25 Random things about Me

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

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

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?

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

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!