Miscellany

I hate car repairs. I love having a husband who can do car repairs. Do other people have as many car problems as we do? Man alive. I guess it's because we always drive older cars. And the universe hates us. We replaced the transmission in our Mazda last April. It seems to be dead again. Thanks Tanner Transmission! Thanks for nothing. They only warranty it for a year. It's been exactly a year and a month. So Sean is now going to drop the transmission on the Mazda himself to save us $800-$1200. I'm grateful he can, but for the uninitiated, transmissions are a pain in the butt. It's heavy, you need a special jack, it's messy, and it's just time consuming. On the bright side, I'm an expert at towing vehicles by now. If you ever need a tow, you just call me up. I'll hook ya up and pull ya home. I'm just glad it didn't decide to die when Sean was on the freeway today or when Courtney was driving it at 12:30 am Saturday night.

Brittney and I have watched Celebity Apprentice off and on this season, so we had to watch the finale on Sunday and root for Bret Michaels. I was worried about him the whole time he was on stage, though. He looks amazingly good for everything he's been through. I have concert tickets to see him in July, but I'll be amazed if he's well enough to tour. I sure hope so, though, because that will be a fun show.

Josh had his first t-ball game last Thursday. He was really scared at first. He was fine at practice, but he had this image in his head that an actual game would be really scary. But he pulled himself together and went out and had a great time. Now he can't wait to play again and keeps asking when his next game is. Thank goodness. He needs more outlets for all that energy.

The daycare had its annual carnival on Friday. They always do a CD of pictures of the kids at the end of the year and play it at the carnival. Several of the high schoolers and one of the teachers said, "Oh I can't watch this. I'm going to start crying." I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I just bawl every year. It's so hard to see them get older. I'm so very sentimental and nostalgic that I get teary about the silliest things, so I'm glad that some of the things that turn me all blubbery are normal.

Josh had another slightly scary allergic reaction last night. He's started having a new kind. Some things he's allergic to will cause an immediate reaction, but others won't. They'll just make him itch later. So those types of things I'll sometimes let him eat and just not really worry too much. But he's started having a delayed reaction brought on by exercise. Twenty minutes after eating he'll go downstairs and run around, and then all of a sudden he can't breathe and he's clawing at his skin. Back to the doctor, I guess.

Only a little bit of school left. I have mixed feelings, but that's a topic for another day. Time to go drown my car sorrows in ice cream.

Senior Pics

If you don't want to read shameless bragging and overly sentimental drivel, skip this one.

Courtney is graduating in two weeks. I'm going to cry like a baby. Love this girl.


I'm pretty dang proud of this kid. Graduating with honors, Sterling Scholar, finished her CNA before her junior year...


I'm so glad I get to be her mom and her friend. She is easy-going, always up for anything, loves her siblings, and keeps me laughing all the time.


I'm really excited to see what's next for her.

For Heather

I heart this. The studio version is great too, but it's softer. This one has more passion, even though it's not entirely perfect.

Tru Confessions

I ate like 16 dozen cookies in the last 2 weeks. No, serious. Sugar. Chocoolate chip. Frosted sugar. Chocolate chip-pecan-oatmeal. Insane. I love cookies like Cookie Monster loves cookies.

I committed several crimes against fashion this week.

I spent my grocery money on concert tickets today.

I listen to Nickelback sometimes. And I like it. I'm thinking that may be the most shameful of my confessions.

Whew... enough confession for one day. Time for the latest.

Rasmussen Family Night this month was awesome. Mom planned swimming at the Bountiful Rec and awesome dinner after. The kids had a great time. Lexi and Josh couldn't get enough of the big slide.

The Democrat State Convention was pretty interesting. I really feel like I want to get involved in some things. There is a scary trend toward extreme partisanship, though, in both parties, both locally and nationally. It's really bothersome. The Democrats forced Matheson into a primary, mostly because of his vote on health care. I was unhappy about his health care vote as well, but he represents the party's values almost all of the time. He's done a lot of good for Utah. He was the only Utah legislator to fight against nuclear testing upwind of us at Yucca Mountain. He was the only Utah legislator to fight nuclear waste coming to Utah from other states and other countries. The only one to sign off on expanded health care for children. He's the only one working on the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. He's done a lot of good, but because of one vote he's in danger of being voted out. Same thing with Bob Bennett, except he is out. We're coming to a point where you will be voted out if you reach across the aisle and break party lines to compromise with the other guy, and that's a scary place to be. Anyway... It was a little weird having the Republicans and Democrats in the same building. Some guy who works for the Matheson campaign and I were walking through the Republican part of the building together. I had my Granato yard sign and my Corroon/Allen sign, and he was wearing a Matheson shirt, and we were a little worried we might get jumped. I saw the "Flush the Libs" signs and was worried I was in for a swirly. But we made it through safely, I'm happy to report.

Mother's Day was nice. The kids bought me flowers and presents. Brittney bought me Zombieland and Courtney bought me a spa certificate. Can't ask for better than that. We had dinner at Cami's and it was nice for everyone to get together. I went home early with a headache, but it was a good day nonetheless.

I've been having problems with headaches lately. Not sure what that's about. My doctor thought maybe a sinus infection, but antibiotics didn't do anything. I had to see a different doctor the next time, and he thinks maybe tension headaches. I'm skeptical. Guess we'll see. He's like... you need to make sure you're getting exercise, enough sleep, eating well. Ummm... yeah. Riiigghhhtttt. Like any of that will happen. I'm going back to my regular doctor. She's a mom with young kids... she gets my struggles LOL.

Josh started t-ball and that's pretty dang cute. He's so excited about it. Hopefully that will last all season. Games start this week.

So the most awkward day of my year is over with. I hate English Tea. It never fails that I always feel like an idiot afterward, and this year was no exception, from beginning of the day to end. We had English dept meetings that day, and I had to give a presentation on something that I'm really not confident about sothenIstartedtalkingreallyreallyfast just to get it over with and argh it was so yucky. Normally I have no problem speaking in front of people. It's the curse of English Tea day. Then there were other random goofy things that happened. And my 2nd period was naughty and pissed the sub off, so I have to crack a few heads over that one tomorrow. I topped the day off with a crazy conversation with someone at a meeting where I was just sitting there pretending to agree, but really wanted to say, "You are crazy." So glad that day is over for the year. The amount of awkward is enough to keep my self-esteem down for at least a few months.

Survivor finale tonight! Yay? Not sure. If Sandra wins, it will be made of yay. Parvati, she will at least deserve it. Jerri, I will sigh in frustration, but whatever. Colby, now that would be some sort of cosmic joke, since he hasn't even known that he was on Survivor and was supposed to be playing a game for weeks now. Dude was asleep during the last tribal council, not even kidding. Russell winning would be like the apocolypse. I hate that little troll.

Survivor sidenote: Seriously, are you watching the Ponderosa videos on CBS.com? If not, you MUST! I promise, it is worth your while. I've watched some of the Ponderosa clips off and on over the years, and it's always interesting to see what happens and where they go when they're voted off, and to see their interactions. But these are awesome! Coach is actually a cool guy! Who knew? He's great! And Courtney. If you are a Courtney hater (I'm not, but I love her even more now) you have to watch. She's so funny and snarky and fabulous. They formed a band called The Dragonz and they even made a music video. With JT on guitar. It's hee larious.

Brittney cut her bangs and trimmed her hair this week, and Courtney died hers a totally different color.




Stole Brittney's pics off facebook. Courtney has pics of hers on her phone, but it will be another 6 weeks and another hair color before she sends them to the computer. :P

More Prom + Other Stuff

Awww....

Just a clarification: In my last post I state that my goal for May is to lose 4 lbs. That's just the goal for May. I need to lose much more than 4 lbs. total. For evidence of this, see the picture of me in the swimming pool a few posts back. I could lose 4 lbs just in arm flab. Sean and I have been watching our diet more carefully for a few weeks now. Guess how much weight he's losing? About 3 lbs a week. Guess how much I've been losing? Starts with a "z" and ends with "ero".

Brittney got her boater safety permit in the mail, so now she's legal to drive the WaveRunners when we rent them. And the boat, I guess, too. Yay! Now if it could, like, you know, stop snowing and stuff, that might be cool.

I'm in charge of invitations for the English Tea again this year, and the Tea is in two weeks, and I haven't made them yet. Do you think that's a problem? I need to go buy the stuff and get this done. Need to grade a bunch of stuff and get midterms done. School is almost out! I like this part, the anticipation, where I can look forward to summer and be excited about it. Once summer starts, it just flies by so fast and then it's gone. How can you make time stretch out and slow down? Wish it were possible.

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:::