Prom

A few pics from Courtney's Prom yesterday. They looked cute together. I'll probably post more pics later. My camara is pretty much broken, but Curtis promised to share pics from his house with me. They went with a big group of her besties. Wish I had a pic of them all, but they got one at the dance. I'll post it later. If the pics don't go on my blog, they don't go anywhere. I'm at least 6 years behind in putting photos in albums.



Since we're the only parents stupid enough to let all the kids come over at midnight, they usually show up at our house after the dances. Which is more than fine by me. I don't get why other parents don't want the kids at their houses... If my kid is hanging out with friends until 2:30 am, I'm thrilled if she's at my house so I know what she's doing. So somehow I didn't get to bed until 3:30 am. Sean, Brittney, and I watched The Blind Side. Good movie

Sean has been working on buffing the water deposits off of the outside of the boat, and it looks really good. I wish my dad could see it. We had a new cover made and picked it up yesterday. Pulled it out of the garage, and it's ready to go. Now if the weather will cooperate.

April goals: Well... hmmm. Did I achive any of them? Did I even work on any of them? Doing better on the treats-eating, this last week especially. Before that, who knows. I didn't do much of anything on the whole strengthening relationships thing. The last week we've been working on being more organized about homework. So I'd say about 50%.

May goals:
Lose 4 lbs. (ha! I can already say this isn't going to happen, but it needs to, so it stays.)
Work on deep breathing and zen meditation in place of yelling and being a raving lunatic. Also, no flipping out.
Work on relationships.
Organized and consistent on homework.

Not so sure about that set of goals. If I stopped ranting and raving, got organized, got in shape, and started calling my friends and family, people wouldn't know who I was anymore. I guess we'll see.

Reality TV recap

Most of the time when I watch American Idol, contestants either take a song I used to like and ruin it, or they take a song I don't care about and bore me to death with it. On rare occasions, there's a contestant that can take songs I hate and make them into something I love. Exhibit A. Love.



Can't wait for Amazing Race on Sunday. Go Cowboys!

Survivor should be renamed Idiots v. Morons this season. I wish there could be a tribe made up of Boston Rob, Courtney, Jonathon Penner, Yul, Yau Man, Rob Cesternino, and Eliza. But they wouldn't ever have to vote each other out. They'd just kick the other team's butt every week in challenges and then sit around camp and say snarky things and just generally be awesome. And then they'd all win the million dollars and a trip to my house to hang out with me in my backyard. :::sigh:::

Las Vegas

I know I'm a whiny baby and I'm lucky I even get a Spring Break, but I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. Boo! This has been one of those really fun weeks that I don't want to end.

So we took the kids down to Las Vegas for a few days just to get away. The driving part wasn't so great, but the rest of the time we had fun. As per usual in Utah, we left in a snowstorm.

Sean ready for vacation (that streak in front of his face isn't a booger... it's some snow streaking by or on the camara):


Kids at the pool:









Josh and his new little buddy:


The only picture of me I like:


Saturday morning was the Davis County Democrat Convention. I wouldn't really classify that as fun, so much, but it was interesting and I'm glad I went. I really liked what Mayor Peter Corroon had to say, and I think he'll make a good governor.

Saturday night Sean and I headed out to Wendover to see Vince Neil in concert. It wasn't the best concert I've ever seen, for sure, but the band was really good. His drummer, Zoltan Chaney, is one of the funnest drummers I've seen live. He was so fun to watch. Vince Neil's voice still sounds good, but he sang the songs in an annoying way. Plus, he's a tool. He started 30 minutes late and didn't do an encore... which, to me, no encore is pretty much like flipping the middle finger to your audience. But we still had fun. Marilyn watched the kids last minute for us because we forgot Brittney had a birthday party and Courtney had to work, and neither got home until 8:30ish. So that was really nice of her.

So, it's back to the old grind now. I have to admit, though, that it's good for me to be back on a schedule. It keeps me sane. I'll try to remember that tomorrow morning at 5:15 when the alarm goes off.

Easter and Spring Break

It's Spring Break! Wow, this school year has flown by like no other. We are heading down to Las Vegas tomorrow to sit by the pool and play with the kids and not do much else. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. It feels a little surreal because it's snowing like Christmas outside right now, and I'm packing up swimsuits and sunscreen.

A few Easter pics:







My family came over for Easter dinner. Katie made this cute bunny cake. Brittney was excited to eat the poor bunny.


Well, one of my all-time favorite Survivors got voted off this week. It definitely won't be as much fun to watch without him. He is made of awesome.

Courtney and I went shopping for her prom dress on Saturday. She bought a gorgeous dress. I try not to think about how much it cost because I get a little light-headed. Formal dresses are such craziness, but I find myself powerless against seeing my kid dressed up like a princess. :::sigh::: It's one of the few areas of life where you can tell I'm a girl.

I saw the most awesome thing at the store the other day. Total Father's Day gift, if I can remember by then. Coleman makes a camping blender. How cool is that? We can totally make orange julius for breakfast, daiquiris for lunch, and oreo shakes for dessert. Mmmmmm....

Spring!

It's been good driving weather the last little while. Last weekend Sean and I went for a little drive up around Rockport, and we stopped in at the Spring Chicken Inn for the Big D special. The Big Salad and fries. It was pretty dang tasty. This weekend we went up to check out the cabin and see how much work there is to be done this spring. Doesn't look too bad. We made it through March! The end is in sight. I never got around to having a March party this year. Maybe an April party instead.

I'm so excited. We're starting the Rasmussen Family Monthly Family Night, starting this month. Yay! I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Should be fun.

Brittney registered for next year. She's taking French class so that when we go on the Amazing Race she'll know some French and I'll know some Spanish. We are gonna kill it! I'm extremely navigation-challenged though, so hopefully Brittney can take charge of that part.

Went to the Democratic caucus meeting last week. The one benefit to being a Democrat in Utah is that if you are interested in getting involved, there is plenty of room for you. So I am, once again, my precinct chair, county delegate, and state delegate. It was pretty tough getting appointed to all of those positions, seeing as how I appointed myself. I wasn't sure I was qualified, but in the end I gave me the benefit of the doubt. We actually have two candidates running in our House District, so that's pretty high excitement.

We worked in the yard today. It was so nice! Sean did most of the work, but I planted some red potatoes and onions. It's an experiment. And another primrose. I planted pansies last week so I could have some color in my yard. Love the pansies and primrose in the spring.

March goals: I pretty much sucked. I'd say I did around 50% overall on all of it. I did try to be a little more social, I did something for people outside my family twice out of the four weeks, I ate more treats than necessary, drank more Pepsi than necessary, and not even sure what the other goals were, if any, so that doesn't bode well.

April goals:
Less treats
Limit Pepsi
Work on extended family relationships
Be more consistent with homework/bed time/reading to kids at night

That should do it.

Family Fun & Other Ramblings

It's been so much fun having Heather here! So sad you had to go home!

Two weeks ago, we all went to Brigham City and stayed overnight just for fun. It was a blast! I loved it. Poor Heather had a crying baby all night, but it was fun to let the kids swim together and just sit and talk that night and the next morning. I love getting out of town, even if it's only a little ways away. I'd love to be able to do that once a month... just take a little road trip somewhere and then stay overnight.

Courtney has my pics of Brigham City and still hasn't uploaded them, and I'm waiting for Heather and/or Wendy to put up pics on their blogs that I can steal. I am terrible about taking pictures.

It's been two years since my dad's death. It still doesn't seem real sometimes. I still think of things that I need to call and tell him or ask him about, and that realization when I remember is yuck. Sean's starting to work on the boat and we're starting to think about getting out on the lake, and I'm so glad that I have those memories and the physical reminder of the boat. It makes me feel close to him.

I was listening to Kenny Chesney's "I Go Back" the other day, and the line "Living life with no sense of time" struck me. I was thinking about being a kid, back when summers felt so long. The month of December stretched an eternity, waiting for Christmas to finally come. The years lasted so long in between birthdays, and you couldn't wait to get older. And then I was thinking that, really, I feel like I've lived my life with no sense of time until just last summer. Last summer I had a whole disturbing shift in perspective, and I haven't quite been able to recover. To set things back to how they used to be. I used to really just enjoy every stage of my kids' lives. I loved having little babies, and then I loved seeing them learn to walk, and then to talk, and then it was fun to see them learn to play and use their imaginations, and then to go off to kindergarten and ride a bike and play soccer, and then to play an instrument or learn karate or start junior high or run track or... I loved each new thing and didn't mourn the phases that had passed. But then last summer, the train went off the tracks. I was totally derailed by the thought of Courntey graduating high school and Josh starting kindergarten. And now... It's like, I can't see things through my old perspective. I can't find the joy. It's been replaced by a constant low-grade fear that underlies everything. It's not that I'm totally unhappy... just scared for what's to come. What if my kids grow up and leave me and life is no fun anymore. That fear paralyzes me for some reason now. I'm hoping that once Courtney graduates and the world doesn't end, I'll be OK. Also, I feel like I'm setting myself up in my head that this summer has to be epic, and if it's not I'm going to be so upset, because there's so little time and you have to pack it all in and have The Most Fun Ever. I've got to get my mind straight and just come what may.

I love my job. I do. Kids are so freaking funny. I got to go up to Weber State for English Quest again this year. I'm always so impressed by what kids are capable of. This is an optional activity, not an assignment, so it's double cool to see them write poetry and create videos and perform Shakespeare scenes and compete in spelling bees just for the fun of it. I was gone a day for that, and then took the next 2 days off because Lexi was sick, and when I came back my kids were like, "Where were you?? Don't leave us again!!" Which is so funny, because when I'm there they are wishing I'd leave. :) One of my boys said, "You can't be gone anymore. I had a hard time without you." And another told me he wrote a poem in his English journal about me being gone. So goofy! These are teenage boys. They are not serious. But it's nice to hear anyway, especially since they are always complaining about everything I make them do when I am there.

I love being on a college campus. It makes me want to be a student all over again. How fun. Maybe in about 5 years I'll be ready...

One more day, and then the weekend! Life is good.

Embracing the Frumpiness

Oops... I missed a goal in my reporting on last month. It was the one on being quieter. Yah, we probably did about 10% on that one. We are just loud people, and I don't know how to change that. Not sure if I want to even, anymore. Hmmmm....

Heather is in town! Yay! Can't wait to party it up. Pictures forthcoming.

Got my hair cut and colored the other day. Not sure I like how it turned out. I'm OK with the individual parts, but not sure how I feel about the sum total. I'm not sure the color goes with my skin coloring, which, if you don't know, is baby's butt pink. I have vitiligo, so I don't have pigment in most of my skin. Anywayyyyyzzzz, this brings me to another, more interesting (to me) point. I often berate myself because I don't work harder on my appearance. I want to be cuter. I want to be higher-maintenance. So why don't I? I always write it off as a lack of time and money, which is surely a factor. But I think another big part of it is that I don't think it will really help. I spent $85 on a cut and color that I don't really love. I realize this isn't actually expensive... it's pretty average. But it's a lot for me. Even if I shopped for more stylish clothes, I would have a hard time finding anything that fits the way I like. Even when I get my hair done, I don't think it looks great. Make-up... doesn't ever seem to help, in large part because of the aforementioned pigment problem. Lipstick, and most everything else, looks stupid on me. It would be fun to have nails, but not like that's going to turn me from frump to diva. So I think that's why I just really don't try.

Been watching American Idol. Brittney told me yesterday that one of her friends was like... There's 2 hours of AI on Tuesday, and 2 hours on Wednesday, another hour on Thursday... watching American Idol is like having a part-time job! LOL And true.

Today on the way home from school, Lexi was giving me the report on what she thought everyone was doing. Josh, she informed me, was "at the doctor really bad." Apparently, he swallowed Jello. Since I mostly hate Jello, makes sense to me. And Courtney was at the mall, dancing. Lexi wanted us to go to the mall and check on her.

And speaking of checking on her... guess I better go do that. She and her boyfriend are making dinner, and it sounds like it's heading towards a food fight. Off to save my kitchen and my dinner...