Mid-week Report

Courtney is packing for California. She leaves in the morning. Bummer for me. I'm going to miss her. But she's very excited. She's got a lot going on at school right now, so hopefully it will be a nice relaxing break. And relieve a little of her senioritis. :)

Sean hasn't had a car torn apart in the garage for nearly a month now, and that just can't happen, so he's started a big new repair project. I can't really tease him too bad, especially since this time it's not even one of our cars. He's doing a favor for someone, so I've been silent with the teasing/complaining. It's a BIG job and he's doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He's a pretty good guy.

I put Lexi in the car this morning and she was all squirmy and whiny, and then she said, "My butt's too big!" I hear ya, honey. Don't tell my mom that my 2 year old said "butt". She'll ground me or make me do a chore.

Josh is off-track, so he's been hanging out with me during lunch and for the last class period of the day. It's been good to have some extra time with him. Of course the high schoolers give him high-fives, and when he walks down the hall with me he knows some of them that have taken the daycare class. So he's having a good time. It's just annoying when I'm in the middle of teaching class and he'll start singing quietly to himself, totally oblivious, or turn the sound on the computer so that Curious George is making his annoying little squeaky noises.

Brittney got a video camera for Christmas and is going to film stuff this weeknd for the YouTube channel she and her friends created. They write these little goofy skits and parodies and film them. Man, kids nowdays have it good. Ny best friend Donna and I would have had so much fun with YouTube!

So that is the mid-week report. Things are pleasantly busy. Not crazy, but not boring. Just how I like it.

Happy Holidays and such...

I'm having a hard time blogging because I just don't know what I want to say. So much runs through my head all the time, but none of it is interesting to anyone but me. Want to hear my thoughts on Harry Potter 6? My views on abortion and health care? My fears and parenting challenges and work frustrations and feminist rantings? Yeah, no one does. Anyway...

Christmas seems too old to blog about now, but here are a few random pics. We did have a nice time, and I feel very fortunate.










Potty training is going pretty well. She's got the hang of it... now we are in that stage where we're just working out the kinks.



Lexi got an unplanned haircut last week. Josh, for some reason unknown, decided to cut a bunch of her hair off one morning. So I had to cut the rest of it off. My girls and I were both surprised by how calm I was and how no swear words came out of my mouth.



We had a nice New Year's Eve with Katie, Dennis, and Scott & Wendy and their kids. We played cards and ate and visited. I really enjoyed hanging out with all of them. I'm sad that the break is over, but I do like the routine of school and work. A few more weeks left in the term to wrap up. Courtney leaves for California in a few days for a debate tournament. I'm going to miss her a ton. I'm excited to start a new year. Maybe I'll get it right for a change.

This is so me!!

OMG I have had this exact meltdown. More than once.

Happy Solstice!

Yay! It's solstice! Hooray for longer days, and let the countdown to summer begin.

I can't believe there are only a few more days until Christmas. I went out shopping for like four hours today and then came home and declared my shopping done. I just can't do any more. By the time I got to Wal-Mart I was just throwing groceries in the cart hoping I got what was on my list. I needed pineapple, but it was 4 aisles away so I said forget it, that's like a mile away, we'll do without. I told my kids if they end up with weird stuff on Christmas morning, sorry, I saved the receipts, I'm not going back out. My neighbors have started bringing over gifts, and it's all been treats. I am going to gain 25 pounds between now and New Year's Day. Ugh. I put everyone on fair warning that if I intercept the treats, I'm throwing it all straight in the trash. Cuz if it's in my house, I'll eat it. Even if I don't really like it that much, I'll still have a few bites. Like, my neighbor makes this peanut brittle with chocolate swirls and all kinds of nuts. I hate peanut brittle. Did I still eat some? Yes indeedy I did.

On a semi-related note, it's not just food that I do that with. The other day Brittney and I went to the library and I grabbed a couple books by Sophie Kinsella that writes the Shopaholic series. Brittney looked at them and said, "I thought you hated those books," and I was like, "Yep. I do." I don't know what it is. I guess I just like to annoy myself? I'm so weird.

We've been busy with just the same old stuff. Nothing too exciting, but pleasantly busy, so that's the way I like it. We've gone to Christmas light displays and been busy with work and school, car repairs, and everything else that makes life interesting.

I started potty training Lexi today. Pretty much the worst parenting job there is. It's gone about like you might expect. Tomorrow is a new day. She's going through that horrible phase, egged on by her older brother, where she likes to say "stupid" and "poop" and stuff like that. She sang this "Happy poop day to poop" type song the other day and I had to really try hard not to laugh. She's pretty dang cute even if she's a little turkey. My favorite thing lately is that she pronounces her full name as Lexiandra.

Here are some pictures from Hardware Ranch last weekend.

Josh's Birthday & Thanksgiving

It's a quiet Saturday afternoon. It's been a very nice, relaxing Thanksgiving break. Today Courtney and Brittney went on FrontRunner out to the Gateway with a few of Courtney's friends. Josh and Sean went to watch the BYU/Utah game with Dennis. Lexi is sleeping. I'm listening to Christmas music and trying to fix the Christmas tree ornaments after the kiddos decorated it last night. One day I'll have a really pretty tree, but for now I like having a tree full of elementary school created ornaments, who-cares-if-they-break-it ornaments, all placed in clusters and clumps. Trying to keep that perspective that the kids will be grown and not want to decorate the tree anymore pretty soon. My collection of Christmas decorations really needs an overhaul. It's pretty sorry. Someday.

So Josh's birthday was last weekend. He had a pretty good day. I can't believe my baby boy is six!







I bought this stuff for $1 and seriously we've all played with it. I don't know exactly why it's so funny, but it really is. Especially when you hear from the other room, "Josh, it's bedtime." "Not yet, I've got to do a really good fart."


I guess Brittney was excited about the Transformer Josh got.


Two weekends ago Courtney went to the Sadie's dance with her boyfriend and a group of friends. She didn't take any pictures. Bummer. I should have thought to do it for her. They took over my house for lunch, dinner, and then came over after the dance to watch a movie. It was a lot of work for her, but she had fun so it was good.

Thanksgiving was a great feast. There was so much good food! It was fun to hang out with everyone. We had some good, deep conversation. Courtney's friend Skyler came with us. They've been friends since junior high. I love this picture of the two of them from a few summers ago. It's fun to watch these kids grow up.



Now, it's on to Christmas. The lights are up, the decorations are up, the shopping has commenced. I don't do Black Friday, but I'm all ready for Cyber Monday. Sean's mom and sisters bought us some Black Friday deals, so that was super nice of them. I don't even know what we had them buy. Sean saw some stuff he wanted and asked his mom to get it. We went and saw a Christmas light display last night. I'm ready for some snow. I'm in the spirit this year. Bring it on.

Yay! Also... Is it summer yet?

Yay! I got my phone connection working! Most of what's on there isn't worth posting, but here are two.

The girls in Las Vegas


Lexi after daycare trick-or-treating.

Lest I seem like a (more) horrible mother, she didn't actually eat all three of those. She opened them all, licked them all, set them all down, and I threw them away when she wasn't looking.

So, I think it's going to be a really long winter. Really. Long. I'm already wishing for summer. That's a bad sign. Apparently I'm not the only one. The other night Lexi said to me, "When us going boating, mom? Thursday? Us going boating Thursday." OK baby. Sounds good to me.

Sean's been pheasant hunting Saturday mornings and in the evenings in the field down the street from our house. Luckily, I don't think any pheasants really actually live there. If he gets one he's going to expect me to eat it, and I really, really hate gagging. So we'll hope that the season ends quietly and without dead birds at my house.

So Lexi is in this "pink" phase where she requests everything to be pink. She doesn't get upset if it isn't, thankfully, but it's, "I want my pink pumpkin." "I go to my pink school." "I want my pink pancake." "I'm riding in my pink boat, mom." If I say, "Let's get a redbox tonight," she'll say, "I want my pink box." I love the way they say things at this age. Yesterday she told me, "Mom, I love you best I can."

Josh is learning to read so well! I was worried because he got a really slow start. He had no interest in letters or numbers up until now. If I tried to talk to him about that kind of thing he would just change the subject. He really struggled at the beginning of Kindergarten, so I was thinking we were in for a real battle. But he's getting it down all of a sudden, thank goodness.

And so it goes...

Hotties, Halloween, and Britt's Birthday

Sean and I went to the Joan Jett concert a few weekends ago, and it was loads of fun. The data connection for my phone is messed up, so I can't pull the pics off, or I would torture you with them. I decided that I'm going on the Joan Jett diet, though. I have to do a little research here to find out what her secret is... maybe all she eats is fruit and large quantities of Jack Daniels. Who knows. All I know is she is 51 years old and looks like this.



Halloween was a week-long extravaganza at our house this year. The daycare went trick-or-treating on Tuesday, so Josh and Lexi came home with a bunch of candy. I have a picture of Lexi with 3 suckers in her mouth, but again, on the phone. Then we had a party at my mom's house while Heather and Peter were here. We had loads of awesomely creepy food made by Heather and Peter. Severed fingers, spiders, eyeballs, you name it. And fabulous soup and bread. It was great fun to visit with everyone. Then we had actual Halloween.

Pumpkin carving




Josh the Karate Kid


Brittney the zombie vampire prom queen of the undead


Lexi the ladybug




Brittney's birthday was yesterday. 14 big ones. Love this girl. She is funny, smart, a great writer, cute, and has pretty good taste in music and movies.




On a final note... Good-bye to my World Series boyfriend Jayson Werth. I'm sorry that it had to end this way. But you were oh-so-lovely to look at for the past 6 games.