Thursday, February 25, 2010

What? The Hail?

Driving home today, we suddenly went through a little downpour of hail. Lexi said, "What is that noise?" and I said that it was just the hail. She said, "What? The hail?" Ha sounded funny.

I'm on the food committee for the senior all-night party at Courtney's school, and the chair called a meeting for tonight. I could hardly tell her, "Well, that's Survivor time right there, so count me out." Darned responsibilities. Always getting in the way of my laying on the couch time. So now Sean has to consult NASA guide books and get an electrical engineering degree from Harvard so he can figure out how to program the VCR to go through the converter box to record Survivor for me. But bless his little heart, he's working on it for me because that's how much he loves me and how much I love Survivor. Mark Burnett owns me.

So, goals:
I made pretty good progress, I think. On the Diet Pepsi, I did about 75%. On the treats, about 90%. Family council, 75%. Doing more things for myself, 100%.

March goals:
Limit Diet Pepsi to 2 cans/day.
No treats until dessert.
Family council twice a month.
Do something for someone outside my family once a week.
Talk to someone every day that I don't normally talk to. I've gotten into a really bad habit of just putting my head down and living in my own little world because it's easier and less complicated, so I wanted to be a little more social.

I considered a goal to eat the same diet that Josh eats for a month, but I don't have nearly enough will power. It would be a good exercise, though, and I could probably lose 15 lbs in a month.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

February Latest, Goal Progress, & Things That Must Go

February has been a great month, all things considered. I think this is the most depressing time of the year, but it hasn't been too bad. A few highlights:

Mindi, Steve, the kiddos, Marilyn, Dennis, and Curtis (Courtney's boyfriend) came over and watched the Super Bowl with us. Our team lost and we didn't win any money, but the company was excellent.

One of my February goals was to do a few things for myself that I like to do, and I've done that. Yay! I suck at New Year's Resolutions and goals in general, but these small little monthly goals are proving much more manageable for me. I went to a meet-and-greet for SLC Mayor Peter Corroon, who is running for governor this year. I like the guy. He's not in-line with all of my issues, but he's much better than Gov. Herbert imo. The meeting was interesting because it was attended by the movers in the party and not so many of the average peons like me, it seemed like. Very intimidating and uncomfortable, but that's a goal for another month. I just would really like to be more comfortable in my own skin.

Next thing I did was go to a rally at the state Capitol for public employees. The speeches were very good, and it motivated me to want to be more involved. I liked being a party delegate and attending the county and state conventions, and I want to do that again. Mostly all I do now is get all worked up about stuff and write imaginary letters to the editor in my head but never do anything else.

Last thing I (we) did was go to the Queensryche concert in Wendover, which was a blast. Marilyn watched our kids, so we stayed overnight this time, which was holy cow so nice. The great thing about Wendover is that it's close to home, but it feels like a getaway. So the concert was fun; they played my 4 favorite songs that they sing. Next up, Vince Neil in April. Can't wait. Motley Crue sings my all-time favorite rock ballad (Home Sweet Home), so I'm hoping he'll do that one. Hopefully he has rights to all the Crue music, because I don't know any of his solo stuff.

This season of Survivor has started out so much better than any in recent memory. Last season in particular sucked rocks. The challenges were stupid, the people were stupid, Probst's heart was not in it. This season could shape up to be a really good one with lots of strategy. I hope Russell gets voted out next, followed by Parvati. So much Boston Rob love. They could just give it to him now. He is really in his element in Survivor. He's competent, social, reads people well, and can perform at both physical and mental challenges.

Yesterday was Courtney's region Sterling Scholar interview. She's glad to have it all over with. Region debate tournament is in a week and a half. One of her favorite residents at work passed away unexpectedly last weekend. She was moving, so Courtney had said goodbye to her the night before, so she did have some closure, but I think that was hard.

Brittney's first trial for mock trial is coming up on Monday at the Ogden court house. She's a witness. I hope she has fun with it.



Josh was so excited today when I went to pick him up at lunch to take him to kindergarten. He told me that he and his friend Taya exchanged phone numbers, and asked if he could call her, and told me all about how she would call him. When we got home he informed everyone to make sure if the phone was for him that we let him have it. He and Taya have known each other since they were both about 9 months old. He thinks it's so funny when I tell him how they used to sit side by side in the high chairs or how they played together as babies. I wish they went to school together. She is a cute little friend to him.

We did Things That Must Go in class today. Here is my list this time around:
1. spitting in public
2. nose picking
3. people who don't wash their hands before they leave the bathroom
4. facebook updates about farmville or mafia wars or people's horoscope or suggestions
5. status updates that are annoying and lovey-dovey statuses (ahem: Courtney and Curtis... looking at you two)
6. axed (as in: I axed my mom if I could go)
7. being called Sharon or Shanna or Shauna
8. partisan politics
9. blaming Obama for all the things that were already wrong when he took office
10. jewelry store commercials (they're the WORST!)
11. people who sit at concerts and don't dance or cheer or show any signs of life. When you scream and dance and do "rock on", you worry that you might be disturbing their nap time or meditation or prayers or something.
12. people who make a driving error and then act like you're the idiot

Happy weekend. Over and out.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Love

I've been thinking about my statement the other day that I'm a "love conquers all" sort of person, and I wanted to clarify something for my own self. I was serious when I said that it's somewhat unrealistic. I do realize that love cannot conquer all, and that just because it has in the past doesn't mean it always will. I felt like what I had written came off sounding smug and that was not my intention. Anyway... Speaking of love:







Ummm.... what??

We were having a discussion on civil disobedience in class, and one of my students said, "Who was that lady that refused to sit at the back of the bus? Aretha Franklin?" Ummmm... not quite. Try again sweetie.

Lexi has this Barney DVD that she loves (grrr...) and I was doing stuff today, not really paying attention to the Barney background noise underneath my thoughts. Then this song came on singing about balls, and it's fun to play with balls, big ones, small ones, and I had to stop and go... wait... what?? I fully admit that I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy, but really. Somebody really could have come up with some better lyrics to that song.