Me Mumbling About Stuff

I did not want to go back to work yesterday. Oh well. We tried to win the lottery, and then I wouldn't have to work ever again, but oddly enough we were not successful. The odds were only like 1:759,004,578,320,984,555,557,821. Or something like that. But with a jackpot of 640 million, what the heck. Can't win if you don't play. Unless you are me; then you can't win anything ever.

Spring Break was... well, it was something. I love being off work, so that's good enough right there. Monday I spent all day long running errands, and then Tuesday Josh, Lexi, and I went to the park with Wendy and her kids and I packed for our trip.

Wednesday we took off for a few days in Las Vegas. It wasn't exactly the relaxing trip I wanted, but I knew it wouldn't be, so whatever.







Sunday we had a visit from the Easter bunny, did some of the chores that had to be done before the new week, and went to mom's for a lovely Easter dinner.

A couple things I've been thinking of:

I should never speak to other people. This is why I am antisocial. At work, one of my friends forwarded me an e-mail with some feedback that she sent to some people at Weber State about something and asked me what I thought of it. I told her I agreed with her feedback and told her some of my own thoughts. Now I find out that she forwarded the things I wrote to her on to the people at Weber! Gah! Not like it's that big a deal, but I might not have said the same things if I were speaking to them that I said to her. Why do I bother to talk to people. I should have just told her "I agree" and left it at that.

I've been thinking a lot about modesty lately, reading things on the internet, and Wendy and I had an interesting conversation about it the other night. I read an article somewhere about a ward where the leaders were on a modesty kick with the young women, and they sent out a letter to the YM and YW presidencies, and included in this letter was the admonition that the young men should avoid young women at dances who were dressed immodestly. This is so wrong for so many reasons. So many. I saw a group of young ladies at the store on Sunday wearing cute spring skirts, and in my neighborhood it's a pretty safe bet that they had just come from church. One of the skirts was really tight and short, and I wondered if anyone had given her crap about wearing it at church. Probably not. But I just had this sudden and very strong thought that if there is one place where there should be no dress code, it's church. I don't even care. Someone shows up in a bikini to church on Sunday? Oh well. Move over and make room on the pew. Who cares? Really? You come to worship God, you should be welcomed regardless of what you're wearing. Period. And no one should set themselves up as the modesty police, but least of all the young men. You don't teach young people to shun others based on what they're wearing. Gross.

I've finished reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. Two thumbs up. Gotta reserve the third one at the library. I'm in the middle of Lucky Man, which is Michael J. Fox's first memoir, and The Prada Paradox, which is just fluff garbage reading, my favorite type. The back of the book calls it a combination of action and chick-lit, which is right up my alley. Michael J. Fox's memoir is good so far. I really loved his second one, and this one is fun to read too. He's so positive, and his wife, Tracy Pollan, is so cool. I picked up this book called something like Is Anyone Out There?, and I was so mad at it that I didn't even finish it. According to the book jacket, it was supposed to be kinda quirky and funny, but I get about a third of the way in and find out that one of the main characters is dead and it was incredibly sad to me! I don't read books that make me cry. I was so pissed. This is why I read goofy books like Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon Hunting Soccer Mom. Silly and cheesy? Sure, but it's guaranteed to not make me cry.

I got Montgomery Gentry concert tickets and I'm about to buy Def Lepard/Poison tickets for this summer. So excited! Haven't been to a show for a while. Also, I entered to win a trip to Nashville to see my boyfriend Brantley Gilbert in concert.

Things That Make Me Smile

Things that make me happy today:

This song. Just found this acoustic version. Makes me smile. And want to take a ride in my truck.





Brantley Gilbert. Besides my husband, this man is the hottest person on the planet. Just looking at him makes me happy. And his voice. It makes me happy too.



Courtney and Josh's fish had babies. At one point there were 13, but now we can only find 5 or 6. It's always hard to tell because they're sneaky little buggers. But they're really cute. It's fun to watch them.

I bought our Trace Adkins tickets. When I first logged on they were sold out, but I kept hitting refresh and was able to grab a pair that came open when someone else didn't buy them.

The weather has been so lovely. Warm, blue skies, what's not to love?

How I Kick Butt

I kicked some grading butt this weekend!! I got all those essays graded, plus a few other assorted things. Grades are in, classroom is clean, desks are rearranged, list is all checked off. I rock.

I think I need a new job. I enjoyed working by myself way too much yesterday. I need a job where I don't have to talk to anyone. Maybe I should go back to the post office.

Yesterday I had one of those moments parents live for. Brittney said, "I know you've been advocating that for a really long time, but I never really realized how right you were until now." Aw yeah. Mom knows what she's talking about! Granted, we were talking about how foods should be kept separate and not mixed together all nasty and casserole-like, but still. It's good when your kids realize you are right about stuff.

Brittney's derby team was invited to skate in the Saint Patrick's Day parade in Salt Lake on Saturday, but she had training at Lagoon. Bummer. Welcome to real life, mija. She got to go with her team to watch the Junction Roller Dolls bout that night, though, and they had fun there, so that was good.

There is a discussion on Feminist Mormon Housewives about spiritual gifts, or lack thereof, and poster Amy said, "I feel like I have been given the gift of skepticism and irritation." Ha! Totally me too.

Today is the first day of fourth term. It's going to fly by. I can't believe how fast this school year has gone. It seems like it just barely started, but if I think back, Christmas does seem like it was months ago, and I can't even remember Halloween, so I don't know... Time is a tricky thing.

I got a new poster that I've been wanting for my classroom for a while. I hung it by my desk.



It has the text of the essay/letter that Brian writes on the side of it:
Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did WAS wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

Probably most people think I'm weird, but I likes what I like.

Auto Zone started summer hours this week, so now Sean has to work until 10:30 instead of 9:30. Yuck.

Hmmmm.... that's all I can think of.

Pi Day

I read that it was Pi Day this morning, but then forgot all about it. Sean said he wanted pie for dessert, so we went to pick one up at Marie Callendar's, and then I remembered that it was Pi Day when I walked in and there were a billion people in there buying pie. Not a good day to buy a pie. It was expensive and not as good quality as usual because they were cranking so many out. Oh well. Still pretty tasty. I got chocolate because that's what my family likes, but I really wanted cream cheese. Mmmmmmm

The Democratic party caucus was last night. We had a little bigger turnout than in years past. I'm the precinct vice chair this time. And a county delegate. I'm going to try to volunteer a little more this year, but we'll see how it turns out.

It's the last week of the term and I have a ton of essays to grade, and I hate it. I am having the hardest time forcing myself to do it. Ugh! It takes about an hour to do 10-12 papers, and I have 200 students. Just shoot me now.

March Party & Other Stuff

Well, March Party out on Antelope Island went off without a hitch. Our picnic was not eaten by ants, nor buffalo. Our little celebration of making it through January/February and into March hasn't gained a big family following quite yet, though. The older girls didn't come. Maybe when we hold March Party in St. George they will be more interested.

I'm thinking we'll do another picnic and hike tomorrow after Sean gets off work. The weather has been so beautiful.

Man, this is an exciting blog post so far.

I want to go to a good concert. I wish Bon Jovi would come back. That was epic fun. I'm buying Trace Adkins tickets this month. Maybe I can talk Sean into going out to the Westerner. That sounds like fun, too.

I need to go to the D.I. and look for some books, but I really didn't want to go today. Too busy. But the weekdays are too crazy. There's not enough time for everything that needs to be done. Blah. Especially since I still have to fit in time for sitting like a lump on the couch watching TV shows on Netflix and reading. The latest Dean Koontz novel is pretty good, but I'm getting a little impatient with it here in the middle.

I signed Josh up for baseball today and Lexi said she wanted to play t-ball, so I signed her up too. As soon as I signed her up and paid the money she said she didn't want to play.

I just told Sean about how we should stay home for Spring Break and do some home repairs and spend the money on practical things, but that's a stupid idea. I really really want to just so somewhere warm and relax.

I'm not sure this blog post really contains any actual important info that needs to be preserved for posterity, but I guess I'll hit publish anyway.

Harlequins & Other Stuff

Well, the Harlequins are now officially an independent junior roller derby team.
We voted on it a week or two ago, and we all feel really good about it. We have an awesome coach, and Wasatch Roller Derby is helping us out with an affordable practice facility. We also have use of a bus now for carpooling out to the practice facilities in Salt Lake. The team captain's parents bought it with some other uses in mind as well, and the dad got his CDL and drives them. It's so awesome. Brittney came home from practice last night with all kinds of war injuries. I'm surprised she's up and walking today.

I am planning the March Party today, and I told Lexi we were going on a hike and a picnic. She said in this sweet little girl voice, "Clearly... our picnic will be eaten by ants." And rolled her eyes. "Ants and worms. Because they crawl on the grass, so we will need a placemat or something." OK there, sassypants.

I really feel the need to declare how much I hate Harriet Cole and all of the people who write to her. They always have the most inane loser questions, and her advice stinks. I read her column every week just because I enjoy being annoyed, I guess. Also, I hate Rick Santorum. Passionately.

Two of Josh's favorite things right now are a household-items science experiment book I got him and his Criss Angel magic kit that Courtney and Curtis gave him for Christmas. He's been doing magic tricks and trying to get me to let him do science experiments for the last 2 days.

Not sure what Lexi ended up having, but she felt much better yesterday and is back to normal. Thank goodness.

I'm off to do the grocery shopping.

End of February

Nothing real exciting going on here the last week or so.

Last Friday I went to up to Weber State with the English Quest kids. It was fun. They were pretty cute. Sitting in the student union building always makes me want to go back to college, but unfortunately since there's more to school than hanging out in the union, I guess that will need to wait until life slows down some.

I'm finally getting serious about losing some weight, so I started counting calories. It's been very enlightening. I got soup, salad, and a roll for lunch today. I would normally think of that as a fairly light lunch, nothing too over the top, but I was shocked by how many calories it was when I really added it up. Ranch dressing alone is 70 calories for 1 tablespoon. The baked potato soup was about 300 calories. I skipped the roll. The thing that's been nice about it, though, is that now that I'm not pigging out like I used to, I just feel better. I don't get stuffed, I don't feel bad if I eat a treat because it's in my calorie count, and it's not even that big a deal. Of course, I've only been doing it for a few days, ha, so I imagine I might say something different a week from now.

Lexi woke up this morning with what looked to be pink eye, and the daycare of course won't take anyone with pink eye. It was too late to get a sub, so I took her up to my classroom with me until I could see if it was just a runny eye, which my kids sometimes get when they're getting a cold, or actually pink eye. It stayed pretty pink and puffy looking, so she stayed with me all day. About 10:30 or so she started feeling crappy, and she fell asleep with her head on the desk in the computer lab before 3rd period ended. So I took her back to my room and she fell asleep on the floor for lunch and most of 4th period. Then she woke up and threw up all over. Such a fun day. So she's still sick, got a fever and still throwing up, and elevated ketone levels. I need to give insulin, but she hasn't kept anything down, so I might have to break out the glucagon. Oh, diabetes, how you add an extra little thrill to everything. Can't decide if I want to get a sub tomorrow since I was just gone last Friday for Quest. Maybe I'll have Sean take this one.

Josh and I were chatting about school, and I asked him what he does in music class... if they learn fun little songs or get to play cool instruments or what. I remember when they used to break out the glockenspiel and xylophone and drums and the triangle and the tamborine... all that stuff that I thought was so fun. Nope, none of the above. They've been watcing The Sound of Music, in half hour increments since that's how long music class is. I feel sorry for him. I hate that show. He apparently does too.

Brittney got a job at Lagoon in Ticketing, so she's got all sorts of training and junk going on this month. She'll be doing the auto gate, tickets, Bounce Back, the Skycoaster, all that good stuff. I hope it works out OK and that she has some fun somewhere along the way. Yay for a kid with her own money.

Josh and Lexi start up swim lessons next week, so I'm hoping between Sean's night job, Courtney's work schedule and school, Brittney's trainings, roller derby, and swim lessons we can somehow get everyone where they need to be. And I'm hoping swim lessons will tire my kids out, because they are impossible to put to bed at night. It's ridiculous and I wind up being a really unpleasant person before they finally fall asleep.

Josh got a crab for his fish tank, and the little sucker is always trying to escape. He is so ugly. I always have to go look for him before I go to bed to make sure he's not on the loose because one night I went in there and he was out sitting on top of the tank. I woke Sean up to poke it back down inside. Uck. I want nothing to do with any of it.

It's time for March Party! We made it to March. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a snow storm, so it will have to wait. Sunday is supposed to be sunny and warm, so I'm thinking a picnic or a hike is in order.