Baby it's cold outside...... Have we just lived through the Worst Decade Ever?

Seriously it's cold outside.  Wow!!  So after my much thought out previous blog post I just don't have it in me to do that much thinking again.  Though I must say I have been reading Time Magazine at work and it does have some thought provoking articles.  The one I read today states that we have just finished up the WORST decade ever.  Ever?  I wonder if I agree with that.  While I agree the first 10 years of the 21st Century (2000 - 2009) probably haven't been the best, but I wonder if they have been the worst ever?  I think back to the era of the Great Depression and the many wars we went through.  Granted we are now fighting a few wars and 2 major ones in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we have not had a draft and for that I am thankful.  If you compare money spent on war and troops these have been worse than the previous ones, but call me dumb and blind but it seems that we as a country are handling it better that we did in earlier years. 

So while this has been a trying decade as a whole and as a family we have lived through prosperity, poverty, health, illness, murder and everything in between and for some reason I don't know if I agree with the name of Worst Decade.  I may feel differentaly if I was older and had lived through some of the earlier conflicts but as I see it and studying history with my son I think we held our own.  I think we learned from our history and while we had bigger struggles like never before seen (9/11) I think that we made it through.

So I am going to say that I don't think that last 10 years have been the worst to live through, there have deffinately been worse, but I guess if you look at $$ and the economy and markers like that then yup we are in trouble, but that isn't me.

Do you think this last 10 years deserves the title of Worst Decade Ever?

Life is what you make of it

I am a firm believer that your life is what you make of it.  I get down sometimes but that is because I allow it, not because others cause it.  I totally get and accept this.  Life is going good right now, I have barely anything to complain about except the normal, my kids didn't pick up their toys and we have Way to may extra-circuricullar activities, but otherwise we are all healthy and happy.  It has been an adjustment getting used to Scott's new schedule.  Even though he is home every other day, he isn't really "here" because that is his re-coup day and he mostly sleeps and does laundry, but at least his body is here right?  We look forward to the 4 and 6 day breaks and that is when he is really "here."  So I just go on with out life as normal on days when he is home and he can choose to join in if he can and if he can't we just go about our plans.  It seems to work fine.  The only problem is when he is home for 1 day and isn't tired and wants to do "something" he doesnt' know what it is but he wants to do "something" so then it throws a wrench in the plans, but I am good and just going with the flow.  We are soooo extremely blessed to make it through these last 2 years and now we are getting rewarded for it.

So what do you make of your life?  Are you a positive person?  Are you negative?  Do you call yourself a "realist" and see the negative in all things just claiming you are trying to be "real" about the situation? 

You are probably wondering what brought this about?  Well I read a report in Time magazine about people with low self esteem and that have thoughts about themselves that are less than favorable and people who choose to see good in life, in the world and in themselves.  They took these "sad" people and had them write in journals for an hour at a time once a week and during that week they did exercises we have all heard of, look in the mirror and repeat after me "I am a good person.  I am beautiful....." and then write in the journal.  They were also suppose to stop intermittantly while writing and repeat those self-affirming words and continue to write.  You know what they found???  It doesn't help.  Seriously.  You know what they found does help???  Taking these people with low self-esteem and with less than favorable thoughts and perspectives about themselves, life in general and the world, help them to accept their feelings and move on with it.  In other words it's okay to feel that way!!  Can you believe it?  It's okay to have low self-esteem.  So now that you have accepted this what do you do with it?  Well they then teach them how to deal with it.  How to work on raising your self esteem, but in little steps and in such a way that it does not seem they are actually "doing" anything.  In the end, though it took a considerable amount of time their journals started to become more positive and they actually changed their outlook on life.  All this from accepting who you are, what your life is and either deciding to change it or not.  But the big point in my mind is it did not come from standing in front of a mirror and saying "I am beautiful.....I am a good person...." 

So I am here to say I am not a strikingly beautiful person, I have never been.  I accept myself as I am.  I actually think I have my days where I look ok and I am good with that.  I do think I am a good person.  I do not think I am a great person most of the time, but I am fine with being good.  I have accepted my life, the good, the bad and the ugly.  There was a time when I did try to force myself and my family to change who we were and it was not pretty.  We all rebelled.  I thought what I was doing was right and basically I stood in front of the family and said told them this is how we were going to be.  We were going to do this and that and look a certain way and on and on and on and I thought that by reaffirming this everyday it would work, well guess what???  It didn't.  So I accept my family and my life for what it is and I love it.  We are soooooo far from perfect and we may never be where we want but we are always striving and I have learned that change in moderation is the way to go.  Small steps that are barely noticeable and it doesn't seem like we are trying to hard.

So if you get nothing more out of this rambling you can just know that I dont' think I am pretty, and I am an ok person.......JUST KIDDING.  That isn't what I want to you to remember.  Please sit back and look at yourself, accept you for who you are and then decide where you need to work and do it slowly.  Look at your family and also love them for who they are and then go about change in a slow manner.  Remember life is what you make of it, but you can't make it how you IDEALLY want it all at once.

I love you all.

PS I dont' even have a good picture to put with this one.  Sorry.

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.........

You may think I am refering to my job at Lynn's Audio Video, but no I am refering to my "real" job as a mother to my 4 wonderful kids.  Today is just one of those days where I walk around the house reminding myself to take deep breaths and muttering to myself "I love my job"  "I love my life"  "I love my children"  "I wish Scott were coming home.......I love my life"  Nothing BAD has happened today just a lot of odd things that have made the day wear on and on.  So let me start with this weekend.  My birthday was on Saturday and I spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself and crying.  Really please don't feel bad, I am over it and there wasn't anything anyone of you wonderful people could do.  It all boils down to one simple thing and I am trying to fix it I swear.  I don't have any friends.  And even though I use that word in the plural form, I really just want 1 good friend, is that so much to ask?  You will all have to agree with me that there is a difference between family friends and friends who don't "have" to be nice to you.  Thank you all for being nice to me, but I just wanted another girl to go to the movie New Moon with me.  I was happy that Scott went, but it was ovious he was tired and wanted to sleep and he was only there for me.  He even took me out to sushi for dinner before hand.  What a great man.  He knew I was sad and there wasn't anything he could do.  You have all heard me say I get sad at times, I miss my friends in Washington.  They didn't have a lot of money but for my birthday we got together for lunch and a girl time at a lunch space, it was great!!  I Guess I just miss that companionship. It also doesn't help that my best friend in Washington makes me sad when she says how much she misses me, I wish I could just jump a plane and rush right up there.

 So I forgot to mention that it is basketball season and we are having our own little struggles with basketball this year.  This is our first year playing at Mt. Crest and let's just say I am less than impressed and basically threw away $100.  That's right you heard me it was $50 a kid for basketball.  But I was all for it if they liked it and it was a good program.  Boy was I let down.  First off Colton's team didn't have a coach.  THe first game came and we were told they had a coach, we get to the game and no coach and only 4 boys, that isn't enough to play.  So a dad and myself decide to coach.  We had another boy show up so we finally had 5 but it was sad.  These are 3rd grade boys and most of them have never played basketball with rules.  Colton has, but he was less than impressed.  He is so grown up sometimes.  He hasn't had a single practice and he did not want to go to his game this last Saturday and I can't say I blame him.  Believe me that lady in charge is getting an earful from me.  Now I come to Bowen.  HE has been playing basketball since 3rd grade.  He is good.  In 4th grade he played on a competative team.  He is tall and talented.  I don't say this being his mom, but it is true.  I put him in the Aggie basketball camp this summer to help him improve and get ready for the fall season.  Well he is on a team that also had no coach, then a dad stepped up who does not know how to play basketball but thought "how hard can it be?"  Well Bowen is teh only kid who has played before so the other boys cannot even pass teh ball correctly.  So we spend the entire game watching them try to pass teh ball and it getting taken away.  Poor Bowen is very discouraged but this is a good lesson is patience and helping others to learn and grow.  It just frustrates me that I spent money on this.  Here are some fuzzy pictures of Bowen.

So here is what we do for entertainment while at Bowen's games.  Mt. Crest has these totally wierd hand rails and they are the perfect size for a 3 year old to climb in or for a 9 year old to get his butt stuck in.  What we would do for entertainment if we didn't have these guys around?

I digress, sorry.  So Saturday, crying, birthday cake (that Mason fed to Titan), sushi, New Moon.  Then Sunday came and Scott went to work.  We ran out of time on Saturday and were unable to get dinner ready for the guys at the station so I went to Wal Mart at 8:30 AM (please don't judge or yell at me) and got the ingredients for their dinner, then I put it all together and rushed the kids off to church.  Right after church we came home and got ready to head to Ogden to finish dinner for the guys.  IT just so happened this was right when the snow storm hit.  Oh well that is how my luck goes.  So I ran the kids to Amber's house to play (Thanks Amber!!!) while I finished up dinner at the station and ate with the guys.  It was a hit.  I made alfredo noodles with baked chicken breasts, green salad, french bread and a chocolate cake triffle (recipe at end of post).  Now it is really snowing.  So I go back to Amber's and grab the kids (Thanks Amber!!!) and we go home.  Luckily the storm had made it to Ogden and had left the canyon and Logan was clear by this time.  The drive home was uneventful.  We got home late and I did not pay attention to the time and made chex mix at 9:00 at night.  What was that about??? so since it takes an hour to bake i was up till 10 cooking.  Oh well.  Today has been odd but it is almost over and I am no longer sad.  RIght now I am a little lonely because Scott is working today so that is 2 full days with him gone.  I have been doing just fine with him gone 1 day at a time, this is my first 48 hour stretch.  I am sure I will survive. 

Sometimes I surprise myself

So yesterday I was making one of my standard dinner's for myself and the kids which was meatloaf and augratin potatoes.  Boring right???  Well I would say in the last 5 years we have really been expanding our foods that we have been including in our meals and adding new flavors.  Needless to say we have had great outcomes with this and now my children....read that again.....my CHILDREN love such things as Indian Food, Chineese Food, ARTICHOKES, and most any kind of peppers be it red, green, orange or red.  I have been loving it!!  We have also become conisures of such flavors as balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes and Umami.  Since you are just dying for my surprising meatloaf recipe I will share it because it turned out to be the BEST I have ever made. 

Ingredients:

Zucchini
Onion
Green Pepper
1 pound Ground Pork
1 1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 large egg
bread crumbs
salt & pepper
1/4 - 1/2 cup catsup
balsamic vinegar

I chopped up some zucchini, green peppers and onions and I cooked them on the stove top in a little olive oil to make them soft, set them aside and let them cool down.

Then you take 1 pound of Ground Pork (this is important) and 1 1/2 pounds of Lean Ground Beef and add the rest of the ingredients:  egg, salt and pepper, 1/4 c catsup 2 tbs balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup bread crumbs.  Mix well with your hands - Yes use your hands.

Now add the cooled vegetables.  It shouldn't be to moist.  If it looks moist and extremely "wet" then add more bread crumbs and make sure you mix them in well so you don't bite into a chunk of crumbs.

So now take your cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper or aluminun foil and plop the entire mixture out onto the sheet and form it into a wide loaf that looks like this.  The only thing I would do different is I would make it shorter and wider so that you get more of teh loaf covered with the glaze you will make.  And this recipe won't make a loaf this big!!

So now for the glaze.  It is an American tradition to put catsup on top of your meatloaf and who am I to mess with tradition?  I only ask that you take your 1/2 cup of catsup and spice it up with 1 tablespoon or more of balsamic vinegar.  When this cooks down it make the yummiest sweet and tangy topping on your meatloaf and with there being some vinegar in the loaf itself it just all comes together like a wonderful choir.

So I spent all my time on my wonderful meatloaf that I will admit to paring it with a box of Augratin potatoes but I have taken time before to make cheesy funeral potatoes or bakes sweet potatoes goes well with this.  I will do artichokes with this also to add in more vegetables and a good dose of fiber.

Let me know what you think.  Try it, your kids will love the flavor and won't know they are eating all those veggies especially if you chop them up small.

I Do It Cause I Should

What am I refering to?  Well blogging.  So I will make another admission to you all out in internet world.  I am a horriable blogger.  I am not referring to the actual blogging part of it, but the "doing" it part.  I have about 10 started journals from my youth until about 2-3 years ago.  I always start them but that is about it.  I like to write, I am just bad about actually doing it.  I feel I need a topic.  I just can't write the same stuff every day, which is where the journal stuff comes into play.  I would like to blog more often but I feel my life is rather ordinary and I don't have much interesting to say so why would anyone be interested?  Why would my posterity be interested in things like "Scott went to work, kids went to school, I went to work, cleaned the house, ran kids to activities......"  see what I mean?  So before I blog I actually spend time thinking of what I should write about.  I then lurke in other blogs to see what they are writing about and maybe get some inspiration.  I will admit this works sometimes.  Mandy is a good source of inspiration.  I will admit I couldn't even make up her story about the primary program, but often times real life is bettern than fiction.  I sometimes wish my life were more interesting but in a good way, not the tragic way it has been for sometime now.

So that brings me to what is going on now which is not much.  This week marked Scott's first 6 day break.  Luckily enough he had an EMS Conference to attend in SLC and I was able to go.  Millville/NIbley paid for the fees to attend and for our hotel room for 3 nights and dinner at PF Changs on Friday night.  I went along and on Thursday I spent the day with Tamy Christmas shopping then Scott and I had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (LOOOOOOVE IT).  On Friday I scored some coupons from Layne Bryant and I hit the Gateway.  I also love shopping there but on a different level.  There are stores there I never get to go into other than when I go there.  There are stores that have great items I would never and could never buy but looking at them are great.  It was very cold and I am glad for my wool peacoat to keep me warm, but I was able to buy clothing that came to over $250 and I only had to pay $110 by the time I used my 25% Friends and Family coupon and then an additional $50 off for spending more than $100.  SO it was one of those shopping trips where I showed Scott how much I saved before I told him how much I spent.  I was excited, he really didn't care.  We then had lunch at the Lionhouse on Temple Square.  It was nice.  I spent some time on Temple Square after lunch while Scott went back to his conference and I watched some couples getting wedding photos, then I wanted to walk back to our hotel but I was soooo frozen that I just took a cab.

We were going to stay on FRiday night but neither one of us were sleeping well in our hotel room and our kids missed us so we came home late friday night.  Saturday was rather uneventful.  It just snowed.  We went grocery shopping and did housework and then caught up on the DVR shows we missed while in SLC.  We will just hang around Sunday because it's Stake Conference and then Monday starts Scott's next 8-day shift.  He is anxious already.  He gets worn our working but he is recovered after 1 day and has nothing to do the rest of the time.  WE will have to find a hobby for him for sure.

So about Thanksgiving.  I am soooo excited for all of you who have decided to attend.  We are up to over 30 people and it will be exciting.  I am "organizing" the entire meal and I would love everyone who is attending and who is ABLE to contribute what they would like.  Please let me know if there is a special dish you would like to bring and I will make sure to put it on the list.  I will be making phone calls this week, but I am just excited that so many of us can get together.  Have a nice weekend and I love you all.

Catchup.....or catsup, however you prefer

So it has been a while and I am not sure why.  I do prefer facebook because it seems simpler and I don't feel compeled to do a long thing.  Here are some pictures from this last week.  I hope you all are ready for the holiday seasons that are upon us.  I know I am. 

As a note, we have moved Thanksgiving Dinner to Grandma Elder's basement.  She is considering it practice for Christmas Party.  So everyone is invited to dinner at Grandma Elder's house for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Please let me know if you plan to attend as I am the Executive Chef for this meal.  I may even get one of those chef's jackets.....or maybe not, but it would be cool (hint hint).  So far our menu will consist of turkey (not cooked by grandma LOL) prime rib, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravey, green bean casserole, 7 layer salad, carrots and a lot more followed by a palethera of pies to include but not limited to pumpkin, lemon meringue, pecan and maybe some creme brulee`  So you are all welcome and like I said just let me know so I can plan and get enough prime rib (for adults only) and make appropriate side dishes.  Oh and if there are any special requests please let me know and I am sure we can fit them in.

So, back to my original purpose my pictures.  Here you go and I hope you like them.

The other night I was checking on everyone to make sure they were in bed and this is what I found.  Bowen & Colton together in Bowen's room along with 1 bulldog and a kitten.  This happens quite often, even though they both have their own room they always end up together.  I guess I just assumed that kids want their own rooms because growing up that was the only thing I wanted was to not share a room with Amber, but in this situation it is the other way around.  THe only thing these boys want is to SHARE a room with each other.

Visiting dad at teh station.  This is Scott's bed.  The kids have sooo many questions.  Do your feet hang over?  Is it comfortable?  Do the other guys snore?  Are you warm enough?  You would think they were his wife, LOL.

Trying on the clothes dad wears when fighting a fire.  Aren't they cute???

How cute is he?  He has a long way to go.  He has now decided he wants to be a firefighter also but in Paris France.  I say go for it!!  I will visit a few times each year.  Guess I should start studying french.

After Scott got called out again we decided to go and visit Amber since she isn't that far.  She was very very excited to see teh kids.

As you can see, while I was happy to see my younger sister she was very very excited to see me.  She sat on my lap and showered me with love.  We can thank Justin for the not so flattering shot of her behind, but I think it is a good picture of myself, so that is why I included it.  Thanks Amber we had a great time and good sushi.

So that was our week.  Let me know about Thanksgiving.

This is one ginormous size post

Well this week has come and gone and while I have a goal to blog more than 1 time a week, I am trying to use this as my journal, I had a hard time getting to it.  Since Scott has been working I have been doing housework.  It is amazing how hard it is to do housework when your significant other is home and not helping, it just takes the wind out of my sails.  As soon as he goes to work I feel like cleaning.

Anyway tomorrow, October 25, is Colton's 9th birthday.  I can only say I am glad that he is past 8 and we don't have to baptise him again, I don't hink I could handle organizing a family party right now.  So finally Colton decided he wanted to have a party at the Sports Academy in the gymnastics gym.  Cliff and Josie did this for Bailey's birthday and my kids LOVED it, so he decided to do it again.  I rented it for 1 1/2 hours.  I'll tell you it was great.  The kids needed no direction they just spread out and went all over.  There are 4 olympic trampolines and they were in use the entire time.  Mason had 1 dedicated just to himself, I think he jumped for an hour straight.  Here are some photos of the trampolines (the ones that turned out).  Ok so none of the trampoline pictures turned out, they are just a bunch of blur.  But trust me they were fun, I even spent some time on them.

So then we move on to the balance beam.  It was also a popular attraction.  Here are some pictures.  As you will see Misty if showing us how good her balancing skills after hours of practice on the rail of her bed when she was younger.  She did a cartwheel on the balance beam, she fell off, but she did it.  Cliff was not to be outdone so he did one also.  It was great fun.  Oh and he also fell off so they are even.

Here is a pic of Bowen on the vault.  I am sure he has olympic potential with the way he was trying to break his arm, I mean show off his manly gymnastic skills.

Ok, that now brings us to arguabley the most sought-after activity of the afternoon, the Zip Line.  There was a line up for that thing.  It wasn't very long, but you did get to drop into a lovely soft "pit" of mats and every kid loved it.  Our wonderful host Thomas (I think that was his name, if not that is what I will refer to him as from here on out) spent most of his time taking kids back and forth on that.......

Does Mistly look a little bit big to be on the zip line?

Everytime she hit the ground.  Josie and I laughed and laughed and so did Misty, but she finally figured out how to pick up her feet so she wouldn't smack into the mat anymore.

Bailey tried, but would having nothing to do with it.  Neither would Mason.

Bowen being a ham.  He is also to big to be on the zip line, which was a contributing factor to the next pictures.

My nephew McKay (Michelle's oldest son) was standing in line behind Bowen waiting for the zip line up on a pad, and Bowen was getting ready to go, McKay looked up and Bowen jumped on the line and the line came down so much and as McKay looked up the steel cable smacked him in the forehead and split it open.  Wow did it bleed, like head wounds do.  So I immediately run over and his mother is just standing there not knowing what to do (she is "slow") and goes to get some papertowels, as she hands them to me she decided she wants them wet, but I just grab them and slap them on his head with a lot of pressure.  She then just stands back and says very loudly and in mono-tone voice "Are you ok McKay?"  over and over and very loud.  I take charge, tell her he will be fine and to get him to stop freaking out I just tell him to take big deep breaths in adn out and try to calm down.  I am hearing talks of him having a seizure (which he does) and people getting aggitated.  Everytime I take the papertowls off it just gushes like Old Faithful.  So we just sit there for like 20 minutes waiting for it to stop, and his mother finally walked away.  And my MIL was there, and I only let her stay after telling her to be quiet and let me take care of him.  My friend Denise was there also and she is real big into homeopathic cures and she has some butterlfly strips and superglue in her bag.  She wanted to glue it shut, which I am a BIG fan of BUT we had nothing to disinfect it first and the thought of gluing in the germs made me cringe, so I just took her butterfly bandage and held it together and it seemed to hold fine.  Thomas got a bag of ice and McKay took a break on the chair.  After about 10 minutes he was ready to play again, even though his mother wasn't so sure.  She does not handle these situations well, but I assured her that he was fine to play, just keep his head away from places that could hit it again.  The one thing that bugged me most was the fact she never completely cleaned his face off as you can see in the picture.  I didn't have time to do it because I was helping to watch our group, and she never thought to do it.

Here is a picture of our entire group.  All in all it was a good party.  Everyone had fun.  Colton loved it and got a few gifts, but that didn't matter to him, he didn't want gifts, just a good time with his friend.

Saturday, Aggie Game, Pumpkins.......

So I am going to explain my Saturday.  It is kind of crazy so try to keep up.

On Friday Tamy decided she would come up on Saturday to take family pictures.  Scott wanted pictures in his new uniform and I needed new head shots of the kids since I do not buy the expensive and usually ugly school pictures.  So we were all excited and I washed the pants and shirts needed.  Well on Saturday we woke up and started to do "fall cleaning" outside and putting up bikes and mowing the lawn one last time (I hope) and just putting everything all away.  About 10:00 this morning I get a phone call from work and it is my boss (I work at Lynn's Audio Video) and because we are a sponsor for the Aggie game today he wanted to know if I wanted the free tickets to the game.  Well in all my life in Logan I have never attended an Aggie football game.  I was only a student at USU for a short while before switching schools and I never wanted to pay the $$ to see them and to be honest the first time I went to an Aggie basketball game was last year when my previous employer (Jones Simkins) gave my family tickets.  Anyway, I was like YES.  The kids were excited, we were excited then we checked out the time of the game and it started at 1:00.  Tamy was suppose to be here at 12:00 so that sucks.  We decided to go to the game and miss Tamy.  I am sorry Tamy, we will come see you soon.

The Aggies lost (no surprise) BUT it was a good enough game to keep your attention for a while.  The kids enjoyed the marching band and Big Blue and we discovered the BEST french fries/chips ever. 

Ribbon Fries

Okay, so I will admit there are some certain treats that I like at the local fairs like Texas Tornado drinks and Elephant Ears (fry bread) and now I have found another favorite.  I have never had these before.  They are 1 big continous ribbon of potato that is fried.  The lady was cute when she said "If you eat them hot they are fries, if you let them cool they are chips" and she was right.  We only had 1 plate to share, which was a good thing because I am sure I could eat a few plates myself.  They were so thin and hot and yummy. I now want to buy one myself so I can have them whenever I want.  Seriously the ribbon fries made the lousy game worth it.

Then we came home and Scott is on call for both Autocare (wrecker calls) and as EMT for Millville/Nibley.  He is getting soooooo excited for Monday when he officially starts his job.  The good thing I learned is that our full health, life, dental, vision, HSA insurance goes into effect on the first day of work.  So as of Monday we have health insurance.  Don't get me wrong the kids have always had insurance but Scott and myself haven't had insuance since we left Washington, which is why his pnemonia was so hard on us we had to pay cash.

Then the kids decided to do pumpkins tonight.  And I will admit I am probably a horriable mom because I HATE pumpkins.  I hate the smell, it makes me want to vomit, I hate the slime and the seeds.  Since we have had kids it has been Scott's job to do pumpkins and to be honest if Josie and Cliff hadn't generously brought us pumpkins I may have bought those fake ones from Joann that you can still carve.  Oh well now my house and my cat smells like pumpkin (because they thought she was cute inside a pumpkin).

Have a nice weekend, we did.

Water + Kitten = Drown Rat

Ok, so here is my uplifting story of the week.  And the reason this is uplifiting is the kitten did not, I repeat DID NOT drown.  So enjoy a story and use your imagination.

First off you have all met my kitten Pebbles right?

Isn't she cute?

Anyway because she is a Persian Cat, they have long long poofy (is that a word?) hair and because I am determined to keep her pretty hair nice and knot free she gets bath's in the sink once a week.  I figured if I started this out early she will handle it better when she is older.  So far she doesnt' mind it as long as the water is nice and warm and it does not get in her eyes.  Also, right after a bath she is sooooooo fluffy and she smells pretty.  So like I said she gets bathed regularily, no big deal.

Well last night (Thursday evening) it was bath night and Rainee had taken a bath, again no big deal.  Well around 9:30 PM Scott and I were in bed and I heard this loud kitty screeking.  Seriously it sounded like a banshee wailing.  So I jumped out of bed and since Scott didn't hear it he was like what are you doing crazy woman?  I followed the horriable sound to find, much to my astonishment, my kitten in a bathtub FULL of water.  Let me reiderate this A BATHTUB FULL OF WATER.  She was there with her head tilted up as far as she could and the water, miracously, stopped right at her bottom jaw.  If Rainee had just put 1/2 inch of water in the tub she would have drowned.  And yes, I would have done mouth-to-mouth, let's face it she has grown on us.

So I scooped her up and didn't have a towl near by so I ran back into my bedroom with a dripping wet kitten who is hissing and spitting at me.  I can just hear her thoughts "where did that water come from?  I always play in that tub and there is never anything in it."  She was maaaaaaad.  So I grab a clean town and wrap her up and it is all she can do to get away from me like I am the one who did it to her, when in acutality I was the savior who saved her life and she is forgetting this point.  At one point she did get out of my grasp and ran right to Scott and cuddled right up on his shoulder and that is where she stayed.

No Scott isn't sleeping, he just didn't want me to take his picture.

So he occasionally tried to rub her with the towl to aid in her drying process, but she would have none of it and spent ALL NIGHT perched there on his shoulder.

I am sorry Pebbles.  Rainee will NEVER leave water in her bathtub again.  Why do I know this?  Well being the mean mom I am I sort of, kind of, might have implied to her that she was responsible for killing the cat from her tub full of water, and I then went on to add that it could have been Mason in that tub and he could have drown also.  Then after she was crying, I pulled out Pebbles and showed her she was okay.  That may have been mean but I needed her to understand why what she did was bad, not because mom said.

So I am now sure Pebbles is scared for life, but we will see, now she doesnt' need a bath for another week and maybe she will forget by then right?

Frustrations

So this week has been very full and very interesting.  So I apologize in advance, but I am sure this will be a long and wordy post because there is a lot of explaining to do.

First off this week was consumed with firefighting stuff and sick kids.  And not just a little bit sick, but holy cow how did I miss that kind of sick.  To make a long sick story short we ended up with Colton with Pnemonia in his left lower lung and Mason had a bad case of the croop, or croup, however you prefer to spell it.  It got so bad that the usual 1 dose of steroids didn't work and he was coughing through one of teh strongest cough syrups promethezine with codeine.  Now for those of you who are not familar with cough syrup that is one of the strongest, it is so strong that it is the only one that works when I get my yearly asthma cough.  Anyways it didn't work, so teh next morning with little to no sleep I dragged him back to the doc with Colton who also had a cough, but it was dry and didn't seem to bother him much.  The doc took one listen to the crackles in his chest and diagnosed him and sent us on our way with steroids and strong anti-biotics.  Now this would deffinately freak out some parents, but I am very calm and know that both of these illnesses will go away with no lasting damage. 

So on the same day Bowen had a football game.  Now this wasn't any football game, in his region his Mt. Crest team and 2 different Sky View teams were all tied for 2nd place.  Well there was only room for 1st and 2nd place to advance to the playoffs.  So to solve this delema they decided to have a mini-playoff to decide 2nd place.  The deal was we started playing at 7:00 and we played 1 of the Sky View teams.  In order to get 2nd place we had to beat both Sky View teams that night.  We played the 1st half verses Sky View (black) and teh 2nd half against Sky View (blue).  I wasn't sure this was teh best solution, how fair is it that we play 2 games back to back adn those teams only have to play 1?  Anyways.......

So we are playing the first game and it is going good.  It is after 7:00 and it was COLD that night.  Scott and I were watching while my wonderful mother watched the other kids because of the COLD.  Did I mention it was COLD that night?  Ok, so with 7:50 left in the game we just scored a touch down and were ahead 6-0 when BOOM the lights went out and it was dark.  Now there wasn't really a boom, but when those large gas lights turn off there is a sound, adn then it was followed by a bunch of 11 year old boys saying things like "cool" "let's play in the dark" "who turned off the lights".......It was really really dark.  So we just hung around for a few minutes and then the coaches took the boys into the school which had emergency lights on and kept the boys warm.  The parents sat out in teh COLD while waiting for the lights to come back on or for a decision to be made.  About 15 minutes later Scott took off to check on Grandma and Grandpa Elder and get the kids from my mom since she had a "brown out" and couldn't watch TV and we all know that is teh best way to babysit right?  So I stayed there in teh COLD and finally about 30 minutes later the coaches came to us and said here are our options:  Wait for the lights to come back on and finish the games, Play tomorrow night, or go to Sky View and finish tonight.  It is already late and COLD but Sky View had power and they offered to open the field for us.  The referees were from out of town and wanted to play that night so they didn't have to come back the next day.  The boys were all worked up and winning and they wanted to play, so we all loaded up at 8:30 and headed north to Sky View.  Well we got there and guess what?  It was just as cold in Smithfield as in Hyrum.  So the game started at about 9:00 and we ended up winning.  So that meant time to play game 2.  We played that game, it was anti-climatic but we ended up loosing.  Now here is where I just roll my eyes.  WE PLAYED PEE WEE FOOTBALL UNTIL 10:30 on a Wednesday night.  A school night.  Seriously.  Does anyone else see anything wrong with this instead of me?  Oh well. 

We went home and the power was still out and Scott had ALL the kids in our room incase it got cold and they were all afraid to sleep in their rooms with no power.  HUH?  We sleep in teh dark anyway.  Oh Well, so then I am in bed and it isn't cold, but it is too warm because the ceiling fan doesn't work and I guess it isn't so warm as it was stale air.  But my next problem was my buttocks were FROZEN from hours in the freezing cold sitting on aluminum bleachers.  Does anyone know how cold aluminum bleachers are?  So no sleep that night.  Also my husband who wants to know when teh power comes on turned on most of the lights in the house, so at 12 midnight when the power came on the entire house lit up. 

Now my next frustration.  You all know by now that Scott is working for the Ogden City Fire Department.  Well there are uniform requirements for working there.  No big deal right?  Well they gave us a list of "requirements" and $200 cash to purchase it all.  I guess I was nieve enough to think that amount would come close to cover what he needed, I was even prepared to pitch in $100 because I knew he was tall and would probably have to pay a little extra for his stuff.  Boy was I wrong!!!!  We spent a little over $600 just for the required items, and we left out a few that we weren't sure he absolutely needed because of the $$.  I feel they could have prepared us better for that.  We did not buy 1 piece of clothing, except for his exercise shorts, that did not have to be special ordered in and then altered on top of that.  We had to order shirts 2 sizes larger for the shoulder width and have them take them in the arms and torso so he doesn't look like his shirt is swallowing him.  They wear these jumpsuits to bed so they can get up and go quickly, can any of you imagine Scott in a jumpsuit?  NO!!!  We had to get 2 sizes larger to fit him through the torso and not make him sing soprano (if you knwo what I mean) but it literally drowns him.  The poor seamstress has a lot of work for just Scott's clothes.  He is kind of upset that we can't order his workout shorts in a larger size or in a tall length becaue they are only mid-thigh when he stands up, and can you imagine how short they are when he bends down?  Well he will have to wear some kind of biker shorts underneath so he isn't being indecent when they work out, which it is required to workout 1 hour for every 24 hours you are on shift, so I am sure he will stay in shape.

So there are my frustrations.  Nothing life altering, and I am not upset.  Life is going well.  Scott has the job he wanted, the only thing more he could have asked for was it to be in Logan.  And on that note, he had his written exam for Logan City Fire Department today. He said he felt really confident that he aced it.  Now we just wait for a call for an interview.  They gave the guys today the "don't call us, we'll call you" speech, so now we wait.  He is happy and Ogden and is not in a hurry to leave a job he hasn't started, but he would jump on a Logan job if he had an opportunity then all would be perfect.

Thanks for listening or reading as it were.

Hunting Widow........Kind Of

So in Washington Scott took up hunting.  It wasn't very hard there, get in your mini-van, yup mini-van he had no truck at the time, and drive up the road a mile or two, then get out, BANG BANG, grab the deer and put it back in your mini-van, yes I said inside, good thing it was my old mini-van, and drive it home and take care of it in the shop.

Fastforward to Utah, not many deer, not many elk.  The hunting requires you to drive miles and miles up the canyons, park and hike and hike and hike to find "the perfect spot" only to find that it is the perfect spot for other hopeful hunters also.  He spent hours, lierally, combing over maps and making countless phone calls he was able to feel confident he wouldn't be on private ground or hunting for "spike only" with his "any bull" tag.  It is all so confusing in Utah.  Seriously in Washington we had to drive less than a mile to hit public land.  You just hunted for any buck you found, it didn't matter if it was a spike or a bull, and if you came upon private ground you could just ask teh farmer and 9 times out of 10 the answer was sure go ahead.  Also because of the logging industry there were ample nicely groomed roads that even a mini-van could driver and never get stuck.

So on Friday night, after Scott smoked his fire fighter physical test, and after the life changing phone call from Ogden City Fire Department, he still wanted to go hunting for the elusive Utah Elk.  So since we don't camp he picked a spot to park his truck and was gonig to stay the night in his truck since he had to start hiking about 4:30 AM to get to his "sweet spot" before first light to pick off those elk as they make their way to the safety of Hardware Ranch.  Amazingly enough you are allowed to hunt those animals as they make their way to safety.  So he had to move a few times, he wasn't seeing any elk, so he hiked and hiked and crossed the stream a few times, which is bigger than a stream but smaller than a river and shockingly cold.  At about noon he returend home to me, wet, cold and tired because being 6'6" he doesn't sleep well sitting up in his truck cab. 

So after a nap he packed up Colton and Bowen this time, to offer them up as sacrifice to the occasional mountain lions they came across, Just Kidding, to let them in on the Utah hunting experience.  After a few hours of hiking up and down mountains and across rivers that were too deep for the boys they came home.  They were soaking wet to their wastes, freezing feet and Colton had what he called "Eskimo Disease"  all I could get out of him was that it affected his " boy" area, I laughed and laughed about that.  They all got home and ate a lot of hot potato soup and went promptly to sleep. 

Colton woke up this morning saying his back and legs hurt and Scott wanted to take them back up tonight but he has no takers to accompany him and you can bet I am NOT going.  You hear that right I AM NOT GOING.  I know you are all thinking I am a horriable non-supportive wife, but to be honest we aren't starving, I don't enjoy cooking venison, and I am perfectly happy spending some of our hard earned money on store bought meats.

SCOTT IS A FIREFIGHTER

We all know Scottie has always been a firefighter at heart, but today he not only smoked the logan city CPAT test BUT he got a job offer from Ogden Fire Department.  I do not know the particulars, just that he is now official and getting paid.

I LOVE YOU SCOTT!!!!

Something New

I realize my devoted readers, all 5 of you, are getting tired of my daily life saga, and to be honest I am also.  So today I am going to try to write about something relevant to the current events of today.  Should it be political?  I am not sure, explaining the reasons why I am not at all pleased with our current president doesn't sound too fun.  Should it be religious?  Maybe not, that is also a sore spot right now.  I know, I can talk about my kids' teachers at school.

As those of you who live in Utah know this week is UEA, which means we had parent-teacher conferences and now the teachers get to play for 3 days while the parents have to find alternative ways of keeping kids entertained.  This has been especially hard this year cause it's cold outside, it snowed on Wednesday and I still have to work.  It also means it was mid-term and I had parent teacher conferences.  I will break each one down for you to explain my frustrations.

First off I didn't make it to Bowen's, and I know you are all screaming "Bad Mom, Bad Mom" at your computer, but I know what his grades are and it was scheduled at the same time as the 2 other kids.  I am giong to meet with his teachers at a later date, and they all sent emails telling me what an awesome kid Bowen is, so I feel okay missing his.

The major frustration comes from Colton.  He is my sweetest child.  He is my most sensitive.  He is quiet and he will cry silent tears if you hurt his feelings or step on his toe.  So I have got nothing but great feedback from any of his teachers.  I went to meet with his teacher and hoestly she is a little odd.  I can't remember who she reminds me of but she is tall, slender has wild red hair, well make that orange hair, and it is frizzy and all over and she wears wears bright hooker red lipstick.  We sit down and she tells me Colton is failing 3rd grade.  Did you all hear me?  My special Colton is FAILING 3rd grade.  Now to be honest I didn't think that was possible.  Anyway the main problem is he is not turning in his homework.  We do it, he just doesn't turn it in.  Now that problem can be easily fixed.  Here are the rest.  His handwriting is not neat enough.  What?  My mouth just about fell open.  Colton has a few things working against the handwriting thing.  First he is left handed.  I don't know many left handers that have beautiful handwriting, and if you are reading this blog and have great hand writing I am sorry to offend.  He has had trouble with his eyesight.  We have changed his prescription so many times I can't keep up and neither can the optomotrists.  He writes, and you can read it.  In my opinion it looks like a 9 year old boy writing.......so anyway she says it isn't neat enough, so an F there.  He is slightly below the reading standard according to the DIBLES test.  Yes I know this, he has always been slightly below since he started school at 3.  Yes 3.  He started preschool early because of the eyesight and hearing issues.  He has always been slightly below but he is making progress because he is always below in his grade level.  Big F in reading.  Math is ok, it's a 2 and his teacher was lecturing on how he needs to work at math and I say  Yeah Colton 2's rock.  So I sat there and explained to her that Colton has been deaf 2 times since birth.  He has crazy eyes that never stay the same, he is sensitive and can't you see you are hurting his feelings?  Oh well as we left the room the silent tears came while he was trying to be strong.

Rainee, what to say about Rainee.  Well right now she is puking because she has the flu and I am sure she can't wait to share it with all of us.  In direct contrast to last year where we had nothing but problems it seems she is not an angel.  She is getting all 4's except a 3 in reading.  Her teacher sees this as a problem and wants her to work harder.  Of course all teachers want that and I am sitting by her going "way to go a 3 in reading rocks" while I get sketchy looks from her teacher.  He only problems is she cant' sit still.  She never has been able to BUT she is still listening and gets great grades.

So then we get a call from Mason's preschool.  Oh crap I didn't know they had parent-teacher conferences in preschool.  Well they do that this wasn't a good one.  My precious 3 year old is not the nicest kid at recess I guess.  He is great in class and does well with structure, but when at free time with a group of kids he is mean.  He pushes, scratches and has even bit to get things from other kids.  Yes I said it, my kid is a bully.  We are not sure why, maybe it is because he has no siblings his age to play with?  Who knows.  So now we are starting a sticker chart at school for being good.  I will keep you updated on teh progress.

Update......Things are getting better......

So I realize that title isn't very interesting, but it is true.  As of yesterday (monday) Scott was no longer employed full time.  He is only working on-call nights and weekends for Autocare.  This decision was reached mutually between Autocare and us.  He missed a lot of work when he had pnemonia, and then he needed a lot of days off for testing for various Fire Departments.  So he is just now working a little to supplement our income, which is sad if you think that I only work 20 hours a week at Lynn's Audio & Video, sorry I digress.  So yesterday was his first day at home.  It almost killed him.  He hates not working or having a "purpose".  I constantly remind him that his purpose is to study and get the best scores on his tests he can.  So today rolls around and we get a phone call, he made it to the top of the list on the Ogden Fire Department and they have an opening so he has an interview with the Fire Chief of the Ogden Fire Department.  We are so excited BUT trying to not get to excited because we realize he isn't the only guy they are interviewing, we just hope he is the best!! 

So here is our future plans, he interviews at Ogden tomorrow, then he has the physical test at Logan on Friday THEN we are heading to Jerome Idaho on Tuesday. 

So I just got back from LaShars and I was talking to Jenny and I told her how Scott and I were talking and we wonder if DeLoy had a hand in the Ogden testing because he promised he would help Scott get a job.  He was always so worried about us and Scott getting a firefighter job.  I had kind of put that out of my head and Jenny says of course it's DeLoy.  She knows he is watching out for all of us because she is not ready for him to leave us all yet so she knows he is still here with all of us.  I would love to believe DeLoy is watching us from Heaven, but I wonder if he is so busy enjoying the afterlife pain free?  I love Uncle DeLoy and I know he wants nothing but the best for all of us and if there is anything he could do to assist any of us from up above he would do it.

Love you all.

More Animal Smiles

It seems I have been blogging about my animals a lot lately, but here you go.  First let me say I realize animals are a lot of work BUT i can't even imagine my life without them.  It is very very rewarding and the love they give is great, even when they do something bad (Titan) and he looks at me with those sad puppy eyes that just seem to say "I'm sorry, I won't do it again" and I believe him. 

So here is a little background to the photos to follow.  We have Duke our 9 year old English Bulldog.  Now 9 years old is very old for Bulldogs and he is almost completely blind but he is hanging in there.  Titan is our 5 month old Engligh Mastiff.  Yes we seem to have an affinity for animals with flat faces (Pebbles and Duke) and any breed that has English in the title.  Titan being a puppy loves nothing more than to play and he would play all day long if we were able or Duke could stand it.  The best part of Titan's day is when Duke gives in and plays with him, unfortunately Titan is clumsy and plays very very hard with poor old Duke.  So after a long hard game of torture Duke this is how Titan makes it up to him.  These pictures were hard to get because if they see us Titan stops doing it.  So sorry for the spots, it was taken through my dirty sliding glass doors but you can still get the idea of how much they love and understand each other.  Duke even seems to be enjoying it.

So I hope you can tell from these slightly blurry photos that Titan has his paw around Duke's shoulders and he is licking behind his ear.  Duke loves having his ears scratched and it appears that Titan has figured this out.  Most of the time Duke acts like he doesn't like Titan and he is just too old for this dumb puppy but then I catch moments like that and I can see it's all just for show, Duke really does like Titan.

For the record I have seen Titan hold Mason down with his ginormous puppy paw and lick him all over.  It is just cute, but I haven't been able to get a pic of that one yet.

At a loss for words

Answer to what happened to Pebbles (the cat) Yes Mason did dip her in the toilet, but to make it worse he then rolled her in her litter.  If you look closely at the last photo you can see the specks of litter.  Do you know what litter is?  IT's clay so when it gets wet it gets soggy.  It took me forever to brush all teh litter out of her long pretty hair.  So instead of being tar'd and feathered, she got toilet and littered. 

So I am not really at a loss for words, but I am at a loss for the next topic to blog about.  I have a lot to say but I am having a hard time narrowing it down.  Let's see dinner was good.  I love artichokes.  Work was good just same bills different day.  Life has finally slowed down, kind of.  Scott has so many firefighter tests this next 2 weeks I just can't believe a job doesn't come from one of these.  Seriously people we will move to where the work is.  So which ever job comes in first we are out of here, well if it is outside of Northern Utah.  No one is sick.  I know it is a modern day miracle, it seems someone is always sick in our house.  Scottie's last day of work is on Friday then he is officially unemployed, he is just working on call nights and weekends.  In the summer he made bank doing nights and weekends but now all the vacationers have left and it has been deader than dead.  Oh well, so goes life.

So since I can't focus my wandering mind we'll play a game. Guess what happened to the kitty. Here are some pictures of my poor kitten from yesterday and the only hint is it did not do this to itself, it had assistance.

Colton did not do it, he was just consoling her while I laughed and took pictures.  So leave me a comment and let me know your guess the probably tomorrow I will post the correct guess or I will just tell you what really happened because it is kind of funny.

Cute Things

So here are some things that cheered me up, maybe they will cheer you up also.  First off here is my new kitten.

She is soooo cute.  We are still kicking around some random names.  Right now we call her Pebbles, but Scott hates it.  His name choices are Lint or Stella.  I like Pebbles or Duchess.  She is so playful and just cute.  We really love her.  She is our bright light in our very stressful life right now and she is just what we needed.  In case any of you care, she is a pure bred Persian cat.  The owner didn't want her because she is the runt and is so small.  So we got her.  We love you Lint, Fungus, Stella, Duchess......whatever your name is.

Now here are some photos of Bowen's football game today.  For the record Scott took these photos and there isn't much of a chance to get frontal photos of my boy so pictures of his back will have to do.  He is number 80 and today he got to be a team captain.  If I do say so he looks pretty cute from behind.  He just looks so grown up.

Isn't he cute? I mean isn't he handsome?  He doesn't like the word cute anymore.

Here are a few pictures Scott snapped while we were watching.  In case you care, we lost 21 to 14.  Oh well we have a fun game.  The high point for Bowen was when he tackled the runner who had the football.  He grabbed his jersey and held on just like his coach said.

This is how Mason gives big hugs.  I can be painful, but he is sweet.