent about four hours putting them together. Of course the house had to be presentable and A.J. had to get to and from school with his homework done in the mean time.

Wednesday - Conquer the craft room day! With my brother Hyrum coming to visit, I actually had to finally address the disaster in my craft room that had spilled over to the guest room. I spent the afternoon and evening digging out the bed in the guest room and making room in the craft room for the play-n-pack for my niece. I also rented "Pushing Daisies" on DVD and fell in love with that cute, clever, quirky show.

Thursday - Two other ladies that I met at Super Saturday wanted to pay me to use my Cricut. So they came over Thursday morning to do more than 200 letters and tags. So the house had to be straightened again (really, you'd think that I could just keep it straight, but that just doesn't happen.) A.J. was almost late for school because their list was so long. Then my neighbor Jen and I went to Michael's for the photo boxese that were on sale and NPS in search of UHU glue sticks. (We struck out BTW at both places). Last night was our first school activity -- Skate Night (a Whittier Elementary tradition). Of course, A.J. doesn't skate and I'm afraid to think what might happen if I got on skates, but most of the kids ride their scooter. I even won a prize for joining PTA. (Four free kids meals at Carl's Jr!) They had this bubble "pit" that the kids could play in for $2 for 10 minutes. Here's A.J. near the end of his time. Can you tell he hated it? ;)

That brings us to today, Friday: Hyrum and his family arrive tonight. This morning we went grocery shopping (which I almost never do with A.J. anymore) and to the bank. Fridays are early, short days for him. Tara called to give me an update on the "California Girls" and we were almost late for school again. (I really do appreciate Tara's update calls though. I've been a slacker friend lately, but I really do think of you all often!) And in a bid to win mother of the year, I neglected to put something in A.J.'s backpack that was suppose to go back today. (We all knew I wasn't going to win anyway.) This afternoon, I cleaned bathrooms and made beds and right now I should be straightening the house once again.

Add to this trying to sell off a bunch of stamps and other craft supplies on the BST boards and dealing with Paypal and making a few runs to the post office, and it has been a busy week. James gets home tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully next week won't be so crazy. But there is little hope for that. James takes of again Tuesday for a few days; I have hostess club here on Thursday; and I am going to a shoebox swap next Saturday. Oh well, three weeks til vacation!

Random Ramblings

2008-09-10T19:36:00.004-06:00

There have been lots of times in the past week, I've thought, I should blog about that. But then it doesn't seem that important or like I could make a whole post out of it. So here are some of those random ramblings.

Update on School: A.J. has survived the first seven days of school and only had a time out one other day. He finally found out his buddy's name is Caleb but now he is friends with a little boy who doesn't speak any English. He told me today that he doesn't know enough Spanish or French to talk to him. I'm guessing it's Spanish. But I am happy that he is making friends and reaching out to someone speaks a different language.

NECLISBROC: This morning, I was taking a shower and A.J. kept knocking on the bathroom door. I told him to hold on. When I got dressed and came out, he handed me a note that said, "NECLISBROC." I thought it was cute, but had no idea what it meant. He said it was a "sorry note" and read it to me. "Necklace Broke." How can you be mad at that? Actually it can be fixed and kudos to him for telling the truth.

Happy Birthday: James turned 35 on Monday. He's so hard to shop for so I have resorted to Best Buy Gift Cards for him for every occasion. We went to dinner at the "Peanut Place." (Texas Roadhouse, our favorite!) Then we came home to have sing happy birthday and have cake. Before we had A.J., we wouldn't have cake for out birthdays. But he knows they are required. And since it is one of my favorite things to eat, I don't mind so much.

So that's what happens when I have Caffeine: I've had a pretty bad headache since Sunday. I generally can work through them, but this one as really been a doozy. Several friends (including a my pharmacist friend Angie) recommended something with caffeine in it like Midol or Excedrin. I stopped drinking anything with caffeine in it when I was in High School because it always gave me a stomach ache. But I was desperate to try anything and I thought the stomach ache might be better than the headache. I went to the store and bought Excedrin Migraine formula. Well, it did take the edge off for a few hours and allow me to get somethings done. But even though I took it at 1:30 in the afternoon, I could NOT go to SLEEP last night. I think I may have gotten four hours of sleep in two, two hour increments. I am feeling it tonight. And now I have a fatigue headache instead. (It also explains why some of these ramblings might not make sense.)

A Year Later: This week marks my first anniversary with Stampin' Up! It's been better than I ever imagined. I love that it is my own thing and I can do whatever I want with it and have all kinds of fun toys to play with. I still love stamping and I love sharing it with others. But I am only going to keep at it as long as I am having fun.

Speaking of getting something done and Stampin' Up! So after I took the Excedrin, I set out to finally figure out this really cute project that I received in a convention swap from one of my new friends. It is a "Glass Slipper." Of course, it isn't really glass. It's made of velum and lined with blue card stock. We are making them at a class I am doing in October, but it turned out so cute, I have to share it here too:

Online Ordering is AWESOME!: Stampin' Up! started online ordering yesterday morning for customers. Yesterday afternoon, I got a notice that someone had already made a purchase on my website! So cool. Someone over on Splitcoast suggested that now our customers could shop naked if they wanted too. That is just fine with me, but I really don't want to know about it.

I still have a lot more I could say, but I can hardly keep my eyes open and I need to get A.J. to bed. So more random ramblings another day.

First First Day of School

2008-09-02T20:44:00.005-06:00

It's official, A.J. is in Kindergarten. Whoa! I've been looking forward to this day as a chance for some mommy time and a chance for A.J. to learn and grow, but I don't think I was really prepared for this day.

It started yesterday when we went shoe shopping. In late June, I bought him some sandals and dressier casual shoes and I bought size 2 and they were plenty big. I figured it had only been two months and 2s would probably be about right. Wrong! He needed a size 3! I got a little emotional thinking that I was sending my baby to kindergarten in size 3 shoes! He is just getting so big!

I definitely wasn't prepared for the terror I felt sending him off through the kindergarten doors. When he started preschool, I was a little sad about the milestone. But preschool was a small, safe environment. Miss Kathy loved A.J. and it was easy for me to leave him at her home for a few hours a couple of days a week.

Kindergarten is huge! So many kids, so many outside influences on A.J. that I have no control over. (Uh oh! I sound like a control freak!) I've heard A.J.'s teacher is wonderful and just what he needs, but will she love A.J.? A.J. said he was going to tie me to his backpack so I had to go with him. I almost agreed, but didn't want to make a bad impression on the teacher the first day.

Hopefully, I am just a first time mom going through normal first day jitters. A.J. survived the day and even made three friends. When I picked him up from school, he was with a little boy who is about half his size. I asked A.J. later what his name was and he told me he didn't know but that he called him Buddy.

His teacher did say that he had a little trouble today and three time outs for goofing off and being silly when it was time for an activity. Hopefully he will settle down and get into the classroom routine quickly. Otherwise we'll be spending a lot of time with the principal I'm afraid over the next 13 years!

Summer Wrap Up

2008-08-31T18:40:00.007-06:00

Yikes! Can't believe it has been six months since I last posted an update! So much for new year's resolutions.

But today is August 31. Pretty much the end of summer. So here are just a few snippets of what our summer has been like:

Failed camping attempt: At the beginning of June, we tried to go camping at Crystal Hot Springs. We loaded up the car Friday midday and headed up. Pitched our tent, and hit the mineral pools. Then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. The only problem, we didn't plan for my allergies and A.J.'s cold. Saturday morning I woke up miserable, sneezing non stop and with itchy eyes and nose. And A.J. woke up with pink eye. We packed it up and headed home to find a doctor. So much for camping this summer!
Work, work work: June was just a crazy month over all. James was working or traveling all the time. We were all glad when July rolled around and he was home more often.
Just keep swimming: A.J. took three sessions of swim lessons this summer. He started out strong and passed level 1 with flying colors. Then his urge to goof off in the water took over and he still didn't pass level 2 after the second go around. But I feel strongly that he will keep taking lessons. I don't want to tell him he can't go to swim parties when he is 9 because he doesn't know how to swim.
Raise those eyebrows: A.J. started physical therapy for his face. We've heard lots of good things about retraining the muscles to compensate for the nerve damage. We were blessed to find a great physical therapist who specialize in facial therapy right here in Salt Lake. (Even if A.J. is the youngest patient she has ever worked with). The next closest one is in Orange County, CA. So now we spend 10 minutes every day practicing smiling without closing his eye and sticking his tongue straight out.
Cache Valley or Bust: At the end of June, A.J. and I got to go to Logan for the weekend for my cousin David's mission farewell. I love Cache Valley and it was great to spend time with my Aunt LeAnne and her family. I spent so much time with them when I was in college that I am closer to them than any of my other cousins. We took the Wii with us and introduced her family to the joys of Wii bowling, tennis, etc.
Cubs is a bust: I finally had a total break down over the whole cub scout thing and ended up getting released. Still not entirely sure what I had to learn from the whole experience other than I am not cut out for cub scouts. But I did get to fill in a lot for the Primary Chorister this summer (which I love to do!) and I got called to teach Relief Society! I almost gave out a big "Woo Hoo" right in the bishop's office. It's one of my favorite callings and after the whole cubs fiasco, I feel like it really is a celestial vacation.
B-W Adventure 2008 edition: It took a couple of tries and a whole lot of flexible planning, but we did manage to have a fun staycation with the Butlers this summer. They were suppose to come at the beginning of July but Darren hurt is back in a car accident so it turned into the end of July. We had big plans to go to Lagoon and Park City, but Darren's back was still giving him trouble, so we scaled back, but still managed to entertain the kids and the adults. Tera and I got to stamp and go shopping, the boys got to go to the movies and we took the kids to the Children's Museum and Liberty Park. We are lucky to have them for our friends and adventure buddies!
July=swapping, convention style: Since Stampin' Up is located right here in Riverton, UT, they held their 20th Anniversary Convention in Salt Lake City the end of July/beginning of August. That means that I got to go! (I never would have gone if I had to pay for airfare and a hotel room). But I got a little carried away signing up for organized swaps through Split Coast Stampers and spent most of July (and June for that matter) making over 300 swap items. But convention was awesome! I got to meet some of my "virtual" friends and I learned that I am not the craziest person when it comes to stamping either. There were 7000 others just like me (dare I say some are even crazier?) all crammed into the Salt Palace! And I came away with lots of good ideas and things I wanted to buy. But it also inspired me to keep my business going. I am looking forward to next year, but I won't sign up for soooooo many swaps this time either. Here's a picture of my friends Amy and Amanda from Boise and Angie from North Carolina and me at convention:
Watch for him in 2028: We watched the Olympics religiously. It brought back so many memories of our own Salt Lake Olympics. We cheered when Michael Phelps won the gold by a fingernail and when the Redeem team lived up to their hype. A.J. can't wait until 2028 when he is going to win a gold medal in Volleyball, Basketball, Swimming, Diving, and Running. I told him he better start eating his vegetables.
August is a blur: I just asked James what we've been doing for the past month and neither of us can remember. So must be a whole lot of nothing. Actually, James spent a week working a special enforcement and then spent two weeks in Virginia. A.J. entertained himself by playing with matches and dialing 9-1-1 (not on the same day, and not related.) The new Stampin' Up Catalog came out and I signed up for a few more swaps through the mail. (Don't worry, I am a card carrying member of SA (Swappers Anonymous)).

Too bad I didn't take more pictures this summer. Not sure what that was all about. And now things we are looking forward to in the next few months:

51 weeks and counting til first grade: A.J. starts Kindergarten on Tuesday! I know I will be sad for a few minutes but then I will enjoy it and start counting down til he's in school all day!
They are really letting him represent the USA?: James is off to El Salvador in a few weeks to do some training. He said to me yesterday, "Can you believe they are really sending me to El Salvador to represent the United States?" I said, "Why not, the LDS Church sent you to Canada as a representative when you were 19!" First he is going to a golf resort in Scottsdale for a "conference." (Did I really type that. Sorry that is just what I was thinking.)
Cousins: My brother Hyrum and his family are coming to visit in just a few weeks. A.J. doesn't get to see his cousins too much so we are looking forward to seeing them while they are here.
A Date with Mickey: we started out planning a trip to San Diego for October, but we just couldn't get the flights right into San Diego. But we could get perfect flights into Orange County, and they were offering amazing deals at the Disneyland Hotel so we took that as a sign. We will still be going to San Diego, but making a little stop at the happiest place on earth first. Can't wait!
PJ's Cozy Creations is back: That's right, my neighbor Jen and I are going to start gearing up for our holiday boutique.

Once again I will try to update a little more often. That is if anyone is still reading this.

Shiver Me Timbers!

2008-02-24T17:58:00.004-07:00

Tomorrow is A.J.'s fifth birthday. To celebrate, we had six of his closest friends over for a Pirate Party yesterday. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! I found the directions for a great pirate cake at familyfun.com and had to make some modifications so that I could make it work. But I think it turned out really cute. Not professional for sure, but fun nonetheless.I fashioned A.J. a DI pirate costume and our neighbor Jen made some balloon swords. A few extra pirate accessories from the party store rounded out the costumes. We played Parrot, Parrot, Pirate (think Duck, Duck, Goose) and Musical Islands (musical chairs with hoola hoops instead of chairs) and we had a treasure hunt. And of course, in A.J.'s opinion it's not a birthday party if there is no pinata involved. Here's our little swashbucklers ready for battle:I wish I had a picture of the invitation. I still have to get one of those. It was a message in a bottle. Really A.J. had no choice but to have a pirate party. Once I bought the Ahoy Matey set from Stampin' Up last fall, I knew he had to have this party so I could use the set. I'm just glad I was able to convince him it was his idea!

Legacy

2008-02-12T19:57:00.002-07:00

I just returned from St. George, Utah. The good news is I got to see all my mom's extended family, some I haven't seen in years. The bad news is we were all there to pay our final respects to Grandpa Mac. He passed away on February 2 at 90 years of age. We've been expecting it for weeks, if not months so it was no huge surprise, but it is still hard to go through it. The hardest part has been watching my mom and aunts and uncles go through it all.

During the funeral, my mom and her siblings each talk about their father and all that he accomplished in his life. In addition to his role as father and grandfather and great-grandfather, he was a professor of agronomy, a scout master, a bishop, a stake president, a mission president and a master gardener. He set the bar high and he expected a lot from his students, his scouts, his missionaries, his ward and stake members and his family. But he was very proud of everyone's accomplishments too. You could tell by how far he would travel to see one of his grandchildren receive an award or get baptized or even just perform in a play or a recital. That also showed his deep love for each of us. He loved the outdoors and wanted to share that love with all of us. And you never had to wonder if Grandpa had a testimony because he lived it every day of his life.

Some of the things I remember about grandpa include the anticipation of a visit from him and grandma and how he would play the "banjo" on us as kids and rubbing his whiskers on our faces. I have fond memories of visiting Yellowstone, Zions, Snow Canyon and many other beautiful places with him as our guide always pointing out the vegetation during the day and the stars at night. I remember how emotional he became when he talked about his family and his testimony, especially in the past several years.

I call all these things Grandpa's Legacy. I watched my own brother lead us on a hike in Snow Canyon this weekend and point out things to my son that I had over looked. I see my parents travel to be there for all of their grandkids important events. I find myself emotional when I talk about my family and my love of the Savior too. All of us following his legacy.

And it has made me wonder what legacy I am building for my family. What will A.J. remember about me? Today he thinks I am mean because he's been in trouble most of the day. But will he know of my testimony and my convictions?

I guess the point of all of this is to live today as you will want to be remembered when you are no longer around. That is our legacy.

In Tribute: President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

2008-01-28T10:52:00.000-07:00

It's a sad day for members and friends of the LDS faith. Our beloved prophet, President Hinckley passed away last evening.

I don't know what I can add to the tributes that have been and will be paid to him in the next few days and weeks. He was an amazing man who led the LDS church through unprecedented growth and helped it shine bright in the spotlight. Whether he was touring the world dedicating one of the numerous temples he oversaw the construction of, or on Larry King Live or 60 Minutes, you could feel his love for the Savior, for the Gospel and for all it's members, as well as his love and concern for all humankind. He will be greatly missed.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by his passing. After all, he was 97 years old. But in some ways I thought he would live for several years to come. His strength seemed to continue into his final days and weeks. Just three weeks ago, he offered the dedicatory prayer for the newly remodeled State Capitol building. While he carried a cane, he was also known to wave it to crowds instead of actually using it to walk.

He will be greatly missed, but it is comforting to know he is with his wife and other family members who passed before him. And it is comforting to know that the great work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will continue under a new prophet as it always does.

Really not trying to turn this into a medical blog. . .

2008-01-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

Seems like doctors and hospitals continue to dominate our lives these days. But maybe we are getting to the end here soon.

A.J. had his ear surgery yesterday. It only took an hour in the operating room and there were no surprises so it shouldn't have been a big deal at all. Except, try telling that to a four year old who had major surgery six months ago.

He did NOT want to go yesterday morning. He started crying before we left the house and the only way we were able to get him in the car is to bribe him with any DVD he wanted to watch on the way up. He didn't want anything to do with anyone once we got to the University of Utah Medical Center either.

When the anesthesiologist came in to see us, he definitely agreed he was a prime candidate for Versed. But it was an hour and a half before they came to give that to him because they were running a little late on the surgery start time. We tried to pass the time with TV but he kept asking why he had to be there and why he had to have another surgery.

But once the Versed kicked in, it was a little comical. We asked him how he was feeling and before he always said scared. But with the Versed talking, he said, "Happy!" I asked if he was still scared and he said yes, but that he was still happy.

After, he was very out of sorts. When they brought me back to recovery, I could hear him crying as soon as I entered the room. He had no idea that the surgery had already happened, but he was very mad. It took about an hour for him to get completely calmed down and that was only after they took the IV out and he put his own clothes back on and he was convinced we were really going home. I think that is when he finally decided that it wasn't that bad after all.

But he's been a complete trooper with the pain too. He says he isn't in any at all. He had one dose of Loritab before we left the hospital, but nothing but his antibiotic since we've been home. I kept him home from preschool today, but not sure I'll be able to keep him down much longer.

We won't know for sure how much hearing this will restore because we have to wait for the swelling to go down and that could be months. But we are very happy to have this behind us and we are really glad we did it now before he starts school.

Strep Again

2008-01-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

A.J. and I just got back from the doctor's office. We both have strep throat. Again!

A.J. never complains about pain. He's has had a yucky nose for almost three weeks and a cough for almost two. The PA we saw took one look at his ears and said they were infected. He actually didn't do a throat culture on him because he kept saying he didn't want that swab down his throat. Who can blame him, it is yucky!

But my quick strep test came back positive. And since I have it, and A.J.'s tonsils are inflamed and his glands are swollen, they are treating him too.

I actually didn't want to go to the doc because I was sure it wasn't strep. I had strep the week of Thanksgiving. I was in way more pain, and I had that achy fever thing going then too. I knew that was strep. None of that this time, just a sore throat, congestion and fatigue. But James suggested I go and then my mom convinced me. After all, it is Friday and did I really want it to go all weekend? And it turns out I was wrong!

The good news is, within eight hours of being on the antibiotic last time I started feeling better. I am counting on that this time too.

Family Health Woes

2008-01-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Last year was just not a good health year for James' family. First there was everything we went through with A.J. with more specialist than anyone should ever have to see in a life time.

In April, James' mom had a cancer scare. Thank goodness it turned out to JUST be a grapefruit-sized ovarian cyst but it was removed on the same day it was discovered in emergency surgery just to be sure. She was off of work for about six weeks afterwards.

James' dad had all kinds of medical issues that while none of them were too severe, he ended up missing lots of work including the last two weeks of the year with a mysterious foot infection.

Then James grandmother had a stroke in October that took away her independence. Then she started getting UTI's that were very difficult to control. She past away the Friday before Christmas.

And it spread a bit to my family too. My grandfather has had two strokes in the past three months.

We kind of thought that with the New Year, the worst was behind us and that 2008 would be a better year health wise for everyone. But yesterday, James' dad had a heart attack. Tomorrow he will have quadruple bypass surgery.

Maybe 2009 will be better.

Time for some changes. . .

2008-01-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

I don't exactly know why we feel compelled to make new years resolutions. How many of them have you made AND actually kept through the years?

I can think of only one that I have made AND kept. I gave up chocolate as a new years resolution in 1990. Seventeen years later, I still don't eat chocolate because to me, I didn't just eat chocolate, I lived for chocolate. I couldn't buy gas without buying a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. And I couldn't eat just one piece of chocolate ever, I had to eat until there was just no more left anywhere.

The funny thing about it is, even though I don't eat chocolate, I still have the same destructive eating habits. I just substitute everything else for chocolate. Especially caramel, peanut butter and well, pretty much anything sweet that doesn't involve chocolate. I cannot open a bag of red licorice without eating the entire bag in pretty much one sitting. And I've learned to eat around chocolate in lots of things too.

Anyway, I digress, this was suppose to be a post about new years resolutions, not about chocolate or my destructive eating habits.

The new year is several days old now, but with all the chaos of travel, etc, I didn't take the time to commit myself to some resolutions. Heaven knows I will likely break them in a few days time, but if I commit to it here, maybe it will actually happen:

1) Gain control of my destructive eating habits. All that weight I lost 3 years ago is coming back fast. I think our trip was really bad for me this way. There was a lot of sitting around and eating and I have no one to blame but myself. I am not setting a goal to shed 10 lbs, but rather to stop all the never ending snacking. If I did that, the 10 lbs would take care of itself.

2) Kill the clutter that has taken over my home. In the past few months as I have focused on my businesses, the clutter has moved in and overwhelmed me. I find myself moving piles around instead of addressing the stuff that is in the pile. Gotta do something about it before you see me on one of those Oprah shows about hoarding.

3) Build up my spiritual self. In my adult life, I have mostly had callings where I teach gospel principles, causing me to focus on them. But now I've been called to work in Cub Scouts. (Another topic for another post I am sure). Not much spiritual about that. So I am setting a goal now to read the Book of Mormon each week for gospel doctrine class (even though we just finished it a few weeks ago as a family) and read and study the Teachings of Joseph Smith.

4) Continue cultivating my talents but not let myself get burned out. I have a tendency to do something (like paper crafting) very intensely for short periods of time and then get burned out and lose interest or stop doing it because my space gets to cluttered. Gonna try and fight that burn out and organize my space so it in conducive to creativity!

5) Be a better mom. Oh wait, I already blew that one by ignoring my son while I write this post. I guess I'd better leave that one for another day and go see what he wants.

Cheers!

Spoil Fest '07-08!

2008-01-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Geesh. I said in our family Christmas letter that one of my new years resolutions would be to blog more often. And it has taken me five days into the new year to actually do something about it.

But I do have an excuse. Probably not a good one, but one nevertheless. Thursday night we returned from our two week "A.J. Spoil Fest 07-08." We left in the very wee hours of Saturday December 22 and drove to Reno to meet Grandma Lori and Grandpa Richard for breakfast. LET THE SPOILING BEGIN!

Grandma Lori is my very good friend Tara's mother. She has always treated me like another daughter and has always treated A.J. like one of her grandchildren. We love Grandma Lori -- especially when her and Grandpa Richard treat us to breakfast at the Black Bear AND get A.J. a much desired Optimus Prime Transformer for Christmas. Whoo Hoo!

Then we drove three more hours to Grandma's and Grandpa's in Yuba City. Time for some more spoiling! James' mom has A.J.'s favorite treats and there in even a fun cousin (Danielle) to play with! And Grandma even camped out with the kids on the living room floor. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning there too. Did I mention that Grandma bought an 18 lbs ham for us to eat? A.J. was thoroughly spoiled Christmas morning from Santa, mom and dad and of course Grandma and Grandpa. More transformers, lots of movies, a new Leapster and lots of other stuff.

On to the other Grandparents on Christmas day for more presents and more treats. Christmas day also found us going to my Aunt Mary's and Uncle Mark's in San Francisco where they and my brother Eric and his family join in on the spoiling. Mary and Mark's daughter Carol is also one of A.J.'s favorite people and he had been talking about seeing her again for weeks. I tell you what, A.J. is well loved and well gifted.

My parents also spoiled A.J. over the next several days with lots of stories and indulged his endless desire to play Sorry! over and over again. (Can't believe how fast he picked up on that game.) Grandpa even took him to a really cool park to play in Concord.

We finally came home on late Thursday night. But not before another stop by Grandma Lori's and Grandpa Richard's for a little more spoiling. She let A.J. watch whatever he wanted to even when he changed his mind about five hundred times. And let him have all the treats he wanted.

Fortunately for us, A.J. is finally starting to understand that things are different at Grandmas' houses then they are at home. Last time we indulged him like this for several days, he was impossible to deal with when it was over. This time he seems to be taking it in stride. We do appreciate all the spoiling that was done by everyone. Thanks Grandmas and Grandpas.

But the trip wasn't all about spoiling. James' grandmother passed away the day before we left to go out there. She had been very ill for the past couple of months and had gone down hill fast in the last week. She was such a wonderful woman who was so generous with her time, resources and talents. We miss her tons and our trip wasn't the same without Grandma Great there too. But it was a blessing that we were able to be there for the services without having to plan a special trip from Utah.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your kids were just as spoiled as mine. And I hope your 2008 is off to a great start!

Salt Shaker or Snow Shaker?

2007-12-08T16:59:00.001-07:00

Today the salt shaker looks more like the snow shaker. We've had a storm that has just kept giving and giving and giving. Actually, the storm hit on Thursday with a pretty constant stream of rain for about 24 hours. It turned to snow last night and just kept coming. We got about eight inches just today.

I can think of nothing that makes A.J. happier than snow. He can play in it for hours. All he requires is a little hot cocoa afterwards. And if it is Steven's Chocolate Raspberry, all the better.
He especially likes it if our neighbors will come out and play with him too. Addison and McKenna always make everything more fun. And their dad, Ken is just a big kid at heart too and loves to play in the snow the way James and I just don't.
We had a similar storm last Saturday and they played outside for a couple of hours and made this ginormous snowball. Today, they turned that into the a snowman ready to play lineman for the Aggies.James even went out and helped A.J. build a snow fort. Me? I will go outside long enough to take the pictures, than I come right back in to sit by the fire and stay warm. I am just a big wimp!

But I do have to say, there is nothing like fresh Utah powder to put you in a holiday mood. It's so pure and white it just sparkles. Of course in a day or two, it will be ugly, but today I am looking at it and my son playing in the snow shaker.

Giving thanks, A little late

2007-12-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

Today our family celebrated Thanksgiving. A little late I know but on the actual Thanksgiving we were traveling to visit our friends the Butlers and just ate dinner at the Cracker Barrel on our way to Boise.

But Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. A chance to eat really good food and to reflect on the things that we are most grateful for.

So today I cooked up a turkey breast, my famous stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls and my favorite thing this time of year: PUMPKIN PIE!!!

And now for the reflection on what I am most thankful for this year:

1) My little family. A husband who loves, supports and spoils me and a son that has been nothing short of a miracle in our lives.

2) My extended family. My parents who raised me right and my brothers and their families who put up with me. And my in laws and aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents.

3) My friends. I know it is a little corny but you know the saying, "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold." In this instance, I am rich.

4) The Gospel. Goes without saying right?

5) My Country. I worry that it is getting a little less popular to be proud to be an American again. But I am proud to be American and I am thankful for the freedom it gives me.

6) Access to great medical care. Don't know where we would have been this year without some great doctors, Primary Children's Medical Center and an insurance plan that took care of our little boy.

7) Being a SAHM. So grateful that James' employment allows me to be home with A.J. and pursue my interests without putting a huge strain on the family finances.

8) My hobby and little side businesses. Grants me a little sanity and a connection to people. I keep saying it is cheaper than therapy, but not sure if that is really the case. I think our insurance would cover a good share of the therapy.

9) My home. It may not be a mansion, but it suits our little family just fine.

10) Modern convenience. While I take a lot of this for granted, I am thankful for technology and how it makes our lives more convenient.

Really, I love to Blog

2007-11-18T18:25:00.001-07:00

I know you would never guess by how infrequently I've been doing it, but I really do enjoy blogging. I've mentioned before that I love to write, and now that my boutique is over, maybe I'll have a little more time to do it!

Speaking of the boutique, it is finally over. It was almost exactly three months from when I first had the idea until we pulled it off, but we did it. And in my estimations it was a success. My partner Jen (the J of "PJ's Cozy Creations") isn't so sure yet because we are still totally up how much we made after expenses. But for me, it has been so great to have this creative outlet. I was in such a funk for about a month before we started this project and now I feel like I have accomplished something. And all of a sudden it hit me today that people actually pay me to do something I love!! How amazing is that!

And several customers have placed special orders with us so we still have some creating left to do. Just today, a wonderful woman in our ward asked us about putting together three scrapbooks for each of her daughters. Wow!

The hardest part has been pricing things though. We live in a humble area of town, not poor, but most of the people in this area either work for the church or work for the government. (Lot's of police officers, fire fighters and teachers). So they don't have a lot of money to spend on extra things like home decor. We didn't want to price our stuff so high that no one could buy it, while still making enough to make it worth while. Several people told us they thought our stuff was very reasonably priced so I feel a like we hit it pretty close to right, maybe a little low but we decided we'd rather not have tons of stuff left at the end than stuck with a lot of stuff.

But we do still have quite a bit. So if you are on our Christmas list this year, you know what you can be expecting from us!

Now I need to get back to my life as a mom and homemaker. A.J. has been so ready to have this behind us. As a reward, we are going to Hollywood Connection tomorrow afternoon with Jen and her kids and then taking our families out to dinner at Godfather's Pizza.

PJ's Cozy Creations and Updates

2007-10-30T21:43:00.000-06:00

Seventeen days and counting until PJ's Cozy Creations first official Holiday Boutique. And it is pretty much all creating all the time. And everything else is suffering because of it. But we finally got around to taking some pictures of the things we've been working on today so I thought I would share. Here is the group picture with a sampling of the different types of things we've been working on. We just hope that we will be able to sell this stuff to make back some of the money I've invested in it.

And I can't believe I haven't blogged about my other little business venture. But then again, I haven't blogged a lot lately so is it really that surprising? Last month I took the plunge and signed up as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I did it mostly to get the discount on the things I was already buying, but as it turns out, I am doing OK as a business demo too. I have my first workshop on Saturday thanks to my friend Janalee. And as part of our boutique, I will be offering free make and takes and Stampin' Up specials too. Not sure how long it will last, but I do enjoy teaching others the things I love so for now it's a good thing.

In other news, turns out this year's primary program will indeed by my last for now. I was released as Primary President on Sunday. I've actually known for a few weeks this was coming but because there are a few people in my ward who read this blog, I didn't want to post it too soon. When I told A.J. that I wouldn't be going to primary anymore, he asked me for how long I would be gone. I assured him that sometime in the next 8 years, I am sure I will be back in Primary doing something.

While I am really ready for this change, there are lots of things I am going to miss. I love the children in my ward. There isn't a week that goes by that they don't say something that makes me laugh and usually something that makes me think. The kids today know way more about the Book of Mormon and the meat of the Gospel than I ever did as a child.

And it will be really weird to be back in Relief Society again. I know I am going to have to resist the urge to jump up and down in my seat and say "pick me, pick me, I know, I know" when the Relief Society instructor asks a question. But I do think I am going to suggest that we add a wiggle song to the Relief Society meeting. In Primary we use these to settle the kids down. In Relief Society, we need one to wake up and get the blood pumping again! Can't you just see all the ladies in your ward doing "Once there was a Snowman" or "Do as I'm doing?" I think I might be on to something here.

Another OCD Confession . . .

2007-10-23T19:49:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in one of my first posts that I have selective OCD and that some things bring it out way more than others. You can add car shopping to that list.

The summer of 2006 found us on our first two camping trips to the Columbia River Gorge and Yellowstone. These trips had two things in common: rain and a very cramped Subaru Outback. This started us thinking about getting a bigger car that could handle more camping equipment and would be a better "family car."

To me, that meant a minivan. I have lots of friends who just can't bring themselves to drive one because of the statement it makes about you. I say minivans say two things about the drivers: they are parents and they are practical. What's wrong with that? So we did some research and narrowed it down to the Toyota Sienna or the Honda Odyssey. We got a baby sitter and set out for the Southtown Auto Mall to do some test driving.

Our first stop was the Honda dealership. We asked to test drive an Odyssey. The salesman suggested we also drive a Pilot. Sure, why not. We are more minivan than SUV people, but what harm could a little test drive do right?

It was love at first drive. Suddenly, minivans seemed so yesterday and the Pilot was all I could think about. Besides, we only have one child and what if we never get another one? Do we really need a van?

But maybe it was just a passing thing and there would be another great SUV or crossover that could win our hearts over and cost a little less than then Pilot. We visited more dealership and test drove many more cars, only to discover that for us, nothing beat the Pilot.

Then rumors started floating around that Honda was going to redesign the Pilot for 2008 so wouldn't it be better to wait and decide if we like the new body style better? Meanwhile, I discovered that I had friends who were also obsessing about the Pilot and we would feed off each other and then start to convert others. Alas, when the 2008's came out, they were just like the 2007's and we all mourned together.

James just barely tolerates me when I get like this. Besides this went on for 14 months and still no new car. That is until last week when the stars aligned just perfectly. On Tuesday night I just happened on a listing for a used 2007 Pilot with leather interior and a DVD player with less than 10,000 miles on it for a steal of a deal. Turns out the seller had to have a Pilot in February, and then had to have a bigger house in October and her husband told her she couldn't have both. (I myself couldn't imagine picking a bigger house over a Pilot, but I guess there are some crazy people out there!)

It turned out to be the perfect opportunity for us. We were able to get an even nicer Pilot than we ever could have afforded new and we were able to get a loan for the full amount and still afford the monthly payments without touching our baby money. I did kind of have my heart set on an Aberdeen Green one, but turns out I like the Nimbus Gray just about as much. Who knew?

So now our Scubyroo has a new sister named Smokey (yes, we name our cars) and we love our new Pilot! Can't want to try it out on our trips to St. George in a couple of weeks for my Grandpa's birthday and to California for Christmas. It was definitely worth the wait! You'll have to ask James if it was worth all the obsessing!

A.J.'s First Primary Program and Paula's Last?

2007-10-21T20:06:00.001-06:00

Today was Primary Program day in the Hunter 36th ward, and for those of you who have ever worked in Primary, ever had a child in Primary or ever been to a Primary Sacrament Meeting Program, you know what that means. Lots of work, lots of singing and lots of cute kids saying what you hope is the right thing.

I have been reminded of this the past three years by our Bishop. Apparently, five programs ago a primary child stood up and actually said, "Jesus was a bad man so they killed him." Keep in mind that it was our Bishop's first primary program and the Stake President's grandchildren are in our ward so he was there to witness it. I actually missed that program, but it is legendary in our ward. So every year, the Bishop reminds me that under no circumstances is anyone to say that or anything remotely close to it.

This was the fourth straight program I have had a hand in putting together the program in our ward - the past three as president and the one before as chorister. But this year's was a little different because not only did I have the normal role of writing the program and getting everything ready, I also was a proud mom of a budding primary program star.

A.J. had a very simple line, "I can be kind to others by sharing my things." He has been practicing it for weeks and says it all the time. (Unfortunately, I don't think the line has sunk in to impact his behavior yet.) But A.J. is also famous for getting VERY shy in front of crowds. In the three times he practiced giving it from the pulpit, he only said it once and that time I bribed him with a piece of candy.

So when the big moment came, I wondered what would happen. A.J. steps up to the microphone and starts his line, realizes how loud the microphone is and covers his ears and whispers the rest. Well, at least he got up there and gave it a shot.

And there is always next year. Well, for him anyway. Four programs is a long stretch for a leader. So I am not planning on being around in Primary for next year's myself. Then I can truly enjoy being a proud parent of a primary program star without all the stress of wondering whether one of the kids is going to commit blasphemy in front of the stake president.

But really, I was so proud of all of the Primary kids today. We had four or five that opted to sing solos instead of give talks and I was so amazed at how they stood up there and sang their hearts out. And no, no one said anything inappropriate so I am breathing a huge sigh of relief!

Oh, and A.J. was so handsome in his new blue Sunday best. I bought it after Christmas last year for a great clearance price and was so pleased today to see how cute he looked. Don't ya think?

Blog Neglect. . .

2007-09-01T06:44:00.000-06:00

So I know my blog is suffering from neglect lately. I've been so busy being craft crazy that I haven't taken the chance to update what's going on in my life here. Basically, it's all crafting, all the time. And I think A.J. is starting to suffer a bit because of it. But never fear, Preschool starts this week and that give me 3 hours twice a week to have some guilt free mommy time! Couple of updates:

First, A.J. is almost completely back to his normal self. We had our post op appointment on the 23rd and the Doc cleared him for all normal activity. (Actually, that was a formality because there was no keeping him down before that anyway!) The nerve graft hasn't taken yet, but that is completely normal and could take up to 6 months before we see any improvement there. His nerve hearing is normal and the conductive loss isn't as bad as I feared and should be normal once we get the "anvil" fixed. We scheduled that surgery for mid January. We also go see the geneticist on Sept 18. I know we've asked for a lot of prayers before, but we need a few more as we prepare for that too. Mostly that we will find peace in the answer, whatever it will be.

Second, James returns to Georgia for more training this week. Luckily it is just one week, but it is hurricane season so we are keeping our fingers crossed that all storms will avoid the southern Georgia coast before he returns on his birthday next Saturday.

And third, in all the craft craziness, I had to revise my indexing goal for the month of August. But I still managed to get 3000 names done last month. A pretty respectable number. I'm sure I won't get nearly that many done this month though.

I'll post again soon because I have some pictures to share! But today I am off to Midway for Swiss Days! TTFN

Gone Craft Crazy. . . Be back later (maybe)

2007-08-18T22:34:00.000-06:00

So I had a thought the other day. It was one of those very dangerous thoughts that starts innocent enough and then explodes all over your life.

I love to create but I never know what to do with the items I make, so I don't create often enough to really get the creative juices flowing. And since I love to shop for crafty things (almost more than I love to create) I have a lot of excess stuff that could be used to create things. So why not take this love of creating and combine it with my over flowing stash and try to make a little money with it all and host a craft boutique at my home in November and maybe start taking a few special orders here and there?

Then I talked my neighbor Jen into joining me on this craft crazy adventure and with in an hour we had a long list of items to make. Once you've discovered mod podge and chipboard, the possibilities are endless. And both of us lay awake at night thinking of other things we should be making and more uses for chipboard coasters.

This morning, we set out on a child-free (oh so rare for both of us) expedition to a few places to check out a few things, get ideas and of course take advantage of any great deals. Our first stop: IKEA, but Robert's Craft and Hobby Lobby just happen to be on the way so we didn't arrive at there until lunch time. (And can I just mention that I was a Hobby Lobby neophyte and now I think I am IN LOVE!) Then on to Tai Pan Trading and by time we got to Joann's we were pretty punchy and everything started looking like a great deal that we couldn't live without. Thank goodness some wisdom kicked in before we got to the cash register. But I think my stash has grown at least 25% just today!

Anyway, we are excited. We already have our first order for some assorted homemade cards for Jen's grandma. And I know we are going to be pretty craft crazy for the next several weeks getting ready for November. But it is great to have something to be excited about. I've been in a bit of a rut since A.J.'s surgery and this has pulled me out of it a little bit.

Now if I could just get my hands on some chipboard coasters. . .

Lovin' Hairspray!

2007-08-11T20:18:00.000-06:00

When I heard there was going to be a new movie version of Hairspray, I knew I wanted to see it. But James wanted nothing to do with it. So finally this morning, my neighbor Jen and her 9 year old daughter McKenna and I went to see it.

From the opening number, "Good Morning Baltimore" to the closing number, "You can't stop the beat," the movie is full of catchy songs that get stuck in your head and make you want to tap your toes and dance along. It is impossible not to get sucked into Tracy Turnblad's life with her contagious smile and the fearless way she stands up for herself and others. The actress who plays her, Nikki Blonsky also is just so cute!

And the other actors are simply amazing too. It's hard for me to say who stole the show more, John Travolta as Edna or Michelle Pfeiffer as the evil station manager. Both give the sort of over-the-top performance that is essential in a musical. And boy does Travolta still have the moves -- and a few new ones too! Amanda Bynes and Allison Janney are too funny and Queen Latifah is larger than life as she is in everything she does. And Jen mentioned after the show that if McKenna didn't have a crush on Zac Efron, she did.

Anyway, if you can't tell, I loved the movie and give it a big thumbs up. The message that you should be comfortable in your own skin regardless of it's shape, size or color, and that you should stand up against injustice and prejudice is just as important in 2007 as it would have been in 1962.

Hero Worship

2007-08-08T16:58:00.000-06:00

One of the best things about being the parent of four year old boy is that they think you are really cool. Well most of the time anyway. But in the past couple of days, A.J. has said things that let us know that we are the most important people in his life.

On Monday morning, A.J. was playing something and talking about cutting things and performing other medical procedures and I asked him if he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. Given what he has been through lately, I thought maybe he would want to inflict that kind of torture on others.

He answered, "No mom, a POLICE OFFICER!" (Duh, how could I even suggest that he wanted to be anything other than that.) So I asked him if he wanted to be a "real" police officer. "No, a pretend one so I can work with Dad!" (See in A.J.'s world, real police officers drive police cars and wear uniforms and federal agents are merely pretend police officers.) Of course, we want A.J. to be what ever he wants to be when he grows up, but it is kind of touching that he thinks his dad is that cool that he wants to be just like him.

Then later that day, I was telling him that someday he was gong to grow up and go on a mission and go to college. He said, "Mom, you're coming too right?" I told him, "Of course I will if you really want me too!" Now I know full well that when A.J. is 18, he isn't going to want Mom to be be anywhere near where he is going to college. But it is wonderful now to think that he doesn't ever want to be without his mommy. I'd like him to think that mom is cool for as long as possible.

A.J. always comes up with really cute things to say though. For the past couple of weeks, he has been talking a lot about a baby coming to our house again. Not sure why but it is on his mind right now. The other day he said, "Mom, how long did Addison pray for a baby?" Addison is A.J.'s best friend and her baby brother was born in April. I told him I had no idea how long
she prayed but that she is 5 now so maybe it was a long time. He's also been telling me that he needs a sister. When I asked him why a sister instead of a brother he says because he is already the brother so we need a sister. Hard to argue with that logic.

Caught the Indexing Bug

2007-08-04T17:22:00.000-06:00

Last Tuesday, I was sitting on the couch and noticed the August Ensign was sitting on the table still in the plastic so I pulled it out and started leafing through it. What caught my eye was an article on a new program the church is introducing called "Indexing." I was immediately fascinated by it.

Basically, indexing is related to extraction work, only now anyone with Internet access can help out. You go to www.familysearchindexing.org and download the program, sign up and poof, you are now an official indexer for the church.

This work is in my blood. My Grandma spent many, many hours working in the extraction program for the church. My Aunt Maurine, would use a pencil to press the keys on the keyboard to enter names and places into the computer because her hands were too disabled to type anymore. And I am always saying I need a project to do. This seemed like the perfect thing for me.

Here we are 5 days later and I have already entered 1000 names. The current project is the 1900 census and most of the names I've been entering have been from Mississippi and Texas, but I have also worked on Virginia and Illinois too. Some might consider it mind numbing to endlessly read images and type what they say but to me it is very interesting. I wonder what these individuals and families lives must have been like.

Yesterday, I noticed in a batch from Mississippi there were several widows and widowers in their 20s and I wondered what would have taken so many so young. And then there were the former slaves who didn't even know the month they were born or where their parents were born, or maybe they did, but didn't trust the government enough to share that information. Today as I was entering the name of young boys, I wondered if they later served in WWI and how many of them weren't around for the 1920 census because of that.

I know none of this is actually my business but I am kind of curious. And I also hope that by doing this, I can help someone find information about their family that will provide the missing information they have been looking for. And at least I am not just wasting my time, doing who knows what. I've set a goal to do 4000 names this month and I am well on my way!

Back from Hogwarts

2007-07-31T10:17:00.000-06:00

I finally made it back from a three year journey with Harry and his pals that only took me about a week. But like other rabid Harry Potter fans, nothing else gone done while I was "away:" not laundry or other house work and not much else either.

In anticipation of the movie release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I decided to watch the first four movies and then start re-reading number 5. Two big obstacles got in my way almost immediately. First, A.J. had his surgery and while I could get some reading done at the hospital, I found I was interrupted enough that it made reading hard. The second obstacle was harder to overcome. I didn't much care for Harry when he was 15. He was a little whiny and full of teenage angst. But book seven arrived on store shelves and I knew I had to get through five and six before I could read seven.

Starting last Tuesday, I made myself read 250 pages a day from book 5 so I could finally get it finished. And I probably would have skipped straight ahead to seven, after all I was growing increasingly worried that someone would let slip how seven ends before I got the chance to find out for myself. But I loaned seven to my neighbor to read and she kept telling me, as others had, that I really needed to read six first to refresh my memory of what Harry's mission was in seven.

So glad I didn't skip ahead because all I really remember (spoiler alert for six, if you haven't read it and want to better stop reading now) was that Dumbledore dies and that Harry told Ginny he couldn't see her anymore because he had a dangerous mission to accomplish. I had forgotten all about the horcruxes which are really essential to the whole plot of seven. And I vaguely remembered there was a prophecy, but not what it was.

I finished six on Friday but knew that I had to take a little break because of all the things that had fallen through the cracks while I was engulfed in the world of wizards and witches. After all, we had a Primary Activity on Saturday that I had to be ready for. But as soon as the activity was over, I was right back.

I won't tell you what happens, but I will have to say that I wasn't disappointed by the ending. Thank goodness. I am happy to know now what happens to Harry Potter. But I am also a little sad too because it is all over. No more suspense waiting to see what happens to the "Boy Who Lived." I am intrigued to see what JK Rowling might come up with next. I have never been one to read science fiction/fantasy books before, but the way she writes and the things she comes up with are just amazing to me.

So farewell to Hogwarts, and to Harry Potter and all his pals, at least for now. The fun will start again for us when A.J. is ready to start reading them. I've already told him he can't watch the movies until he can read the books. But that will be a few years.

And now, back to my life. Right now, I'm still trying to remember what I did all day when I wasn't visiting with Harry and his friends. Guess it won't take me too long to figure it out.

My Latest Creation . . .

2007-07-23T13:11:00.000-06:00

My dear friend Vicki's birthday is today. Most years, it comes and goes and I some how seem to miss it. This year, she was in town and wanted to swing by and see us. Better not miss this one! She always tells me she likes the things I make (hopefully she isn't being polite since I made her wedding guest book and luncheon favors for her) so I started thinking late last week about something little I could make for her special for her birthday.

Seems like all of these little projects start out small and go from there. Took a visit to Roberts and Michaels just to get the right stuff for the project. Then since A.J. needed one more R&R day, I spent all of my Sunday putting it together. But I am pleased with the way it turned out.

I got the idea from Splitcoast (where else?) but this was my first attempt at modge podging all the sides of something. Actually the altered lunch box didn't take that long, but then I decided to make the matching cards and I am not sure why they seemed to take so long. But she said she loved it and her and husband were talking about where they could put it in their home. Makes the effort worth it.

Angels Among Us

2007-07-19T12:01:00.000-06:00

We are finally home again after six grueling days at the hospital. Having your child have major surgery is not something I would wish on anyone. However, I have to say that there is no where I would rather have been in this situation that at Primary Children's Medical Center.

From the moment we arrived, everyone was so sensitive to our family's needs. As we prepared for the surgery, Amber, a wonderful Child Life Specialist on staff, came to our pre-op room and helped A.J. understand everything the nurses and doctors where doing. She made that very stressful moment of A.J. leaving our arms for surgery so much easier by holding his hand and walking back with him.

Those next eight hours were very long and very intense. I had barely slept the night before and was so tired but every time I closed my eyes, I pictured my baby on the operating table with his head cut open and I couldn't sleep. We watched dozens of families come and go as their operations were completed and still we sat. Yet there were two wonderful receptionists in the waiting room always full of smiles and cheer who were enough to brighten this very dark moment.

Once A.J. was out of surgery and in the ICU, two more angels in the disguise of nurses helped us through that first 20 hours post op. Tracy was our day nurse and Teresa our night. Both watched out for our boy with such care and compassion that I will never forget them.

Then on Saturday afternoon when A.J. was moved to the Surgical Unit, a whole other group of angels were there to help us. Everyone of them put up with A.J.'s stubborn determination to not take his medicine and not to let us put his eye drops in. A.J. averaged one new IV a day and the IV teams were amazing! I can't even begin to list all the names of all the nice people who took such good care of us.

And we feel very blessed too. During the surgery, our doctor discovered that the growth wasn't causing A.J.'s hearing loss in that ear. He is missing the "anvil" part of his ear and it is repairable. Where before we were faced with permanent hearing loss, we are now looking at his hearing being at the low end of normal. This was a hard way to discover this, but what a blessing to be able to fix it. Even if is does mean more surgery which A.J. insists he doesn't want to have. But this one will be super easy in comparison.

And there was a 14 year old boy, named David, who had surgery the same day A.J. did with the same doctors for a similar, but larger growth on his right facial nerve. His family traveled all the way from Billings, Montana for the surgery and this was his sixth surgery to remove a nerve tumor and he needs at least one more for the same thing on the other side of his head. I can't imagine the sacrifice forced on that family to have to be so far away from home so many times. We are feeling blessed to be only 17.7 miles away from this great institution.

But we still have a bit of the "griff" too. The reason David has had to have all these surgeries is because he has Neurofibromitosis 2 or NF2. This is the genetic disorder that A.J.'s doctors want him screened for. We are trying to take things one day at a time and not get too worked up about it, but at the same time, we can't imagine having to go through this yet again. We have the paper work from the geneticists ready to fill out, but while we know a lot about A.J.'s birthfamily, there is a limit to that knowledge.

In the mean time, we can't come up with enough nice things to say about our doctors, nurses and the rest of the staff at Primary's. I've always heard good things and thought they must be wonderful, but having experienced it first hand, I can say that there are angels among us and they work at Primary Children's Medical Center.

Gray Hairs

2007-07-19T11:21:00.000-06:00

When A.J.'s preschool teacher asked him a few months ago to describe what color my hair was he told her gray. Very funny. I thought maybe he had just heard me complain about all the gray hair that I have and thought that what ever gray was, it was the color of my hair. So then I quizzed him on some things that are really gray around my house. He knew they were gray. Then I asked him to tell me again what color my hair was, and he answered gray.

In the weekend Parade newspaper insert, there was a little blurb about David Gregory, an up and coming news anchor at NBC who frequently fills in on the Today Show. I would describe his hair as gray and thought he was probably in his 40's. Still prematurely gray, but a bit older than me. Turns out he is 36! That is really not that much older than me!

Unfortunately, I seem to have inherited the tendency for premature gray from my mother's side of the family. My Uncle Francis has always had gray hair for as long as I can remember and now he has a beautiful head of snow white hair that makes him look very distinguished. My gray streaks just make me look and feel old!

But it does seem like stress plays some role too. I discovered my first patch of gray hair when I was in my mid 20's. I had been working on a pretty intense project at the Governor's Office that required a lot of late nights and a lot of details to coordinate. Not too long after it was all over, I noticed a gray patch right in my bangs. I was sure the stress from the project had caused it.

The second patch of gray hair seemed to come from the Olympics. I coordinated the creation of a joint information center which carefully balanced the needs of dozens of local, state and federal government agencies. It was several months of intense build up and about four weeks of long days and nights of operations. That gray patch grew right where my part splits on the left side.

Motherhood has blessed me with a few random gray hairs over the past few years, but nothing as stressful as the past week has been for our family. Having a son endure a craniotomy and nerve graft and then spend 5 long days and nights in the hospital fighting the nurses and doctors at every attempt to help him get better was enough to develop two or three more patches of gray hairs on my head. As I look at my hair today, I see way more than I did before we went to the hospital.

The only upside to this whole thing is that maybe I will be blessed with a beautiful head of snow white hair too once it all goes. In the mean time, thank goodness for hair dye!

The Dreaded Griff

2007-07-10T10:33:00.000-06:00

Why is it that women worry? I've had this conversation many times with various friends in the past few months. Even when life if going well and things seem perfect, how many times do we start worrying about when the proverbial "other shoe" will drop. Welcome to the dreaded "Griff" or "Great What if."

I actually learned all about the "Griff" from this wonderful series of books my bookclub read called "In the Company of Good Women" by Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke, and Carol Morris. While the name was new to me, the concept was not. Seems I've had the Griff with me most of my life. When I was younger it was simple things like: What if no one talks to me at school today? What if I forget my lunch again? What if everybody laughs at me?

Then I got a bit older and started worrying about some of life's bigger what ifs: What if I don't get into college? What if my grades aren't good enough to get into grad school? What if I never get married? What if I never have children? What if I only have one child?

It seems like this week, with A.J.'s surgery looming, the dreaded Griff has taken over my life. What if I don't get my boy back after surgery? What if there is brain damage and my brilliant, active boy isn't anymore? What if this is the last chance I have to make memories with my son? What if he really does have neurofibromitosis and we have to do these surgeries for the rest of his life!?!?

Now I know most times the Griff posses irrational questions and often when the more rational "what ifs" come true the outcome is far less devestating that previously feared. After all, I never even applied to grad school and my life has turned out fine.

The chances of anything going wrong with the surgery on Friday are every so slight. Of course the doctors have to tell you about them to cover themselves but sometimes I wish they wouldn't. It only feeds the Griff. I will just be glad when it is all behind us so I can tell the Griff to take a hike!

New Family Pics. . .

2007-07-08T19:12:00.000-06:00

Our adoption caseworker suggested a couple of weeks ago that maybe we needed to update our family photo that is attached to our paperwork. Ugh. The last time I took A.J. to Kiddie Kandids it was a nightmare and I only got one shot that was even half way decent. But we decided that the best time to do this whole thing was before A.J.'s surgery since we don't know how long the left side of his face will be immobile after.

It took us two tries at two different studios, but we got a family picture we can live with:

We got some other fun ones too:
I love the one of A.J. and James together! My boys, or as we call them around here, my bubby and my hubby. These must have been pretty important to me yesterday too because I was pretty upset after we left the first studio without a decent shot. And we ended up going to Sandy to get these taken.

I know some people think we do this too much. After all, we just had a great family picture taken a little more than a year ago and not much about our family has changed since then. I even have the same basic haircut! (Uh oh, must be time for a new one.) They do cost a bit of money too. But I also know that I never regret having them either. And I know I won't regret it this time either.

Of course all of this got me thining about our collage that is part of adoption paperwork too-- probably time to update that as well. But our new computer doesn't have Publisher on it so I've been trying out some new digital scrapbooking software. UGH! I don't know why I can't seem to translate scrapbooking from paper to digital and get it to look balanced and nice. Why is it so hard? Or maybe (more like probably) I am just making it too hard!

Children change EVERYTHING!

2007-07-05T14:32:00.000-06:00

You all know that commercial for Johnson & Johnson products with the tag line, "Having a baby changes everything." It sounds so cliche. That commercial was really big right before A.J. came along. I would hear it and think, "Ya, ya sure. Everything will change. Of course it will." But HOLY COW! There is nothing anyone can tell you, or nothing you can do that really prepares you for how much change is really involved in becoming a parent.

For me, I feel like my adult life is divided into two chapters, B.A.J. (before A.J.) and A.A.J. (after A.J). B.A.J., my career was my life. I worked for the state for eight and 1/2 years in two different positions, both in public relations. But because I was in the right place at the right time, I did more in that time, than some do in 30 years. I wore suits and nylons. I traveled around teaching various aspects of PR and evaluating others work. I was president of my statewide professional organization and helped coordinate an Olympic operations center. I was respected by my peers!

A.A.J., none of that seemed quite as important any more. Motherhood changes the way you think and the way you feel. Movies that I had watched and songs that I had heard many times before, suddenly turned me into a blubbering idiot. Everything I did, I would stop and think, "how is this affecting my child." And the respect of my peers didn't seem nearly as important as the smile on my little boys face when he saw me.

But parenthood brings other changes too. I was reminded of this the other day when I finally cleaned my car. I don't rightly recall the last time it was done but I am sure that James is the one that did it. It all started because A.J. couldn't find one of his GeoTrax trains. (GeoTrax is another obsession around these parts.) Some how he got the idea that maybe it was in the car. I have no idea how or why, but we went out to look for it. Sure enough, it was under the driver's seat, along with several preschool projects, various happy meal toys, enough cheerios to fill a cereal bowl and other assorted necessities of childhood. None of these things would have been in my car B.A.J.

And I just got one of THOSE calls from the pediatrician's office. A.J. has very large tonsils, but I noticed the other day that the right one seemed unusually large and his appetite hasn't been the same since our trip. So I took him to the doctor who asked a million questions about how much pain he was in, how long it has been going on, etc. I knew the answer to exactly none of these questions because A.J. never mentioned anything about it until I noticed it. There was never any fever, or any lethargy or anything else. A quick strep culture came back negative so they sent us on our way. Today the doctor's office calls to tell me that he does indeed have strep throat. That means for who knows how long, I've been exposing every child in the neighborhood to it -- probably losing the respect of all my "mommy peers." Another thing that never happened B.A.J.

Still, I would never trade my A.A.J life for my B.A.J. life. A.J. turned our very upside down world, right-side up! And I don't know very many parents who would change things back to the way they were before their children joined their family either. Once those tiny creatures get into your heart, there's just no turning back. And that's a good thing.

Another confession. . .

2007-07-03T11:51:00.000-06:00

I have another confession to make here. And I know that none of you will think I am the least bit biased when I make it. Here we go: my son is brilliant! Now I know that every mother thinks her children are special and brilliant and all that, but I know it is true about my son. His preschool teacher even told his grandmother that he was the smartest kid in the class and maybe she tells this to all of the moms and grandmas, but we all know it is true about A.J., right? So indulge a proud mother and read on.

Our first clue that we might have a brilliant child came very young. A.J. began speaking before he was a year old. At thirteen months, he could say 13 words, like aluminum and recyclable. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but he’s always been very verbal. This in spite of all the troubles he has had with his ears over the years. Now he always comes up with things to say that make us wonder. The other day he came to me and said, “Mom, I have an interesting problem. Maybe you would like to help me.” What? He’s four years old and he has “interesting problems.”

Right now, A.J. is learning how to read. I knew he would be ready for this before Kindergarten, but this is a bit earlier than I was planning. I never wanted to be a pushy mom but he has dragged me into this early reading madness. We’ve spent hours over the past couple of weeks talking about letters and the sounds they make and what words rhyme with each other. I can see gears in is head really working as he starts to figure it all out.

It’s very satisfying to teach your child something new that you know he will use for the rest of his life, but I don’t know exactly how much credit I can take for his brilliance. It’s the whole nature vs. nurture thing. We've tried to do something right, like read to him early and often, have lots of books in the house, set a good example by reading ourselves. But we've also done things that many experts warn against, like letting him watch too much TV. When it comes right down to it though, I think A.J.'s brilliance comes from nature, not from anything we've done exceptionally well.

Now, raising a child like A.J. isn't all academic joy! Brilliance comes with it's own set of "interesting problems." We bought A.J. a shirt a few months back that sums it up well: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." When we were painting our house a few months back, we had one of the neighborhood girls over to play with A.J. while we worked. After several hours of this, A.J. got bored and went upstairs I thought to go potty. But no, that is not what he had in mind at all. He went up to our room, grabbed my good craft scissors and used them to cut the cord on our TV, while it was plugged in. What would make a 4 year old do such a thing? Curiosity. And just ask my friends about the paint jobs he has done at their homes.

But there are plenty of joys too. A.J has discovered the wonderful world of jokes, just today. The first one, "What does a robot mommy sing to the robot baby? Row, row, row your bot!" And to follow it up, "What kind of key do you use to open a banana? A Monkey!" Of course because I laughed the first time he said them, now he wants to tell me them over and over again. I guess we'll have to find him some new material!

What is happening to 2007?

2007-06-30T19:38:00.000-06:00

I just realized that as of midnight tonight 2007 is half over! Seems like we just had Christmas and already we are closer to next Christmas than we are to last. I guess it's true what they say about time going faster the older you get.

It's been an interesting six months for our little family. We made some changes and improvements to our home that required a steady stream of contractors in and out for about 3 months. I think we are finally finished with all of that (knock on wood). The last repair was done last week and I think we are ready to spend the second half of the year enjoying the fruit of our labors -- well, OK I guess it was mostly other's labors but we did have to write the checks.

And while having several home improvement projects going at once was total chaos, the stress of that was nothing compared to this year's other bump in the road: our little A.J.'s health problem. Most of you know all about it so I don't want to spend too much time on the details here but on July 13, A.J. will have surgery to remove a schwannoma, or benign growth, from his facial nerve.

This is something we've pretty much been dealing with since the first of the year. If I counted right, A.J. has seen 10 different doctors this year, and 8 alone just for this issue. (And that doesn't count all the residents we saw before we saw the doctor we actually had an appointment with.)

We were told at first that it wasn't a big deal, probably just a virus that was causing the facial weakness and that it would go away. I believed that for about 6 weeks, but then when it got worse again around his birthday, the neurologist ordered an MRI. That's when we found out about the growth. Then it seemed like every doctor's appointment we went to, the news kept getting worse and worse. First is was finding out the growth had caused hearing loss in his left ear. Then we found out that his face will never completely get better and that his hearing is as good as it will ever be. And then there was the news that he might have an incurable genetic disorder that causes these growths.

But the hardest thing was finding out how invasive the surgery was going to be. Knowing that two surgeons were going to cut into A.J.'s skull and move his brain out of the way and maybe his middle ear too was just a little too much for me. I cried whenever I thought about it, let alone talked about it. How could this be happening to our little boy? How could his little left dimple be gone forever? And what would happen to him when he gets to Jr. High and all the kids made fun of his crooked smile?

But then the miracle happened. It wasn't the miracle that everyone was praying for, but to me it was a miracle none the less and one that I really needed: Peace. And it seemed to come all at once. Suddenly, my ability to cope and my resolve to get through this increased and I just knew that whatever happened, everything was going to be all right. And I came to realize too that we were lucky to catch this now while he is so young.

Now I know there are hard days ahead. I know when they wheel A.J. off to surgery I will be a basket case. And I know when he comes out of surgery and he's in the PICU with all those tubes and machines, it will be difficult. And then we still needs to meet with a geneticist to find out if he has the genetic disorder and I've heard that can be very nerve wrecking.

But I also know that the prayers of many are going with us to the hospital. We've been touched by the outpouring we've felt from our family, friends and ward members. A.J. has been asking a lot about it lately and getting more and more scared and I keep telling him that everything is going to be all right because so many people are praying for him.

So I guess I do know what has happened to the first half of 2007. I spent a quarter of it at the doctors office, a quarter of it dealing with contractors and half of it rubber stamping.

$6.50 for a Nap. . .

2007-06-29T16:20:00.000-06:00

Yeah! James is home and all is right with the world. His flight got in around 10:00 a.m. so he was able to take the rest of the day off to spend it with us.

James promised he would take A.J. to see Ratatouille, the new Pixar film just out today, when he got back. Sometimes when they go see the latest kids movie, I stay home and take a break. But I had heard such good things about movie, I decided to tag along.

There was only one problem with this: I haven't slept well the past few nights and I guess I was pretty tired. I got about 20 minutes in and could NOT keep my eyes open. I missed about 30 minutes of the film. And to make matter worse, James says I was snoring! Just one more thing to add to my "most embarrassing moments" list.

It was a cute movie from the parts I actually saw. Not as good as Finding Nemo or Cars, but still cute. It was also a little long for A.J. He kept asking when it would be over, but afterwards he said he liked it. Still $6.50 is a lot to pay to take a nap!

When the Cat's Away. . .

2007-06-28T20:48:00.001-06:00

James comes home tomorrow morning from a 2 week work assignment in Virginia. So really instead of typing this, I should be cleaning the house so he doesn't have to come home to chaos. Not that he expects the house to be spotless. Just seems like it the thing to do.

James' job frequently takes him away from home. The longest was five months in 2004, so two weeks should be a piece of cake, right? No matter how long or how short it is, there are certain things that just don't get done around our home nearly as often when James is away, some because he does it and some just because I get lazy.

1. Cooking: I really don't mind cooking. I know some of you would rather do anything than cook, but I kind of enjoy it. However, A.J. would rather eat PB&J for breakfast, lunch and dinner than just about anything else. Me, I can only eat PB&J once a day. Cereal or eggo waffles gets us through breakfast, but dinner is a problem. I am programed to make four servings when I cook so most things last two meals. I don't mind leftovers twice, but I cannot eat Hamburger Helper for 4 meals straight! I'm not exactly sure what we've eaten for two weeks but some how we survived. I am looking forward to James coming home so I can start eating real food again.

2. Grocery Shopping: kind of related to the cooking thing. Yesterday, I went to the Super WalMart for the first time in three weeks! That must be some kind of record for me. I did make a quick trip to Smith's last weekend for a few essentials (we were out of ice cream and popsicles and since I was there I picked up some fresh produce.) Yesterday, I finally had to do real grocery shopping because we were out of Jelly.

3. Laundry: James is a big guy and his clothes take up a lot of space in the laundry basket. A couple of times in the past two of weeks, I realized A.J. didn't have any shorts to wear. How could that be? The laundry baskets are only half full. So I did a few loads a couple of times, but never folded them. That is something that James and I usually do together while we watch TV after A.J. goes to bed. Last night, I finally folded all that laundry and it took me two episodes of Alias to get it all done and put away!

4. Cleaning in general: I mentioned in yesterday's post that I am not a neat freak. Really, I am more of a slob. Now James isn't a neat freak either, but he isn't nearly as much of a slob as I am. And he does plenty to help out in this areas as well. So tomorrow morning, I am going to mop our kitchen floor and vacuum before he gets here. The bathrooms are just going to have to wait.

5. Parenting: OK, I don't give up on being a parent all together. But I sure am a better parent when I get a break once in a while. A.J. actually did awesome the first week. I don't remember that long of a stretch of naughty-step-free days. But this week it all fell apart. There's been a little too much whining from him, and a little too much yelling from me.

Now there ARE a few extra bonuses to James going out of town:

1. Guilty free crafting time. Once A.J. goes to bed at night, I've been known to spend hours down in my craft room. And if A.J. is entertained by a movie or surfing playhousedisney.com, I might get to sneak in a few hours during the day too.

2. I can put whatever I want on our Blockbuster queue. I rented The Holiday (total chick flick!) and I've watched a season and a half of Alias, (now there's a woman who doesn't take nothin' from nobody!).

But we've both really missed James and we are really looking forward to him coming home tomorrow.

UPDATE . . .

My new Stampin' Up catalog has arrived!!!! I was out running errands when I heard the good news so I stopped off at Bry's to pick it up. Oh, I had an order of stuff too which I am usually dying to get my hands on, but the new catalog was way more important! Lots of new stuff, lots of great ideas to "case" or "scraplift." Now I just have to start planning my purchases out over the next several months so I don't go broke all at once!

And one of my errands today was to Costco where I stumbled across a great buy on an awesome tote made by All My Memories. Did I NEED one? Of course not. But did I HAVE to have it? You bet! It was about half off of retail, so who could resist? It kind of looks like an electrician's tool bag that you would see at a hardware store, but it is all dolled up for crafting. I got the black one with pinstripes. So cute!

I have selective OCD

2007-06-27T18:00:00.000-06:00

I have selective OCD. Those who know me well will not be surprised by this confession. I'm NOT a neat freak, germaphob, nor do I have to touch my food to my chin like the guy on Everybody Loves Raymond. But I do have my things that set off this tendency. Maybe it is more like an addictive personality or something. But here are a couple of things that set it off for me.

1. DISNEYLAND! We just got back from the happiest place on earth just a week or so ago. Keep in mind that A.J. is just 4 years old and this was his third time there. This time we went with our good friends Tera and Darren and their two daughters Brynn and Clara from Idaho. Here's a picture of our family by Big Thunder Mountain, one of my favorite rides!

I had to warn our friends when we started planning this adventure that I tend to go a little crazy when it comes to Disneyland and that they may not want their first trip to be ruined by a crazy woman who was gets up at the crack of dawn to get to the park BEFORE it opens. I spent weeks scouring the Internet for tips and trick and then meticulously put together an itinerary that outlined every ride we would go on and when we'd go on it as well as the shows and where we'd eat etc. See, I have a system and if you follow it, you don't have to stand in line more than 20 min for any ride. But I tend to be a little militant about it.

Well, we all survived and Tera and Darren say they even had fun. Not sure they'd ever go back to Disneyland with this crazy lady, but maybe they've learned a trick or two that will help them the next time they do go back.

The other cool thing, A.J. was tall enough to go on most of the rides and old enough to really experience the magic. His new favorite ride is "Soarin' Over California" at California Adventure. After we went on it he kept saying that he wanted to ride "Horin" again (sounds like whorin'). Took us a few minutes to understand what he meant and the poor kid will probably never live that down.

So, my obsession with Disneyland can take a break for a spell. Although, I am already planning our next trip in 2009. After all, the lines for Finding Nemo were too long so we HAVE to go back!

2. PAPER CRAFTING. And lately it's been RUBBER STAMPING! When I started scrapbooking about 9 years ago I purchased some white cardstock, some colored cardstock and a few stickers. I wasn't going to get that into it. Then I bought a few printed papers and some punches, some markers. Then I had to have brads, eyelets, the tools to set the eyelets. . .. You get the picture.

During all this time, I'd have friends invite me to Stampin' Up! parties and I'd fight it off saying I just know that if I buy one thing, I'd have to have it all. Well, I finally broke down about a year ago and bought that one thing and the dam broke. I blame my neighbor Michelle, who introduced me to her SIL Bry who is a SU demo. The rest (and a lot of our money), as they say, is history.

Then my dealer -- I mean demo -- told me about this website called splitcoaststampers.com. HOLY COW! There are other women out there who are just as obsessed about all this as I am. And we feed each others obsession and enable each other by telling each other about all the wonderful things out there that we HAVE to have.

Take for instance the Cuttlebug by Provo Craft. There have been die cut machines out there for years and I never had too much trouble avoiding purchasing one. I spend a few weeks reading what everyone is saying about this cute little machine and seeing what they are making with it and suddenly I am dreaming about it and thinking about it all day long. I finally had to buy one so I could sleep at night. But I do love my 'Bug and I do use it almost every time I do anything. Here's a card I made this week with the embossing folder feature.

This is a very exciting time over at SCS (as those of us who live on the sight call it) because Stampin' Up!'s new catalog debuts on July 1. The anticipation is killing us all! However, the catalogs are starting to arrive at demo's doors. Bry called today to tell me that she had her copy but didn't get her costumer ones yet. Maybe tomorrow. AHHHH! I feel like a kid on Christmas eve.

The kind of sad thing is that I haven't scrapbooked since last October. I have done more than a hundred cards and all kinds of other paper craft items, but not my first love. My goal for the next few weeks is to actually get around to doing some real pages. Let's see if I can do it or if I get too swept up in all the new stamps in the catalog to actually do anything.

BTW, SCS also give us a chance to post our creations for the whole world to see. If you want to see what I've been up to my new craft room, you can check out my gallery.

And so it begins. . .

2007-06-26T21:10:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about blogging for a few months now. I am a writer at heart and as a SAHM, I don't get many opportunities to do much writing these days. Not like the good old days of writing news releases, newsletters, speeches etc in my former life as a PR professional. I kind of get a rush out the click click click of a keyboard and my poor friends have had to endure mile long emails from me as I get my fix.

But I wondered what I should blog about. I spend a lot of time over on splitcoaststampers.com and so many of my SCS "friends"( can you call someone that who you've never met but see their avatar everyday on the web?) blog about their rubber stamping. That is a big part of my life, but I feel like I have more complex things to share.

So I am not quite sure yet what all I will be sharing here. Probably something along the lines of random thoughts on a random life. I'll give a shout out to my good friend Sabrina for the title "In the Salt Shaker" from something she told me many years ago, "It's hard to be the Salt of the Earth when you live in the salt shaker." Pretty sure I live in the salt shaker. Maybe Sabrina can let me know if that is true or not!