Ellie-isms

Ellie is still in the funniest stage of life where she cracks me up when she says things in an almost-right-way. Like when my kids call the Muppets the "Muffets" (they still do that a lot too).

She brought me out a tub of bubbles that was empty of any bubble-juice and said, "Will you unfrisbee this so I can fill it up?" (you know...unscrew this?!)



The kids have a new favorite treat...Pirate's Booty. She calls it Captain's Booty (and when she says that I think of a captains bum!)



I have an unsightly group of spots on my chin...I'm not sure what it is & I should really go to the dermatologist to figure it out...but, she calls it my "humongous hu-fungus"

I'm at peace

I am surprisingly at peace with the Sox. It really is a successful season when you make the playoffs and the Yankees don't!!

That would have been good enough.

It's amazing to demolish the best team in baseball on the way to the World Series (the team everyone expects to WIN the World Series).

That was enough!

They didn't QUITE make it to the World Series this year...but they came CLOSE! I only missed one game...and wouldn't you know it was a doozy! The Sox down 7-0 in the 6th inning (losing this game would lose the series with Tampa Bay ahead 3-1), but, NOOOO, my Sox won't go down without a fight! They come back to win the game 7-8!! They win the next game as well which ties the series to 3-3. The last game decides who goes to the World Series and they lost in extra innings. What a fight! And what a great season.

on a funny note for either Sox or Yankee fans...we went to Scheel's yesterday (FUN store!), and they had a rack of gear. Half was Red Sox and half was Yankees. Hmmmm...who put THAT together??!

OKAY...for all of my non-baseball friends (do I have many pro-baseball friends?!), I'm done for the season. Maybe I can put up a cute background now...although I did like the Sox one!

Calling in SICK!

I've been feeling a little sick lately. And then something happened today that made me want to call in sick!




It SNOWED!!!! Okay...so this isn't a picture of Ferntucky...but it does represent why I'm so sick. I am HOMESICK!!! I LOVE the snow! I'm not into the snow sports...but I LOVE the snow. This picture is from my home town on a very good year. (My Logan friends...can you tell it is a parking lot by campus?)




This is my valley. I am going to drive into that valley next week and it thrills me every time I meet this picture!

I am so excited to turn my oven on today and cook a turkey for no good reason (how beautiful is it that I don't have to worry about the oven heating up the house...that's an added bonus!). I am so excited that my heater is on. I love the smell of the first use of the heater...you know the musty/dusty smell of something that hasn't been used in many months?! (I'm weird that way...it is smellin' good to me right now...a side effect of homesickness, like how cow manure smelled so good when I would go home to visit in the summers from Boston) And for my Boston friends...it's the same wonderful feeling as the hiss and rattling of the radiators for the first time of the year.

It is a sign...a sign that winter is here. I love winter! I love to curl up with some hot cocoa and a blanket with the kiddos and watch a good movie (I hope Austin's soccer game is canceled so that we can do it tonight!!!)

I miss driving through the canyon (after the snow plows have been through of course!) and seeing everything in a blanket of snow...there is nothing more beautiful to me (I think it's even more beautiful than the fall foliage or the spring flowers).

Editor's note: My baby is standing in the windowsill right now very distressed about the white stuff falling on the garden. Keep it coming baby!!!

(Now if the Sox win tonight...what a perfect day that would be!)

The Thinks that she Thinks

We were watching Austin's soccer game one day in the car (mom, Ellie & Chloe) because there had been a sudden downpour just before it started & even though the skys were blue...I wasn't in the mood for another naughty picture.

There is a girl on Austin's team who...how shall I put this...has a sort of swagger as she walks that is meant to attract boys in a way that is "I'm so cute...but I'm so cool at the same time" Does that make ANY sense...do you all know of that swagger that I'm talking about?? not the cute way that Karen sways her hips as she walks...more like, oh I don't know, someone who works at Wild Horse (more to post on Wild Horse at a later date).

Ellie watches the game for a bit, and this girl made a good play and I commented on it. Ellie says, "She walks like she has a boyfriend."

How does my 4 year old know what a girl with a boyfriend walks like?!

First high school pictures of Gus

I think the black & white version is my favorite...how about you?

Many Faces

There are many faces of NAUGHTY, and sometimes this is one . . .

Sorry Vladimir...the end is here

AWESOME...AWESOME game!! The Sox have advanced to play the Rays. We had awesome plays by Pedroia, Varitek (could you BELIEVE that squeeze play he pulled off in the 9th??!), Kotsay...well I think I could name the whole team! And Lester pitched an amazing game.

Go here and pay particular attention to the "Personal Life" section and the "No-hitter" section. I like this guy.

So, Vladimir, I'm truly sorry that your reign of terror over me (because I would tremble slightly with fear when he would step to the plate) is now over and your season finished. Until next season...

I think I should get some sleep after the loss of sleep from last night!

Game #3 wasn't for me!

Let's just say that I had a hard time getting to sleep last night after a (deserved) loss in the 12th inning.

I think the Sox were really off their game last night and the Angels were back on their game.

Sad...they were ALMOST able to say that they had beat the Angels in 12 straight post-season games (4 YEARS!!!)

We'll get 'em next time!

It could happen to YOU!

Saturdays at Winco (local cheap grocery store...you all have one of those! Macey's in Logan, Market Basket in Boston, Winco in Reno), are always crowded...I NEVER go on Saturdays!! However...did you know that the FIRST Saturday of the month might be even WORSE?!!



You may find crowded aisles, people stopped with their carts in front of what you need to get and you patiently wait, and when it's YOUR turn some old guy in a striped t-shirt might just start huffing at you. And a little later might do the same thing to your son who has a second cart helping you grocery shop while your husband is in Japan.

And when you FINALLY make it to the checkout line you might be a little irritated that two little girls that you MAY have let go to the Dollar Store next door with instructions to meet up with you in the grocery store have STILL not come back...well you might just be a little more irrate when an even younger little girl announces that she needs to go potty yet AGAIN and you can't leave your cart/food.

You might even have two full grocery carts that will need to be transported an hour away & so properly packed away. You may have a wonderful boy who is helping a whole bunch with all of this.

And then it MIGHT happen to you!! You may be so caught up in trying to hurry and get all of your groceries packed up that you forget to move your cart so the person behind you can move their cart to the other side (because Winco the customer bags their own groceries & one register runs two conveyer belts at the same time). And some big scary/ornery Mr. Clean Man may give you the stare down and snap, "Could you MOVE you know I have to load MY groceries TOO!" And you truly can't figure out how the three feet to the side of you is too small for this man to pass by (you completely forget about the cart!)




And you may decide that HE'S not going to intimidate YOU! And you just move as close to the side as you can and say, "I'd be happy to let you by." (you may say it in a I'll-take-you-on tone rather than a sweet I'm-so-sorry tone...seriously you might do that)

You may not notice the wife behind him glaring at you with her cart. You may even still keep bagging and THEN notice the wife as she goes around the OTHER way and then SLAMS (she SERIOUSLY may *slam* it!) the cart into the center of the bagging area. They may even stand opposite you and both glare at you and then start ripping into you and letting you know that YOU are the SCUM of the earth!!!

You may even have visions of yourself jumping over the conveyer belt to start pounding on the Mr. Clean couple. But instead you probably just keep going about your business and TRY to hurry and get your stuff bagged and get AWAY. You may snap back a couple of responses to them too.

Your son may even say to you, "I really want to say a swear word at them right now."

When the cashier is done ringing up their groceries they may say to her, "Well I can't use the debit machine because SHE won't MOVE her cart!!!" (You may secretly find it funny that your cart isn't even in front of the machine.) And you may even then to decide to REALLY be a pain to them and move your cart out of the way...first you may move your sons cart against the wall and then you may move your cart to the end (where EVERY single other time you've been to the store you probably put it), where it now might be next to their cart (which they put in the middle) and so your cart now HAS no choice but to block half of the aisle, and as chance MIGHT have it the people at the aisle next to you have their cart blocking the other half and there is only now a foot of space between...but hey you MOVED your cart like they asked!!! (and while doing this you may have said, "okay...I'll move my cart for you and now you'll REALLY be blocked in!!")

And then after they finally leave (after still cussing you out), you may be shaking so hard from FUMING...the NERVE of some people!!! (What happened to, "excuse me please, but I can't get my cart past you because you have yours blocking the aisle"...you may think to yourself would that be sooo hard????)

And then you may timidly look up at the cashier who witnessed the whole thing, and you may wonder if she thought you were such a horrible person for not noticing that you were blocking the aisle with your cart. Your heart may just feel a little lighter and your hands may shake a little less if she said, "they were so rude...he never asked you nice or anything."

You may now realize that your girls have still not returned and so your son runs to look for them as you try and muster two full carts out of the probably over-crowded store.

As you get outside you may see the girls standing near a post and they may run up to you and then STOP dead in their tracks right in front of the train of very heavy groceries you are sandwiched between...you may even mutter a little loud under your breath, "oh you'd better MOVE out of MY WAY!" And you may look up and notice a nice old guy pushing his cart in front of the girls and you may notice him kind of glance back and then hurry and push his cart to the side with a questioning look on his face. As you go buy you may touch his arm and say, "I wasn't talking to you...I was talking to my girls." And he may smile at you and say, "Well I mind well!!" He may just make you laugh after the diabolic shopping trip!

It might just happen...really!!!

100 things about moi

What a riot to read Candy's first installment of 100 things...I'll take you up on it and post my own 100 things that you may have known and many you didn't know and even some you wish you NEVER knew about me!

1. I LOVE the Red Sox (did anyone guess that??) I really enjoy watching baseball...all 3-4 hours of the game.
2. I have naturally curly hair, although I didn't know how to get past the kinky and into the curly stage until after I was married and my niece Melise (who inherited a much better version of my hair) taught me how. In fact I got perms in high school.
3. I HATE to sweat.
4. I have lived in 4 states (MO, UT, MA, & NV), my brother Larry could add WY, NC, NE & MI to the list (minus MA & NV).
5. Speaking of my brother Larry...he is almost 18 years older than me and used to drive a motorcycle wearing a helmet with horns on it (I'm not sure if he always wore that helmet or if I just think he did because we have a picture of it).
6. I love classic movies (and we're not talking what AMC considers classic these days!!!), with people like Lana Turner, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, DORIS DAY, Sandra Dee...oh I could go on and on!
7. I love murder mystery shows...I don't know what this tidbit will do to you, but, my favorite tv show is Murder, She Wrote (seriously!).
8. My brother Ross (6 1/2 years older & my closest sibling in age) used go pick me up Chinese food from Formosa and drive it all the way out to my high school for me. Thanks Ross!!
9. I hate when people say "En-sun" instead of "En-sign" (If you look at an Ensign from 15 years ago it has a part in the front that says "pronounced en sign NOT en sun" and then all of a sudden it switched to "pronounced en sign OR en sun"...how could they do this to me????
10. I have been put "out" with anesthesia 6 times in my life.
11. I have 5 kids and have never had an epidural (I'm scared of the needle going into my spine during the middle of a contraction...formula for something going WRONG!)
12. I love to cook.
13. I love to play games (and Mike...I don't make you count up the points any more when I stomp on you to see just how bad I stomped on you...in fact I rarely even KEEP score anymore!)
14. When I was in high school there was a freshman who died every year but my senior year...we totally thought we were cursed!
15. When I was in middle school I got sent to the office & almost sent home because I was wearing bermuda shorts to school...I had been out of town and my friends said they were letting us wear shorts on friday...very funny "friends."
16. In high school I was voted "best dressed" (now THAT one had some of your mouths drop!).
17. My favorite vacations as a kid was going to my aunt's ranch in WY and spending a week riding horses. MY horse was Thunder & I LOVED her so much!!
18. My internal wires are crossed and I cry when I laugh.
19. My vision is about 20/900 (last time I got it checked...I need a new prescription since having Chloe).
20. When I was a kid I had a problem with stinky feet (due to cheap man-made shoes...once I found leather I was a different person!)
21. I went to D.C. 4 times in middle school and high school. One time we went after my mom died & my dad had a work conference there and he let us run free around the city...can you IMAGINE letting your 5th grader loose in a strange city with no cell phone?????
22. My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was 2 or 3, then went into remission for a while and died when I was in 5th grade.
23. My sister is perfect...ask anyone who knows her!! (and we totally don't hate her for it either...I love her to death...she's always been the pretty one too!)
24. My son is a lot like my brother Ross...it's a total crack-up!
25. I have a school picture where we forgot it was picture day & the outfit is awful & the hair is TOTALLY bed head!!!
26. I hate cleaning, but love a clean house...what a cruel world!
27. I love watching tv...have loved it alll my life (remember when MTV first came out & they played videos all the time??!! Remember when they had the world premiere of Michael Jackson's "Thriller"???)
28. I like to type.
29. I have blue eyes
30. I never thought I would have girls (and Katie...secretly I really like it!)
31. I love to scrapbook and make homemade cards
32. I like to read.
33. I love things that are homemade.
34. I love meeting new people (I hate to physically move...but love the adventure of moving).
35. I have a bachelors degree in History.
36. I'm a true Aggie.
37. I used to work as a car hop at a drive-in (no roller skates though)
38. I once dabbled in some modeling when a guy approached me at the mall.
39. I was on the debate team in high school (no good at it but wanted to go on trips with the team)
40. My sister and I are very small chested and we want to know what happened to the gene pool??????
41. I went down the stairs in my walker as a baby (still have the scar on my head).
42. I used to run into walls...ask Scott he LOVES that one!!
43. We used to go camping and my friends and I would stand on the picnic tables and do cheers (you know...open up the barn doors, kick out the hay, we're the girls from the US of A)
44. I used to pretend to have my own cooking show and make some cookies or something. I would talk to the camera and everything!
45. I'm horrible at getting my haircut and tend to do it about once a year.
46. I used to cut my own bangs to make it inbetween cuts & one time I cut them so short they were only about 1/2 an inch long!!! And crooked too!!!!
47. I was in 4-H as a kid (cooking, sewing...mmm can't remember what else).
48. I put my kids through a spanking machine on their birthdays.
49. I was in the DECA club in high school (Distributive Education Clubs of America), and was the VP over something or other. The best part of this was the Fashion Show part...we would compete in malls & WON every time!
50. I always wanted to be in the marching band like my brother Ross...the competitions were the funnest things EVER!
51. I used to go to Ogden with my mom for her chemotherapy appointments and sit and wait in the hospital for hours.
52. One time my mom was in the hospital in SLC (I think...or was it Provo??) and Barney Clark was there (first artificial heart recipient), and they were doing press conferences there and everything.
53. I didn't want to go to my senior prom, but had to.
54. I had Elvis & Bon Jovi posters in my room growing up.
55. When Scott and I first got married we wore the same size of clothes & didn't have any money so we would just share them.
56. My cousin used to always sing, "Julie, Julie, Julie do you love me?" And my other cousin would sing, "My names not Lisa, my name is Julie...Lisa left you years ago" (two songs on the radio when I was a kid).
57. The cousin that sang the Lisa song would always call me Lisa.
58. I don't remember a time EVER in my life that my dad has called me Julie on the first try. (I'm usually Shelley and Shelley is usually Julie)
59. Now my sister calls her daughter Katie "Julie" and Katie's husband "Scott"...we're flattered I hope Katie & Doug aren't too offended!
60. I sometimes call Austin or Scott "Ross."
61. I love office supplies.
62. I love modern-vintage (is there such a thing??).
63. My second toes are longer than my big toes.
64. I took many years of French and can barely count to ten!!
65. One of my friends moved to Egypt in 6th grade and would come home in the summer and teach me all of the arabic swear words.
66. I am an Olympic-Junkie...LOVE them!!
67. I inherited my dad's out of control bushy eyebrows (what will be next...out the nose and ears?!).
68. My husband travels all over the world and I really don't have any desires to do it myself...I've said no on MANY occasions. Maybe it will change when the kids are grown.
69. I have a MILLION projects I want to do and I'm sitting here thinking of 100 different things about me (typical).
70. I am completely uncoordinated & can't dance.
71. I love Outback Steakhouse
72. I remember when cartoons were only on Saturday mornings.
73. I love to eat.
74. Why do I still have zits???
75. I love Harry Potter...can't wait for the next movie!
76. If I were still in middle school or high school I would TOTALLY have Zac Ephron's poster all over my room!! (LOL)
77. I broke both of my thumbs on two different skiing trips.
78. I hate skiing.
79. I took piano lessons for many years and can barely play!
80. I love the winter...you know the kind where there is snow and not just ugly dead trees and lawns!
81. I hate beans...and wished that I liked them because they are so healthy!
82. I love having a garden & especially fresh tomatoes...YUM!
83. My baby looks just like me...I always wonder if I acted like her too.
84. Every seat in my mini-van is full.
85. I make my bed every day (can you believe it mom?!)
86. My dad remarried 6 months after my mom died (as per her request) and she has been my mom longer than my birth mom.
87. I once had a guy ask me in D.C. if my dad was a polygamist and I told him YES! My friend about died with me...and then I said, "Well, my mom died and then he remarried and he is still sealed to both of them...so yes I guess he is!" LOL we walked away giggling pretty hard!
88. My grandma lived in a tiny town (blink and you'll miss it...and I LOVED it!) and they had one general store & one time she sent Austin the exact same birthday card two years in a row...I thought it was so funny! I mean they probably didn't have a very large variety at the Merc! And would normally never know, but I kept them for his scrapbook.
89. I love getting my back tickled.
90. I love when my two youngest girls give each other hugs...cutest thing EVER!
91. My brother used to give me fake Chinese-Water-Torture...and he loved to pin me down and threaten to spit a loogie on me...it would start to drip out of his mouth and then he'd suck it back in just in time.
92. I hate cheating.
93. I loved playing basketball as a kid.
94. We had one of the first microwaves in the neighborhood and my friend and I used to melt a plate of cheese or cook a potato and think it was the coolest thing!
95. My friend had a VCR before anyone & we thought it was way cool.
96. I always had the best reports in elementary school because my dad would take me up to his office and type it for me on the computer and then copy pictures to put in it...I totally ROCKED!
97. I still love and prefer Word Perfect.
98. Some day I want to learn how to use Photoshop & learn how to do digital scrapbooking.
99. I have only dyed my hair once and it was when I was in high school...I wanted it really dark like my mom's was...it went black.
100. Some day I want to ride in a limo, get a pedicure, get a massage, fly first class...

#2 . . . adieu

Game #2 recap...

I love my Red Sox! I know each and every player (well...except for some of the new pitchers that rarely play...but, some day I'll know them too!) I'm always sad when one of them gets traded.

Good-bye Johnny Damon...but, SERIOUSLY the Yankees??!!

Good-bye Manny Ramirez...I'll really miss you and the sense of excitement that came as you stepped to the plate (I won't miss the 'tude), but we'll be okay without you.

Manny left...and in return we now have Jason Bay. Way to BE Bay!!!! He hit yet another homerun last night which brought in 3 runs. Dice-K pitched a great game (minus the bit of trouble in the 5th inning).

At the end of the 4th the score is 5-2. In the 5th & 7th inning the Angels score runs and bring the score to 5-4. On to the 8th inning and the Angels FINALLY get more than a base hit with a lead-off triple...and then my man Papelbon steps up to the mound.



This guy is SOOOO much fun to watch!! Especially when playing at home and so the cameras/announcers are pro-Sox and they eat up the drama that is Papelbon. He SERIOUSLY gives this stare-down with EVERY SINGLE PITCH!!! At away games they just show the back of his head, but, when home...they zoom in on his face and you feel the fear that those batters must surely feel!!! This dude ROCKS as a closer!!! He ended the 8th inning allowing only the one run on 3rd (really ALMOST impossible to not allow that run...possible but really TOUGH).

Now we are tied up 5-5 and the Angels fans are going NUTS! 9th inning Cocoa Crisp (seriously his name...and I can't believe that all of the hair is gone!) gets on base & steals 2nd base (although the announcers don't think it was a good call...I beg to differ). JD Drew steps up to bat & smacks a homerun with an injured back.

We go in to the bottom half of the 9th inning now 7-5 (much better), and Papelbon does his job and finishes the game with a King Kong beating of his chest to boot.

*SIGH* Sleep well Red Sox Nation

91 words

Speedtest

(HA!! Take THAT Steph!!! Bet you wish I still worked for you!! hehe)

The waiting game is over

It seems like when that first day of high school starts that someone presses the fast forward button on life! It feels like there are so many things that I had planned on doing as a family (1,000s of camping trips, going to Disneyland, having kids in bedrooms with less than 3 kids, spending millions of hours together playing games and laughing together...) and it FEELS like my boy is leaving the nest next week...okay I know I have a lot more time...but it FEELS like it.

Austin turned 14 last month. FOURTEEN!!!!!!!

At the beginning of the month we had Stake Conference. On the way home Austin turned to me and said, "I hope all of those girls live in Fallon!" Usually I am a perceptive mother...but I TOTALLY missed the boy checkin' out the girls! And then it dawns on me that just a few days after his birthday was his first stake dance. I grew up in Utah and so a stake dance was not all that fun...I mean we had sock hops almost EVERY week!! But HERE a stake dance is totally RAD! I mean WICKED COOL!!! We have gone back and forth on this thing because someone told him that if you told a girl "no" when she asked you to dance that you had to go home (LOL!!!!). STRESS...I mean the one and only dance he went to in middle school he told 3 girls "no!" ("No, I don't feel like it." WHAT?!! Then WHY are you at a DANCE?!!) Scott and I about DIED when he told us he'd said "no". Thus began the lectures on the fragilness of a girls feelings and how you don't just say, "no...I don't FEEL like it".

So when we first learned of stake dances...we were SOOOO excited!!! And then we got news of no-saying-no (totally not true by the way...but I'M not telling them!) So we decided that we weren't going to the dances. Then came Stake Conference and our view completely changed!!! And their mother gave them the advice..."if you don't want to dance with someone who asks you, than you ask SOMEONE to dance first!!!"

Fastforward to picture...





We are tired of waiting inside for our ride to the dance...so we'll go outside and watch up the street...WE can't WAIT!!!!


And of course we don't get home until midnight and so mom stayed up late cleaning (yes folks...you heard it right! I cleaned!!!). We had a very content aura about us as we came through the door. We had a good time.

(I wonder if his favorite part was waking up the next morning and smelling the leftover perfume on his pillow...hahaha...my last dance at the sock hop during my freshman year was often with a boy named Shane & he wore lots of cologne & I would sleep in the next morning smelling my pillow)

Just in case you missed it...

Okay...so my friend Rachel gives great recaps of "Dancing with the Stars," one of the few reality shows that I haven't gotten into. It cracks me up & I tune in for about 5 minutes of it or look it up online.

So, I thought...I bet most of you need a recap of the awesome baseball game last night!!! Can you guess who played...and (from my sheer enthusiasm) who WON?!!!

I forgot about my new, totally incredibly fabulous ability to pause live tv and so was busy putting kids to bed and missed most of the first 4 innings. I caught the Angels score their first run (dang the timing of one of Lowry's FEW errors this season!). And when I tuned back in I had just missed Bay hit a homerun and bring the game to a more acceptable score of 2-1.

7th inning was the charm when Ellsbury (one of my most FAVORITE players) had an amazing catch! On to the 8th inning where the Sox scored 2 more runs.

For those of you baseball-ignorant people...the Angels have had the best team in baseball for the entire season! The Sox made it into the play-offs as the Wild Card (and the fact that the Yankees didn't even make it to the play-offs makes this season a successful one no matter the outcome!!!) I'm hoping that the Sox can hold it together...it seems (as usual) that half of the pitchers are injured just in time for play-offs & world series. But, hey---they beat the Angels at home on the first game!!!

It was a good night...I slept with a smile on my face.