Katie Jane Smith

Valentines Day

2012-02-14T22:43:00.001-05:00

Valentines Day to me is really just another day. People treat it differently and I think that is crazy. Yes I do like to tell my kids and my friends and my husband that I love them because today is a "holiday" but those people out there that treat this day as a "i'm going to die if I don't have a date or if my husband doesn't buy me a ridiculously over priced bouquet of flowers" (my sister-in-law works at a godiva chocolate store and she says that 6 chocolate dipped strawberries cost $50! WTF to the max!!). I am not one of those people. I'm not sure if I have ever been (but I am not one to celebrate most holidays like a crazy person).

How I celebrated today.

Well first yesterday Briar, Finn and I went to a small valentines party at a friends house. There were many snacks! Finn played very nicely, which was a wonderful surprise. Briar was shy but found her nook when she could create a card.

We also made the kids valentine cards that they passed out today in their classes. When we started Brody asked if we could listen to valentine music like when we made our christmas crafts and listened to christmas music. Not really the same thing. I tried to explain to him that valentine music is just love songs. i put something on.

This morning, our favorite place, Chickfila was serving heart shaped biscuts. I took my funny valentine to enjoy them. We stayed and played for a long time because he was having such a good time in the play place. But once he started trying to take the play time out into the resturant area we left and headed to a real playground.

He enjoyed the played equipment, but mainly just wanted to climb up whatever he could.

Once that was exhausted we wondered around and played in the "woods." Finn wants to walk around things, pick things up, and throw them.

The afternoon was exciting when the kids came home from school to look through their valentine card bags and eat some candy. Then after dinner I gave them their valentine gifts. They each got a bag of gummy worms.

Then Finn screamed when we took his away so we could get ready for bed.

Just a normal Tuesday.

British Baby Shower

2011-11-18T21:25:00.001-05:00

My girlfriend Hillary is about to have her second baby, a girl. Everyone gets a baby shower here in our ward and it was my turn to throw one. I was excited!! I had a few ideas swimming around my head. Add that to feeling crafty and you got fascinator hats. I spent a couple of nights hot gluing fabric scraps to the lids of plastic containers (like from large yogurt tubs) then adding toile, feathers, flowers and other kinds of decorative flare. I loved each one I made. I had enough for each girl that attended and they all willingly wore theirs during the gathering and took them home. I think the British have a good thing going with these hats. I wore one to church the following day and hope I can get away with wearing them in the future.

Brody's Birthday with Grandpa Hamlin and Nana Belinda

2011-11-01T21:07:00.000-04:00

All Brody has been wanting is Legos. Here is the first one.

Nana couldn't forget about Briar.

All Treating

2011-10-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

Monday was a nice day till the kids let out of school then the rain came. Everyone was worried about how we would go out trick or treating in the rain and cold. We invited several of our friends over before hand for dinner. Just when everyone was done eating and it got dark and we were ready to go out the rain stopped and it wasn't that cold. The kids were so excited to be together. There were a few tears but mostly excitement and running.

Mother Knows Best

2011-10-30T20:42:00.000-04:00

Brody has known since last year when he was Mario that he wanted to be Sonic the Hedgehog. I had to come up with how to make this costume all on my own. I think I did a good job.

We spent a couple months trying to come up with what the rest of us would be. Briar was watching the movie Tangled over and over again so I asked if she wanted to be Repunzel. She said yes. Then I came up with myself being Mother Gothel, Shad being Flynn Rider and Finn would either be Maximus or Pascal. I thought a horse costume would be easier to make and wear but she wanted Finn to be Pascal so that was that. I bought a pattern for a Repunzel dress but I didn't like how it looked. I thought it didn't look very much like the movie dress. So I altered it a bit to match what thought it should look like. I think the dress turned out really well. Briar was the one on the day of the pictures to say she needed her pan. The wig was borrowed from a girlfriend who made it for her daughter last year when she was Repunzel. Finn's costume was pretty much made up as well. I googled other costumes and not many people have made pascal costumes or chameleon costumes that I liked. But he was so super cute and wore his tail with no problem. The hat was only worn for the pictures and he wasn't too happy about it.

Shad's costume turned out the best! His hair always has that woosh to the front that Flynn has and Shad had already grown out a beard and was such a trooper cutting it down for Halloween so he looked just like Flynn. I even got him to do the smolder and it was spot on. All I had to make for Shad was his vest. I got a pattern for a Renaissance time period male outfit. The vest in the pattern was basically what I needed. I added some batting in between the fabric and then using my machine, sewed the lines matching it with Flynn's. The buckles were difficult to match and hard to attach, but they worked.

Mine was a Renaissance time period dress pattern as well. I matched the color of Mother Gothel's dress perfectly but the color for the lining in the sleeve was hard. Gold was as good as I could get it since her dress is all patterned. The collar was very hard! I had to add fabric and dart and hope for the best. My pattern's sleeves were almost to the floor so I had to shorten those up some and they could have been shorter. I had NO CLUE how to tie that belt loop so instead I tied the belt in knots around the buckle. It worked ok.

Repunzel kissing Flynn with Pascal looking on.

We look so great!! I tried making my hair poofier then normal but it doesn't look like it.

Our cute family.

I also found time to make my cute neighbor a Hogwarts robe so she could be Hermione. Her mom crocheted the scarf and put together the perfect uniform outfit. They braided her hair wet the night before and let it dry so it looked more like Hermione's. She looks darling.

Happy Halloween everyone! What will we be next year??

making Jack O Lanterns

2011-10-24T20:52:00.000-04:00

A cute winter baby gift

2011-10-22T20:40:00.000-04:00

I took a break from sewing Halloween costumes to crochet a quick snowman to go along with a book I got for a friend as a baby shower gift. While crocheting I came across a stitch I wasn't quite sure how to do. I looked up the stitch on youtube and while figuring out how to do the stitch I also discovered that I have in fact been doing all my stitches wrong! I have been going through only one loop, the back loop, all the time. But you are supposed to go through both loops. I can't wait to make something else and see how it turns out when it is done the right way.

Have you read the Percy Jackson books?

2011-10-08T22:18:00.000-04:00

These book are so amazingly good!

I have wanted to read these book for awhile, but with book group choices and other books on my list that pop up I had not made time for them. Then I discovered on the library website that you can download and borrow audiobooks. I can put them on my iPod and listen to them in the car. Perfect! They have all the Percy Jackson books available. Over the past couple months I have been doing just this. The Percy Jackson books are also "children's literature" so they are appropriate to listen to in the car with my kids around. Unfortunately I don't think the kids really paid that much attention to the stories when they were on. But let's face it, these books were soooooo for me.

Several months back my sister in law with her family came to visit. They brought the Percy Jackson movie along. I had been wanting to see this movie so they waited for the evening when I could sit down with them and watch. I really enjoyed it. I think the kids were cute and the other actors were great. The story was exciting and it gave me more of an idea of what the books are about (because I really didn't know).

I listened to the first book. It is NOTHING like the movie!! Okay maybe it isn't that bad. It is nothing like the movie. See the difference? I have asked this many times: Why do they change movies from the books when the books are perfectly good how they are? I don't understand why you make small changes to a book's storyline when you make it into a movie. When you do this it makes the movie not that good. I mean, the movie as a stand alone was fun. But as far as keeping with the plot of the book, it is not as good. This is only a real problem when that messes with the storyline of the other 4 books to follow. Because you messed up the first movie, you can't make the other 4 movies. These could be really good movies, and I bet make lots of money (ex. Harry Potter and Twlight, among others).

I enjoyed the first book, Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief, so I quickly moved on to the second one, Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters. This one was better then the first. Then I picked up the Eragon book to listen to because the 4th one in this series (The Inheritence Cycle) comes out in November. I usually reread all the books in a series before I read the new one (I really enjoy rereading books you will see why by the end of this post, I promise. My ramblings do end. Try and keep up.) Listening to this put me back getting the 3rd book, Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse. I must have gotten through this one fast because I honestly can't really remember what this one was about. Then I listened to Eldest, the second Inheritence Cycle book (which is crazy long!). Then I finished up with Percy Jackson and The Battle of the Labyrinth and Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian.

I like to read because I like to leave my life. Not that I have a bad life I want to leave, but I enjoy reading books that take me away from things now and put me some where else, doing other things, and being other people. Reading is supposed to be fun so I like to read fun books. Let me say that one more time. Reading is supposed to be fun so I like to read fun books. The Percy Jackson books are all of these things! I was living in these books. I was along for Percy's adventures. When The Last Olympian was over I started to listen to the 3rd Inheritance book, Brisingr. I haven't been able to concentrate on it or put my heart into because I feel like my "life force" is still in Percy Jackson's world. I have often finished a book then immediately turned around and read it again (ex. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows and The Hunger Games series). I want to turn around right now and reread the Percy Jackson books. And this time I want to actually read them. I enjoyed listening to them, but when you just listen to a book you miss things. At least I do. I pick up on so much more when I can read it myself at my own pace. I can also flip back to pages that had info on them that come up later in the book (ex. Percy's prophecy).

I encourage all of you to pick up these books. They are extremely entertaining and fun. I love Percy and all the other characters. I like Rick Riordan's writing and look forward to reading his other books (which I have heard are excellent as well.)

The Biggest Loser 11:3

2011-10-05T23:57:00.003-04:00

My thoughts on this weeks show:

Vinney's story he told Dolvett was so sad. I hope my children never have to feel the pain of being abused. I never want them to look at me and think that I am the one hurting them.

Antone's story about not knowing if he would have food and knowing what hungry is. I never want my children to feel that way. I feel for those that do feel hungry and are in need of food. I want to do something to prevent that. I hope that through the Spirit and prayer that I can know who out of the people I know might need help in this way so that I can help to provide some relief to them.

How on earth was the black team losing so much weight? I was shocked every time the next person weighted in. I hate that the red team can't seem to beat them. You would think the younger team would be blowing it out of the water every week. I can blame it on the fact that the black team has Bob but I'm sure that Dolvett knows what he is doing.

Anna was really there for her team this week. I liked how at the beginning of the show she talked to the three of them and stressed to them that this week they were going to pull it out. I think it was good for the team to know with out a doubt that each of their team mates and trainer were in this to win it and were going to do better then they have in the past weeks. When Coach Mike pulled 17lbs lost it was a very shocking moment. I don't think anyone thought he could ever pull a lose that high. That is amazing that he got those superbowl tickets that he had always wanted.

I had no idea who these football players were that came on the show. I am kind of against pro sports as it is. But I don't know anything about football and don't have much interest in it. Did you see how big that first guy was, the blond guy from I think Greenbay. OH MY GODS! He was large! Then the black guy that was at the last chance work out for the black team. He was crazy big. Then the young one that worked out with the red team for the last chance workout. WOW smokin'. How do that get to looking like that? It just doesn't seem real or natural. But to be honest, if I saw a guy at the mall or where ever in real life that looked like these football players, I would most likely think not nice things about him, assuming that he is egotistical and only into himself or into looks. Guys that look like that just don't exist in real life.

I hate that red team lost!! I hate that Patrick went home!! I really like him. I thought he was kind of cute and nice and happy. I thought he would be in the game for a long time. I hate that he fell on the sword and asked for his name to be written down. But there wasn't anyone in that group that I thought needed to go home because I liked them all and they were all nice to each other. Also, Patrick looks just like this guy I know. It kind of weirds me out. I wish him all the luck and I hope he can win the marathon at the end so that he has a chance to win the game/show. Also his comments about his wife. They kept talking about how this has brought them closer and made their marriage better. They must have been having issues before he left. Every marriage has issues, but they made it sound like they were having real problems before. But now they seemed to be feeling much happier. That warms my heart and makes me like him even more. Go Team Patrick!

I love watching this show because it always uplifts me and gives me a new drive. I was feeling pretty down today. Just sluggish because I can't seem to find time everyday to work out and I really want to. I can't seem to give up eating reeses. I will just blindly go for them when I'm making lunch or dinner or when I'm tired or just when I open the refrigerator or just want a little snack. I'm not hungry, I'm not even craving one, I just eat it. It is embarrassing and a problem. I even have been feeling sick to my stomach after eating some because they make me feel bloated and like my belly is huge and my pants are tight and I'm angry with myself for eating them. I have also been stressed because I feel like I can't get anything done in a day. Between taking kids where they need to go, doing shopping, cleaning up the kitchen, trying to squeeze in a tv show and some reading and showering, and if I work out that takes up a lot of time and what if I spend time with a friend or go to the playground or play outside when we are all home from school? Nothing gets done. Stress Stress Stress. The Biggest Loser takes some of that away because I can see that it could be worse and I see others that are trying hard and persevering and learning to love themselves. I can do these things too. I want to feel like I can tackle the world tomorrow every night.

The Biggest Loser Season 12 Battle of the Ages

2011-09-27T12:44:00.000-04:00

The first episode of The Biggest Loser was mildly uneventful. I thought the opening with them being in the desert and having those huge army helicopters bring each one of the trainers down was way over the top. I was surprised that neither of the new trainers from last season were on. I knew that Anna Kournikova would replace Jillian and then I assumed that one of the new trainers from last season would be the 3rd trainer I knew would be there. But no. They bring this totally new guy on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I didn't care for the new trainers last season, and this guy, Dolvett, has got. it. going. on. I hope he does well.

I felt bad at the end when Anna's blue time didn't do so well. I hope the older group can win some and show the younger groups up. I also don't want Anna's team to keep losing and that reflect on her possibly being a bad trainer. I mean, she isn't trained as a trainer, so I'm kind of expecting her to not be a fantastic one. Just because she has been trained her whole life doesn't mean she can pull it off as a trainer on a show like this with people this large.

The ending with the group argument before the vote off was the only heated moment all night. Debbie was just plan mean when she said that crying every time you turn around thing to Bonnie. Totally uncalled for. Then she kept saying how she wasn't being mean she was just saying how she feels and how she loves everyone here. Give me a break chick! You were totally wanting to be mean because you knew they were going to vote you off even though Bonnie lost less weight. People liked her. You should try being nice too and people would like you more and not want to vote you off. But to make it even worse for her on the show/better for her pride and for Bonnie's sake, she basically told them to vote her off because "she has a support system at home and I already belong to a gym." Please, if you had those things than you would have started losing weight before. I hope she can go home and do well. But my hopes aren't high. She didn't have a good attitude.

Was there a hurricane outside?

2011-08-27T20:30:00.000-04:00

All we got was strong winds and some great kite flying.

The wind did amazing things to Briar's beautiful hair.

Finn really wanted a turn.

Yearly Family Pictures 2011

2011-03-25T20:05:00.000-04:00

Finn at 1 year old.

Christmas with all The Smith's

2010-12-26T15:01:00.001-05:00

Sam always takes a few minutes to play a few notes, and it always sound nice.

Popsicles are always a must

Briar got her nails painted for the first time by Aunt Stephanie

Cookies and milk were left for Santa

Everyone forgot their stockings, so we each laid out a chritmas bag by the fireplace for Santa to fill

Our tree full of gifts for everyone

Can't believe it snowed on Christmas Day! We all enjoyed some sledding.

Visiting with Santa

2010-12-21T19:30:00.001-05:00

I keep putting off when we would meet with Santa, mainly just looking for the best time to go. Brody was excited about going. He had been working on his list and talking about all the things he wanted. He even cut pictures out of one of those big toy ads they put out right after thanksgiving and made a collage of all the things he wanted. I keep telling him that Santa can't bring him all those things. On the big day we decided on just a few of the things to tell Santa. We got to the mall early so the line wouldn't be that long. We had to wait for a little while but nothing too bad. The kids were excited. They both waved at Santa when he got there and greeted the children waiting. Briar was ready up until the moment of approach. It was our turn. Brody walks right up and sits on Santa's lap. Briar stands still, not even walking into the designated "Santa workshop" area and cries, covering her eyes. Everyone in line is looking at her in shock, some are kind of laughing (maybe that was just me?). They have been around us for close to an hour and this is the only moment she showed any fear or worry. I ignored her and took pictures of Brody. Afterwards I carried her past and out of harms way. It still took her awhile to calm down. Brody was excited that they gave him silly bands afterwards. He immediately took them all out of the package and put them one.

while waiting in line. Almost there to see Santa

Brody said he wanted star wars toys, a DS and a Mario game. He told Santa Brair wanted a cup like his and birthday cake.


Briar crying


the silly bandz craze

Our Tree

2010-12-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

Christmas at my Dad's

2010-12-19T23:05:00.001-05:00

Christmas at my Mom's

2010-12-19T22:47:00.000-05:00

Getting dressed up

2010-12-17T23:00:00.001-05:00

Shad told me a month or so ago about his work Christmas party. The company he works for always takes the employees and their partners out to a very nice restaurant as the party. I asked Shad what the dress code would be. He said nice. I asked, nice like church or nicer? He said the restaurant describes itself as the "only authentic french restaurant in Raleigh." Okay, so nicer. I knew I would need something new to wear. I asked my friend Brittany to help me. She is such a cute dresser and can easily put outfits together. I don't have the slightest clue how to do any of that. We found something real fast one Saturday at the mall at such a great price! Then, I had to figure out something to do with my hair. I knew that if I wore it down, like normal, I would end up pulling it back in a lose ponytail while I ate, because I can't stand it falling in my face while I eat/look down. I looked on youtube for tutorials on some messy up dos. I sent some to my friend Lauren to get her opinion and to see if she could do it for me. She agreed and came over the day of the event to fix my hair. When every thing was put together I looked great. I looked exactly like what I was going for, not too dressy (like the prom) but nicer then church.

The restaurant was okay. They had some very french accented guys come out to tell us about the french wine they were paring with our courses. I mean these guys's accents could not have been real. They must have been playing it up for the American's to get a "french feel." We of course didn't drink the wine, which got the guy sitting next me (and a few others) discussing with me why not. Of course my answer was "I'm Mormon we don't drink." Which proceeded with some Mormon questions. One of which was by the wife "I knew a couple of Mormon families when I was growing up. They both had trampolines. Is that a Mormon thing?" Really?

I had to get a picture of my main course. It is a bad picture because I was trying to be discreet. But I got steak (filet mignon i think) over mashed potatoes and apples. But it had 5 pieces of asparagus laid around it to look like a hand. It was very silly looking.

Brody's Preschool Christmas Play

2010-12-17T20:29:00.000-05:00

They have been practicing since Thanksgiving. Brody has been keeping the whole thing top secret.

He did a great job and sang well and looked happy. He didn't run off crying, so that is an improvement. He can be pretty sensitive, especially if he makes a mistake, so I'm glad that he stood up there the whole time and participated. He feels really comfortable and happy at preschool.

I'm not sure why he didn't jump, but he had the twisting down.
You can tell he is really concentrating on doing the moves right.

Cute nativity project

2010-12-17T20:12:00.000-05:00

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

2010-12-16T20:18:00.001-05:00

The dumbest argument ever!

2010-12-13T16:34:00.001-05:00

First back story:
Today I had a guy come from a heating and air place to take a look at our heating system. The downstairs is freezing and the upstairs is way hot. All last winter I would ask people about it and they would say "well heat rises" idiot. I added the idiot because that is how they made it sound. Well it started again this year and it is not just cold downstairs, there is a significant difference. You can walk down the stairs and feel the temperature change. I dislike spending time downstairs because it is so cold, and am often wearing my coat and scarf inside (if only I could cook with gloves on). So the heating guy looks around and says that there is nothing he can do. Heat rises. Really! This is your diagnosis! I ask some questions and chat for a bit. The problem is that downstairs my vents are in the ceiling and so the heat never has a chance to even get to the ground so it goes right up. He says I'm doing the right thing with having some vents upstairs closed off. Then he asked me how often I change my filters. I said like every 3 months (really it is just whenever I think about). He checked that. They were so dirty and dusty and gross! I was embarrassed. He said "You need to be changing this every month." Okay, I can do that. I then asked him about carbon monoxide detectors because we have gas. He told me where is the best place to put them in my house and way. He said that carbon monoxide is heavy so it falls to the ground and so if you put detractors on the ceiling you will be dead before they go off. So keep them low to the ground. He told me one brand (which I have forgotten) you can plug into the outlets.

Fast forward through my day to the argument:
I pick Shad up at the bus stop. I'm telling him about the guy's visit (see above section for what I talked to him about).
Shad is in green
Katie is in red
We are not getting carbon monoxide detectors!
Why not?
We don't need them.
Why not?
I've never heard of anyone dieing of carbon monoxide.
Well lets get rid of our smoke detectors too. and keep our doors and windows unlocked and opened while we're at it.
I've heard of people's houses catching on fire and homes getting broken in.
I think we can spend $20 bucks on protecting our family from dieing.
We are not getting those.
Yes we are.
NO WE'RE NOT.
(eye roll. Yes we are.)

Movie Review: The Robe

2010-12-07T20:44:00.000-05:00

This move was terrible!! DO NOT waste your time renting and watching it.

We read this book for book group recently. The book was good. A little long and drawn out, but I enjoyed it. I would suggest it to others to read.

The movie was nothing like the book. They changed so many things around and I don't even understand for what reason. The things they changed, but then still tried to keep some same things, make the movie not flow together well.

The acting in the movie was very bad too. It was made in the 50s and I guess actors were used to stage acting then still, so all movements were exaggerated. The lead male role for Marcellus was the worst one. I couldn't stand how he talked. He expressed no change in tone or feeling. He spoke the same way all the time. He was a Roman so I could tell he was trying to sound superior, but it just sounded angry all the time. But also, the character in the book didn't act superior, so I'm not sure why this guy was acting this way. Just one of the many flaws in this movie.

Now Entering Bethlehem

2010-12-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

At the church Brody has preschool at they held a live Nativity scene. There were going to have animals and a camel there. We got there a little later then planned so we didn't have much time to spend since because of the snow yesterday our ward christmas party got moved to tonight. Brody fed a goat, but was scared to do so. Briar didn't want to go any where near the animals. We looked at the camel, but the line to ride him was WAY to long. We went inside to see what they had there. Up stairs they had a little Bethlehem set up. It was chaotic. Each child got a purse with some gold nuggets and they got to pay to do crafts or by some snacks, there was even a guy walking around asking for taxes. Everyone was in costume. It was very neat. I wish we had more time to spend. I hope next year they do it again so that we can do it all.

Signing in

wish money in hand ready to spend

making dreidels

Then later at our ward christmas party they had volunteers to participate in the nativity reenactment. Brody actually wanted to do it! He dressed up as a sheep and followed the crowd along. He did well. I just wish I had gotten him to smile when I took the only picture.

I just made our Christmas card today

2010-12-05T10:32:00.002-05:00

I made our Christmas card today on Shutterfly. It was so easy and it looks super cute. Better then anything I've done in the past. I just hope I get them in time to send out to everyone for the holidays. I can't wait to finish my photo books on shutterfly too!

Sweet Holly Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

December Snow in North Carolina

2010-12-04T14:14:00.000-05:00

It's amazing! It snowed in North Carolina in December! It might just be a white christmas this year. The snow really makes it feel more like Christmas.

I went shopping Saturday morning (for a nice dress to wear to Shad's work Christmas party at a really nice French restaurant in Raleigh in 2 weeks) and on my way home I saw flurries. I called Shad and told him to take Brody outside because he has been asking about snow. I didn't think this was going to last long. I stopped off at Target and by the time I left the store it was coming down more and everyone in the store was talking about "the snow!" Brody kept going in and out of the house playing outside in the cold with his friends. After a couple of hours it was really coming down. Then we noticed that it was actually sticking. This can't be! But it was true. Brody had fun playing with his friends in the nice blanket covering the ground. It was really pretty.

2:00 PM

5:00 PM

Deck the halls

2010-12-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

Finally put the Christmas tree up. That took awhile even though the boxes of stuff have been sitting in the hallway for a week. Let the kids do the decorating themselves, so all the ornaments are on the bottom half of the tree. I'll get around to fixing that. I will also get around to putting everything else up around the house...I think.

Finn is so cute

2010-11-30T23:11:00.000-05:00

9 months old

Photo shot gone not so well

2010-11-29T22:56:00.000-05:00

I got a new point and shoot camera awhile ago. My other one died. I looked for one that I could afford TODAY that was better then the average point and shoot. (What I really want is a great slr camera, but they are more then I can afford right now.)

I tried taking my kids out for some pictures. It didn't go as well as I had hoped because I needed another adult there to help me set the kids up like I wanted. By the time I got them seated, then got my camera ready, they were already moving again. Finn also wasn't in the best mood. He needed a nap.

I would like to try again, and this time I will have Shad there to help me.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

2010-11-27T20:29:00.000-05:00

This movie was so good! I can't wait to see it again! I think I might be more excited to see it a second time then I was to see it the first time!

The 7th book is my favorite all of the books (then 5 and 3. I like Sirus Black.) I liked that this movie will be in 2 parts. There is so much that happens in this book that they really did need two movies to put it all in without making it feel rushed like all the others have felt. They were able to leave just about everything from the book in place.

Some people complained that this movie was kind of slow. "All they're doing is running around the woods." Yes that might be the bulk of the movie but Harry, Ron and Hermonie are trying to figure out what the heck Dumbledore left them to do and how they are to go about doing it. To all these complainers. Never fear the second half of this movie is going to be a whole lot of action. They left off just at the moment before there is a dragon, a risky escape, fighting and creatures. The true side of Snape will be revealed, which is the best point in all 7 books combined (for me).

I really like the guy that plays Ron (Rupert Grint). I am such a cheese ball over it too. A few days after seeing the movie I spent an hour on YouTube watching interviews with him. Which, by the way, interviews are terrible!! They all ask the same boring questions and they ask dumb questions like "do you like doing magic." Really? It isn't real idiots. One guy even referred to Daniel Radcliff as Harry. And not talking about his character. They guy said something to Rupert like, "Do you think you and Harry will still see eachother now that the movies are done?" Really? That guy is an idiot. I wish Rupert had called him on it.

Finn was so tired he fell asleep in his high chair

2010-11-27T10:49:00.000-05:00

Poor baby.

One long Thanksgiving post

2010-11-25T22:12:00.000-05:00

This year I hosted Thanksgiving at my house. That doesn't mean that I had to do a lot of work though. Lois (my mother-in-law) made 3 pies and 2 different stuffings (or dressing, whichever you prefer to call it).
I bought the turkey but she made it.

We had crescent rolls (for the sake of ease)

I made the vegges, like green beans, cream corn and lima beans (or butter beans as my aunt calls them). I also made fried corn bread, which is what I thought corn bread was until I went to collage.

Tucker prepared the mashed potatoes and special drink.

Brad did a get job cutting the turkey (I prefer the dark meat)

Brody liked playing Lauren's nintendo ds while he waited for food.

The kids didn't eat any of the lunch food. Everyone enjoyed the dessert.

Brody and I made a Turkey craft and everyone added to our Thanksgiving tree. Briar said she was thankful for Jesus, Scott (one of her uncles), Brody and Finn. And Brody was thankful for Briar, Jesus, The Temple, Heavenly Father and Dylan and Noah (his cousins). I said things like my house, that Shad has a job and for a husband that puts up with me. But Shad says he is thankful for air.

Briar wanted to show me how pretty she was in her skirt

The day before I was feeling crafty so I made a turkey to wear in my hair. Fabulous! I even wore it to work on Black Friday.

Preschool Thanksgiving Party

2010-11-22T21:56:00.000-05:00

Brody's preschool had a little Thanksgiving and the families were invited. It was my first chance to see what it is like for Brody at preschool. He has assigned seating and I got to see where he sits. Then he got to do centers, which is his favorite thing. I got to see what the centers are he always talks about and see him interact with his friends.

Briar doesn't do well in crowds. She was very shy the whole time and didn't feel comfortable being in the classroom with everyone. She stayed in the hallway during this time playing with the toy there.

A long hair hair cut

2010-11-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

We like Brody's hair to be longer and kind of shaggy. He just doesn't look like himself when his hair is cut real short in the typical "boy" haircut. I took him to the kid haircut place I take Briar and told them I want his hair still kept long. The did a good job doing that. It still took me a few days to get used to the haircut, but it does look much better then it did before.

Before

After

A few Halloween pics I forgot to post but are too cute to continue being forgot about

2010-11-14T00:44:00.005-05:00

While taking pictures I first had them stand coping the pictures of the characters I had. When we took the family shot they both liked standing like the cartoons of their characters that they chose on their own to keep standing like that. I didn't even realize or notice this till after Heather showed my the pictures. They are just so cute!

Feeling Alone

2010-11-13T23:28:00.002-05:00

I'm not really sure what was wrong with me earlier this week. But I have been feeling like I want to write it out. I felt like I didn't have anyone to talk to about how I was feeling. I know I have friends. I know I have a husband. I know I have family. But I didn't want to burden any of them with my venting, my complaining, my tears, my whining, and feeling down on my self feelings. I also didn't want to hear them tell me "I think you're great Katie" and "You are so nice" "You have lots of friends" "You have so many things together" "You're a great mom" "Everyone has bad days." (I still don't want to hear those things even now after I'm feeling better.)

I guess it all started on Monday. I came home from work and Shad said something about he doesn't know when he will be able to get to the store to get something. I went upstairs feeling completely full of guilt. Like it is my fault that he doesn't have a car and can never leave the house. I am always out at night, and now that I'm working it really has turned out to be like that. I also went to see how the office closet looked. He hadn't touched it! Of course not.
-----------
I spent some time today cleaning up the office and the closet because I want my mother-in-law to help me organize my insanely messy closet downstairs when she comes for Thanksgiving. Shad has all our old computer stuff and new computer boxes piled in the office room closet. I asked him to go through it tonight so I could move some stuff from downstairs up there like my mother-in-law had suggested/told me to do before she came.
------------
As you can imagine, not only now am I feeling bad about me and hurt by what Shad had said to cause me to feel this way, but now I'm mad at him for not doing what I had asked. These harbored feelings of anger towards him make the sour feelings I continue to have through the week multiply.

Tuesday I wanted to redeem myself so I made a list of things I needed to get done today. All day I did real well. I got my list checked off. I had placed my Harris Teeter Express Lane food order that morning, first thing after getting home from dropping everyone off. I never received any conformation email and I never got a call later in the day about having my order completed. So about an hour before I wanted to pick my order up, I called them to see if it had been done. They didn't receive an order for me today. I lost it. I started crying. I still felt that guilt that not only was I never home but that I'm letting my family down. I didn't have the ingredients I needed to make dinner that night, and I had to go to work directly after picking Shad up. What was I to do? Suffer with letting my husband down again for not having anything for dinner and for leaving him alone to pick up the pieces. I knew I didn't have the time or energy to take all of my kids to the store to get all those groceries. I also had coupons that I really wanted to use for the week. When will I get those done? Should I forget about them? I went after work (which we got off 30 minute late for some crazy reason). But I didn't get all my coupon items and saved a lot of money, I'm glad I did accomplish that much.

By Wednesday I was a shadow of myself. There was a Park Day planned and I wanted to go. Brody didn't have school today so I thought he would enjoy playing with his church friends, something that since school started he doesn't get to do much of. After dropping Shad off, we came home and I fed Finn breakfast then made picnic lunches. I then tried getting everyone re-ready to get out the door. I had not showered that morning or even put on clothes (I was just wearing my "pajamas" aka velor pants and a basic long sleeve t-shirt). I had slept in really late due too unhappiness. I'm trying to get Finn ready. I go to put his new shoes on and they didn't fit.
---------------------
Finn has needed shoes for awhile now because it is getting colder out and he won't keep his socks on his feet. I don't have time to make him any shoes so I just wanted to buy some. Monday night I ran to the BuyBuyBaby by my work and bought him a pair of shoes. I tried them on him on Tuesday and they were too big. I was just going to exchange them for the smaller size but there was a really cute pair at Old Navy that I could get for a lot less. So I returned the first pair of shoes and bought the second. Wednesday comes, and these shoes don't fit now, they are too small. Great! Another day that he will go without shoes. When am I going to get to the store to exchange or return these? I don't want to take all 3 of my kids into the store just to do one little thing. It takes forever and is stressful.
-----------------------
I lost it again. I become very frustrated. I was also trying to get to the park "on time," which is crazy because no one gets there "on time" but I feel like I should be. We get there and of course only 2 people are there so far and others slowly start arriving. My kids are playing. I'm standing on my own and soon make small talk with some girls. I feel awkward and out of place. I don't have any desire to talk and I have no clue what to talk about. Also, my heart feels like it is racing. I become self conscious. I begin to feel left out. I feel jealous. I feel like I want to leave. I feel friendless. I feel discounted from everyone. I feel like crying. I try breathing slow, taking deep breaths, closing my eyes. Nothing is working at making my heart to stop feeling like it is racing. After eating some lunch, Brody falls and hurts his knees. I say lets go home. They are all for that. As we drive home my heart slows down. When we are in the house I feel like I can breath again. I have Activity Girls tonight. I don't feel like going. I don't want to leave the house, I just want to curl up in bed. But I have to go. I feel like it will all fall apart if I don't go. I must be there.
I go.
I'm glad I did. While there I spoke with the woman I "work" with and she talked to me about the hard stuff going on with her family. I told her about how lousy I have been feeling. She said everyone has that sometimes. She helped to take my mind off things. Then when we were all done, one of the girls, the newest one to the group, came and gave me a hug before leaving. It was wonderful! Then a mom that I used to visit teach but has now been moved out of our ward came by and we got to chat. This woman is always so uplifting when I get to visit with her. Visiting Teaching her (and being her friend) was not a calling giving to me for her benefit, it was for mine. She is amazing. And receiving friendly hugs from her was the best medicine ever. I didn't need to tell her about what had been going on. I just needed her light and her warmth. After getting home, I felt much better. I set out in my mind to get over whatever it was that was hanging over me. I started to make plans in my mind of the things I would do on Thursday.

I'm now feeling back to myself. I don't know why all these things snowballed like they did this week and caused me so much pain. I want to say it is because I have not been exercising. I definitely get a lot from whatever that chemical is that your brain produces when you exercise. That is probably why I get so depressed when I'm pregnant, because I don't exercise for months. I have also been feeling lousy because I am just behind. There are so many projects I want to get done and I just don't have the time, so I'm behind on them. There are books that I want to get read, but I just don't have the time, so I'm behind. There are things in my house that need to be cleaned and organized, but I just don't have the time, so I'm behind. There are movies and shows that I want to watch with Shad, but I just don't have the time, so I'm behind. The Secretary to the Bishop even called me out on my behindness when he emailed and asked why they still had on record that my temple recommend was out of date when we had met with the bishopric. Because we never met with the stake for interviews. How long had it been? If it has been longer then 3 months we would need our interviews with the bishop again. How long had it been? like 6 months. How could I have let this slip past? We have appointments with the bishopric this Sunday and with the stake on the 24th. I will get something done!

And any update: Brody now has some shoes that fit. They are a little lose in the ankle, but they will work. And Shad and I are on happier terms now, but the closet still isn't clean.

It's been a long time since we visited the musuem

2010-11-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

It was a busy day for us, but when our friends called and said they were going to the Durham museum and wanted us to come along, we of course did. We had a great time.

We rarely have gone into the butterfly house. My kids always want to run right to the Catch the Wind area.

We then just went to play on the playground, but the kids just wanted to stay in the sand.

Brody was complaining the whole time that he wanted to go dance. To him the dance area is the place inside where you can run around this room and all the squares make different musical sounds. So we decided to rap it up and go in there.

Brody is 5 or "I have a 5 year old!?!"

2010-11-06T20:41:00.005-04:00

Thursday was Brody's birthday. We got him a Wii. Well, actually the Wii now can stream Netflix onto our TV so Shad wanted that and Brody's birthday gift was a great excuse to buy it. But, even though when opening the Wii I thought his eyes would light up and he would be way excited, there was really no emotion at all. But after we got it set up and he started playing the one game we have, he loved it! Now that is all he wants to do. I'm glad we got it. So far we are all having fun with it.

-------------------

Today Brody had his birthday party. For some reason in Brody's mind he is not 5 (or whatever age, he was like this last year) until after his birthday party. So today he was telling everyone that he is NOW 5.

Now I will document for my memory's sake the events of the birthday party:

Brody told me awhile ago that he wanted a Halloween party. I told him that we were not having a Halloween party a week after Halloween. He said he wanted a ghost party. Okay I can do that. He said he wanted to play ghost tag and "that game where you spin around and have to put the tail on" and a craft. Okay, google "ghost craft", check. Ghost tag, whatever that is, check. Pin the face on the ghost, check. Shad suggested "eating marshmallows off a string", check. Google "ghost cake", check.

Get invitations out. Took longer then normal. I'm usually on top of things, but of recent I am wwwaayyy far behind on everything. Fortunately, everyone we invited could come. I saw online making a ghost using your foot print. So we painted Brody's foot white and printed it on black paper. I added googly eyes and black paint for a mouth, then wrote the information on the back with white marker.

I was having a hard time deciding how we would do this party. He has friends now at school and his church friends. I decided to "convince" him to invite our friends (who he is friends with their kids) and a couple other kids I know he likes from church. I like to keep parties small, so we didn't invite too many. We also decided to have this one be either drop off the invited child or family can stay and include other siblings. It worked out, only one parent stayed so we didn't have too many "other" children there.

Last night (Friday night) I spent the evening getting some things ready for the party. I think total I spent 3 hours last night making ghost faces for the pin-the-face-on game and working on the cake. I don't make cake or icing from scratch. I should, but I don't have a good recipe and I'm lazy and don't try any out from online. I also plan a little too late, so the cake and icing come from a box. Well, the cake from the box is soooo soft. I had this vision of a 4 layer cake. Chocolate, white, chocolate, white with chocolate icing between the layers and white icing on the top to create the ghost. I made a 13X9 chocolate cake and a 13X9 white cake last night. I let them cool, then I cut the bump off the top and then cut them in half. Separating the two layers was the hard part. They would break off in either large sections (like in half) or in small ones (like the corner would fall off). I groaned and cried and cursed several times. Then when I would spread the icing, the icing would not just create crumbs on the cake, but huge chunks of the cake would spread off. This would bring on even more tears and profanities. Then I ran out of chocolate icing so I went to Harris Teeter at 11PM to buy more. The cake finally pieced together, I put it in the refrigerator to set up over night. This morning I made it into a ghost. It turned out pretty well. I enjoy making the cakes for my kids parties. I wish I had all the right tools that would make the experience go smoother. Maybe one day I will.

My mom and grandma were here for the morning. They helped put up the decorations and put together the marshmallow game. We were all set.
2:30 arrives
Kids come in. Sit down at table for craft. Kids not really interested in getting hands in the paper mache glue so the adults did it. Most could not stretch the cheesecloth that well, so the adults helped with that too. I made them go kind of stingy on the cheesecloth so tonight I'm going to add another layer to the craft and they should be dry by tomorrow morning and I can add a face and take them to the kids at church. Here is what we have drying right now and what they are supposed to look like. At least we tried.

While my mom cleans up the mess on the table the kids play upstairs.
Then we bring them back down for games.
First the marshmallow game. They were all excited to play. They all did very well. I was surprised how much fun they had. Later when telling parents about what happened at the party they first talk about having to eat the marshmallows with out their hands, just their mouths.

Then pin the face on the ghost. The kids enjoyed this one as well. They even let me blind fold them and spin them twice. I made several different faces so they each go to choose one to put up.

The last game I called a Ghostbuster game. We had a secret message. They had to find the hidden ghosts and bring them to me. The ghosts would have a number that would reveal a letter in the message. They loved running around upstairs looking for the ghosts. Then the message was revealed "Time for ghost birthday cake". Run downstairs for cake.

Sing Happy Birthday to Brody. Blow out candles. Then the candles come back to life. What a surprise. Why are they doing that? Brody blows them out again. And they come back again. Why are they doing that? I didn't buy trick candles. Brody was on the verge of tears because he would blow them out and another one would come back on. Finally I got a cup of water and put the candle out in that. My mom looked at the package the candles came in and sure enough in small print it said they were trick candles. We were all surprised by that one!

I had issues with cutting the cake. Brody said he wanted the spider on the bottom. OKay, I cut him the whole spider. While putting it on his plate I realize how big of a slice it was. I didn't want to skimp the next child so her piece was way huge too. I didn't want to go from huge slices to tiny ones so I gradually made them smaller and smaller. So each kid got way too much cake and they only ate like 25 to 50 percent of it. We also had green ice cream (mint chocolate chip, Brody picked it out himself and wanted the green ice cream). They all ate the one scoop of ice cream I gave them. They drank juice boxes and were off upstairs to finish out the hour with free play.

We opened presents upstairs after awhile. Brody got a neat action figure, those are always good. And some small crafts, another thing that is always good. The last gift he was opening the boy who brought it was so excited for Brody to open it that he opened the box for Brody. With how sensitive Brody is right now, he started crying in the middle of all his friends that he wanted to open the box. I tried my best to comfort him with out babying him and trying to distract him with the neat thing he got so that he would stop crying. I guess young kids don't get embarrassed like I would think when they cry around their friends.

5:00 and parents come to pick up.
I asked one friend "are you guys going out for dinner tonight?" I was not going to worry with dinner tonight when I had spent the past 24 hours cleaning and making and getting ready. So we went with our good friends (and two families that had kids at the party) to dinner at a Mexican place. Real fun!

Introducing.....

2010-10-23T21:21:00.004-04:00

Let's do the time warp again

2010-10-21T10:25:00.003-04:00

so I can't get The Rocky Horror Picture Show out of my head. Maybe I liked it more then I originally thought?
Who would I dress up as if I went to a showing?
I could pull off Magenta.

I might download the Glee album that is already out with songs from the show that won't air until next week.

Movie Review: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

2010-10-20T21:59:00.003-04:00

What was that!? Who wrote this movie?
I have heard the title to this movie alot. And I am aware that it is a cult classic that gets shown in theatres at midnight and the audience dresses up and dances and sings along. But I had no idea what it was about. Well, I still don't really know what it is about!

I watched it tonight so that I could get ready for the up coming episode of Glee on Tuesday. They are doing the Rocky Horror Glee Show and will be singing and performing things from the movie. I wanted to "get" what they were doing. I looked it up on Netflix and it was watch instantly. I had a free night tonight (rare) and decided to watch it.

You could tell it was cheese and was ment to be cheese. I'm okay with cheese. But when the motorcycle guy came out and started singing I didn't understand where he came from. Then later his uncle shows up. And how random that he is in a wheelchair. I also didn't get why Riff Raff let Rocky go from his chains on the bed. I was shocked when Dr. Franknfooter jumped into bed with the guy and girl. That is when the whole thing went from sexual undertones to blatantly about sex. I can get why it might be fun to dress up in lingerie and dance around. But why go that extra mile? Then the big big surprise. The WWWhhaaattt?? of the whole movie. Riff Raff and Magenta come in gold costumes at the end of a crazy weird langerie dance and pool(?) dance scene (none the less) and are going back to their planet. I know I know. The transvestite Transylvania planet was mentioned quite a few times, but when they actually want to return and do so. That was just insane. Who wrote this?

There was a lot of songs. That was fun. I haven't seen many musicals. That part of the movie I did like.

I would not recommend this movie to anyone. But if you are interested in seeing it, it might not hurt to watch once. Then you will know if you are one to dress up in garters and dance around your home. Just don't make any surprise visits to my house tonight.

its just a jump to the left
and a step to the right
put your hands on your hips
you bring your knees in tight
but its the pelvic thrust
that really drives you insane

13.1 down....again

2010-10-16T21:31:00.003-04:00

I have been training for months. Constantly thinking about how I need to run, I'm not running enough, I need to train more and better, I should be running faster and longer. I got set back with hurting my heel in Montreal. Then I got set back more because Brody started preschool and it was dark in the morning so it was hard to run in the morning (which is when I like to run). Finally the week of the race comes. On that Thursday my foot starts to hurt. Why? By the end of the night I can hardly walk on it. That night before bed I take off my sock and the top of my foot near my ankle is swollen. The swollen knot is as large as the bone-y knob that is my ankle. I was worried. My race was in 2 days. I was planning on running on Friday morning. Now I am set back again. But by Saturday my ankle wasn't swollen or bruised anymore. It hurt slightly, but I was going to give it my best shot.

I ran with my girlfriend Molly for the first 4 miles. Then we separated a bit because she was running 5 minutes and walking 1 minute. If I stop and walk once, I will keep stopping to walk. I have to keep going. I might slow down, but I can't stop. I downloaded Dracula onto my iPod, so I wouldn't have to be listening to the same old music I always listen to. I made sure to run at a slow and steady pace. After mile 8 there was a long straight level stretch. I tried picking up my pace but my ankle started to hurt, so I had to keep slow. The course as a whole was nice, but the last mile or so was pretty much all up hill. That was brutal. It was great to come around the corner though and finish with the encouragement of my friends. I have ran many races, and rarely have anyone at the end. My family wasn't there (Shad doesn't get running races) but the other ladies I ran with were there and their families.

Hand Puppet Theatre

2010-10-14T12:52:00.001-04:00

My mom came to visit today. I still needed to work on our Halloween costumes so I bought a paperbag puppet making kit at michael's so they all would have something to do for awhile. I think it was a success. After making them, Brody wanted to put on a puppet show. I think these bag animals will get a lot of use out of them over the coming weeks.

"I'm pretty!"

2010-10-13T13:00:00.001-04:00

This is what Brody said after trying on Briar's Halloween costume. I had to take a picture. But really, he would be pretty if I had put a bow in his hair and put on pretty shoes.

I'm just stunnin' with my love-glue-gunning

2010-10-11T13:05:00.004-04:00

I bought a Halloween house for us to work on this afternoon. The box said that it had sticky foam pieces. I thought that ment the whole thing. NO NO NO was I ever wrong. Pretty much I worked on a Halloween house while the kids played with the left over pieces very nicely at the table. I had to use hot glue to get everything to stick and stay. When I had all the big pieces together the kids were able to stick the foam decorations on. We spent some no stress quality time together this week when I have been spending really all my time working on Halloween costumes.

my completed house

the finished product after the kids decorated it

Neighborhood Fall Festival

2010-10-10T13:14:00.005-04:00

Our neighborhood had a fall festival today. We went after church. There was a bouncy house that I knew the kids would like and they were going to have food. The kids played in the bouncy house 3 or 4 times. They played games. Brody even got to ride a pony (he wore a huge grin the whole time!).

Walking in the woods

2010-10-09T13:16:00.003-04:00

Shad took Brody and Briar out for a walk on a trail by our house that goes out to Jordan Lake. They found frogs and climbed trees and got to spend time with daddy. I got to stay at home and work on Halloween costumes.

Shad's 35th Birthday

2010-10-05T13:18:00.006-04:00

We aren't big birthday people. Shad's birthday was low key. I wanted to do something with our friends but we had just seen them that weekend and would be seeing them again for game night in a couple of days. We just had cake and ice cream at home. The kids liked having Daddy's birthday party. I got Shad a Pathfinder book (aka. new D&D) and maps to go along with the campaign (that is what we call the D&D game that is being run/played) he will be running in a few months. The kids (Brody) made him cards with balloons on them.

Briar's preschool

2010-10-04T13:22:00.004-04:00

Briar has a little preschool this year. Like I have done in years past with Brody, we have 4 other friends and we get together once a week for 2 hours and have a little lesson and let the kids play. We are doing the alphabet and every week we will study a new letter. I taught the letter D this week. We read a Dinosaur book, Dug for alphabet puzzle pieces in sand (the kids really liked this one, wanted to do it 3 times), Danced to music, and Drank chocolate milk for snack. Everyone had fun playing together. This will be a good school year!

Carrboro 10K race

2010-10-02T18:53:00.000-04:00

I have been training for a half marathon race for months!
Today was a prelim that I ran with 2 friends.
The Carrboro 10K was 6miles around Carrboro. We actually ran past my Grandmother's house (or at least the house she was in when I was growing up) and my Aunt's old house.
It was neat running in a part of town that I kind of knew but never run on because it is far from my home.
I would like to run that race again.
I ran the 6.2 miles in 1 hour 1 minute.
Not bad considering for the past week I haven't been able to run at all due to not having time. And the 2 weeks before that my heel was still healing so I couldn't wear shoes and the week before that I was out of town and had just hurt my heel.
It felt good to run, and I really pushed myself. My nike+ told me that I recorded my fastest mile at like 9.30 minute per mile pace.
Let's see how I do in 2 weeks at the half marathon!

Heritage Day

2010-10-02T13:28:00.011-04:00

Heritage Day is something put on by Jordan Lake every year on the first Saturday of October from 10 - 3. We went last year and enjoyed it so much that we came again this year too. This year was a little different then last year.

Brody painted with a pine needle paintbrush

Finn was carried in a sling

We made more pine cone bird feeders

Brody shot a bow and arrow

Shad made art with a hammer and nail

searched for treasure in a pile of sawdust

Briar petted a bunny

made a doll out of hay or something

They colored and had the picture made into a button

I'm sure we will go again next year. And hopefully this time we can camp again. We camped last year and wanted to this year but it had rained a lot that week and we were worried the ground would be too wet.

Yard Sale finds

2010-09-25T13:36:00.000-04:00

I went yard saleing today. I came home with a game to give Briar for Christmas. A dress-up dress for Briar (Arial dress). Some new princess videos (Snow White and Beauty and the Beast) and a few books. The hit though was Crocodile Dentist. The kids got a kick out of playing this game. I thought they wouldn't like it because it snaps down on your finger (not right on your finger, you don't get hurt, but it does catch you by surprise). I have also wanted something to put Finn in when we are downstairs. I found it! A bouncy exersaucer.

My never happened high school reunion

2010-09-24T19:55:00.002-04:00

Tonight was supposed to be my 10 year high school reunion.
It was canceled earlier this week.
There was a lot of going back and forth on what to do.
Then they decided on what to do.
There was going to be a family tailgate party at the high school before the football game on Friday. Then Saturday a luncheon at a restaurant downtown, followed by a nightclub thing.
I knew I couldn't go to the Saturday stuff because of a family thing this weekend.
I bought tickets for the Friday night thing. That would be more fun anyways, seeing every body's kids and wives/husbands. I might not feel so weird having my family there with me as well.
I was looking forward to the reunion. I mean it would be neat to see how my "friends" are doing, how much hair and money the heart throb has and if the high school slut has gotten fat. I would like to hang out with Raquel and Pam (but I knew Pam couldn't make it).
It got canceled because there were not enough tickets sold. I think all we needed was 50 to have the thing, and there wasn't even that many. Didn't I graduate with like 300 people? I know a few people have died and some don't live close by anymore. But, I think the majority of people still live in North Carolina and even still in Winston Salem. How totally lame is North Forsyth's 2000 high school class that we can't even scrape up 50 people to get together to reunite. I knew high school was lame back then, and I guess it still is.
But part of me is glad that I don't have to return to the high school. I haven't been back since I left and I kind of don't want to. I didn't really care for high school. I hated the rules and that most of the people there (teachers and administrators as well as majority of the students) were dumb. I don't mean that they weren't smart, but that they made poor decisions and ran things pretty weakly. The high school wasn't fun, the students were held back and looked down on and treated as such.
I'm also a little relieved that I didn't have to go back and see the ex. It was hard to live through that mess and it took a long time to shake it off and I didn't really want to come face to face with it again and have those same feeling come back.
I also know that Shad wasn't really looking forward to going.
I made a lot of mistakes in school. Poor choices and bad decisions. I relive those things often enough in my mind on occasion. I don't want to have to return to the scene of the crime.
Here are 2 photos of me from high school that I found. You can see Pam and Raquel sitting to my right in the top photo. I look the same don't I?? I haven't aged a bit right??

HaHaHaHa

Biggest Loser Season 10

2010-09-22T21:49:00.002-04:00

Another season has begun and I am so excited!
How can I be into a reality show that is the same show every season?
I don't know, but I love it!
I am also happy because instead of having to wait a week to watch it on the internet, they now post them the following day. Now I will always be up to date.

This weeks show was crazy. They went around to several cities across the US and had a competition between 3 finalists in each city. 2 got to go to the ranch, 1 had to stay home. Of course you know that they have something in store for those that didn't make it through. But in the mean time, those individuals feel like crap because yet again they failed at something and were so close to their "dream" and couldn't get it. I'm guessing that each of these people will come back in several weeks to weigh in and the 2 that have lost the most weight at home get to stay.

The best part was the last bit of the show where they showed highlights. They are moving the yellow line up. Is that for just one show or for all of them? Every season they have to do something crazy. I just hope that everyone there has a chance to do something, learn some stuff and lose some weight.

They also made it look like there is going to be some draaamaaa (said in a sing songy voice) between some people, mainly the ladies. I'm guessing that there is at least 2 mormons on the show. I'm pretty sure about the 30 year old mother of 5 from Arizona is a mormon. Maybe that young girl with the long hair, but I'm not so sure.

Looks like this will be a good season.

Sometimes you just have to pay someone to tell you how things work

2010-09-22T10:36:00.005-04:00

First a little boring background info.
We got a home warranty on our home when we bought it.
We upgraded it after a year because our AC broke the day it needed to be renewed.
Our ice maker has not worked since we moved in (over a year ago), the coverage we had did not cover this.
Also, the carpet attachment for our central vacuum does not work. This was not covered either.
The upgrade Shad made when we renewed cover these things.

Now fast forward to the present time.
Saturday
A guy comes to fix our ice maker. He replaces the motor and the prongs that hold the ice while it is being made. Great "it should work now" he says.
It drops one thing of ice.
Sunday
Still no more ice.
Monday
no ice. Call home warranty people to have someone come back out.
Tuesday
A guy comes to fix the ice maker. He looks and fiddles. Then tells me the bar to turn the ice making off and on needs to be all the way down for it to make ice. Our bar had gotten stuck on some little plastic piece and was not all the way down (it was like a centimeter away from being all the way down). Great. I feel dumb. At least someone came to let me know.

Also on Tuesday
A guy comes to fix the fan in the attic that is supposed to turn on when it gets too hot up there and suck the air out the roof. It never comes on.
The guy asks "have you checked the temperature on it?". No, I don't know what you mean.
He gets a ladder and climbs to the top and the fan is set not to come on unless the temperature in the attic reaches 110 degrees. He changes it to 90. The fan can come on just fine.

Well, I didn't know all this information. I'm glad someone came out and taught me how things in my house work.

Finally the updates are in

2010-09-20T21:45:00.009-04:00

I wanted to post all my back dated posts at the same time.
Now that they are all done, I should be able to keep things up to date.

Please scroll down to see Brody on his first day of preschool, a preschool update, Briar's new haircut, a day at Jordan Lake, Finn's 6 months pictures, and a few movie reviews

For all the Montreal trip news visit the links for:
Day 1 at my in-laws
Day 2 taking off
Day 3 first full day in Montreal
Day 4 Sunday in Montreal and how I killed my heel
Day 5 fourth day in Montreal
Day 6 last day to visit with friends
Day 7 returning home

* Preschool UPDATE *

2010-09-20T20:28:00.005-04:00

Brody is loving preschool. He has been there for 2 weeks now and just loves it. When asked directly "So what did you do in preschool today?" He can never remember, except which playground they played at (they alternate between the big one and small one every other day). But when in the car (usually, this is where he likes to talk and talk and talk the most) he will mention things that they do. Like centers, and circle time, and treasure box, and how we need to draw a map to our house for a little boy so that he can come play at our house. He didn't know any of the kids names before, but slowly he is learning them now. I think all the kids know his name though. When we leave there is always at least one or two kids that yell "Bye Brody" as we walk to our car. I have had two different teachers of his tell me that he is a very friendly boy. He pretended to play school today and set up centers in our playroom for me and Briar and Finn to go to. He would tell us what center to play at and then when it was time to switch. He also let me do Hooked on Phonics with him (which we haven't done in ages because the one time I tried doing it with him he became very stressed and said he couldn't do it and ran off multiple times). I think school is a very good thing for Brody.

Briar has also started preschool. A few girlfriends and I got together and have a little co-op going like I have done in past years with Brody. We have 5 total kids in the group, which is great!! Briar has twice now (we meet only on Mondays for 2 hours). She really likes it. She will walk right into the friend's house and smile really big and is totally happy when I pick her up. I was worried that she wouldn't like preschool just because she is much shyer then Brody, but she seems to be doing great. On the other days of the week when Brody is gone I have been trying to do things with Briar, like take her to a playground or have a little friend over for just her. She still doesn't really know how to play without Brody, but I'm hoping that before long she will do just fine.

(Briar and I had a quick picnic lunch on her first day at preschool). Her school ends at 11:45 and we have to pick Brody up at 12:45ish (before 1 or I get charged if I'm late). So every Monday will be a quick lunch.

Briar's third haircut

2010-09-17T21:12:00.002-04:00

Briar's first haircut was just to shorten her bangs.
(September 2009 before and after)

Her second haircut was to get rid of the mullet.
(February 2010 before and after)

This time it was to even everything up.
(today before and after)

My kids at the age of 2 start to lose their hair. It slowly grows back in, but comes back in a different texture. Brody's went from baby fine and super curly to thick and only a slight wave.

(Brody May 2008 right before a haircut)

(September 2008, this is how it grew back)

Briar's seems to be growing in still red (thank goodness) but thicker. She didn't lose all her hair though, so what remained was thin and long and stragglely. It got cut short (which Shad doesn't like) but it looks so much better! This way as it grows it will grow in more even. She is till cute as a button.

We enjoyed a day at Jordan Lake

2010-09-14T20:50:00.001-04:00

Movie Review: Role Models

2010-09-12T20:40:00.001-04:00

This movie is so funny! I laughed and laughed and laughed. But be warned. It is rated R for a very very good reason. Well multiple reasons. There is alot of bad language. The little black boy likes to say the F word a lot. And women expose their boobs, not to mention all the discussions about breasts in general. But if you can stomach this kind of stuff, then rent it. Very funny.

Finn is 6 months

2010-09-09T20:53:00.002-04:00

Before we left for Montreal Finn turned 6 months. I had my friend Karen come over and take a few pictures for me (she just moved now to Seattle so she won't be taking photos for me anymore). I got them back right before she left and I just love them.

Finn can now roll over and over and over. He still enjoys playing in is exersaucer, but now (if I'm around) he is allowed to roam the playroom. He laughs a lot and smiles easily at others. You just can't help to love him. He is working on sitting up on his own. I am ready to abandon his infant car seat and move up to a convertable one. We are officially trying to move him into the kids room now. He has slept well in there for 2 nights. Brody doesn't like him in there because he is afraid he will wake him up. I put a little fan in there to create some white noise to block out any sounds from any children that might wake the others. So far so good. We are also working on falling asleep on our own. Doing pretty well at that too. He still doesn't like solid foods. I've only tried baby oatmeal cereal. Maybe if I branch out more he would like it, but he gets excited over his bottles so I'm not worried.

Brody's first day of preschool

2010-09-07T19:04:00.001-04:00

Brody has started real preschool this year. It is 5 days a week from 9 to 1. He was really excited to go. We had discussed that he is going to make all new friends there, because none of the kids we know go to this preschool. He thought that would be neat. Since he would be eating a snack and lunch at school we discussed what foods he liked so I could make him a variety of foods to take and not just the same thing everyday. Briar was around for this conversation and wanted to take her lunch too. I saw a lunch box on clearance at Target and bought it. I pack her lunch in it everyday and she is always excited to open it. The first day she wanted to take her lunch with her in the car just like Brody. When we got home she couldn't wait to open it and see what was inside. She ate off of it all morning. When I dropped Brody off he looked a little timid and shy, but he gave me a little kiss and a hug and walked right in. Not one tear. I wanted to hang around the door and watch what he did, but there were other parents doing that, taking pictures and continuing to wave. So I just walked back to the car. The morning was uneventful at home with Finn and Briar. Then we headed back to pick up Brody. He said he had a great day! Good.

Home Again home again jiggy jig

2010-09-01T16:14:00.001-04:00

It was some what sad for me today to leave Shad in Montreal and be returning on my own to NC. It reminded me of the other times that I left him behind in Montreal. Those were very tear filled moments. I'm glad this time wasn't so and that our relationship now is way beyond better compared to before.

Nothing happened on my flights back. I had finished The Lost Symbol so I started The Hunger Games. I downloaded all 3 before I left on vacation. So far, this book is so good. I can't put it down. But I had to during take off and landing (remember my post from day #2?). So I remembered to buy a celeb magazine and caught up on who has the best beach body and why Jennifer Aniston is so amazing and what Snooki is wearing.

My last full day and taking a big hit

2010-08-31T15:47:00.002-04:00

Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday.
EXCEPT I was smart enough this morning to hang the DO NOT DISTURB sign outside of my door so that the pesky cleaning lady wouldn't come in.

I hung out in my room and read my book for awhile (well my Kindle, I am trying to finish my book group book The Lost Symbol). I made plans with Rochelle to meet at the McGill metro station to go to the shops (I would call it shopping but she says the shops. She also called my sunglasses, sunnies. I thought that was funny. I'm used to her accent and how she calls things something different then I do, but this is one I had not heard before). We walked around for awhile lost because I was looking for the store Simon to buy some pretty hair ties I saw there yesterday. We finally did. Went to a few other places, didn't see anything exciting. Then we hit the metro and bus to have lunch with Rebecca agian. Subway again. Fun time chatting again. I think Rochelle is one of the first people that I really share almost all interests with. I have some great friends now. Some best friends that I never want to part from. But Rochelle almost feels like my other half. Please move to the US!

-----------------------

Here is a pic of Rebecca, Rochelle and myself in Montreal from 2003

Here is a picture of Rochelle and I with our boy,s right before we moved away and they were just visiting Canada after moving away the year before, in 2006

--------------------

The afternoon was spent walking around some more. A lot of new buildings have been put up. The sky line has changed so much. We had Asian food tonight. Then we returned to LaSalle and walked by our old apartment. I wanted so much to go in and see if the walls were still painted green and purple but I resisted. And I think Shad was embarrassed enough having to take a picture of me in front of the rock in front of the apartment window.

We then walked to Fab and Rochelle's place (well his mom's place, they only lived right up the street from us). We spent the evening playing Ticket to Ride. I really like this game. I was doing pretty good until the end Fab had 2 trains left and so we had one more turn and I did not make a wise choice and didn't get my last card accomplished so I lost the game. O well. Maybe one day I'll actually win.

I can clean better then her! I did all the work anyway.

2010-08-30T15:06:00.002-04:00

The cleaning lady totally messed up my morning! I went down for breakfast at about 7:30 I think. I ate breakfast (which the breakfast they have here is pretty good. Every morning I have had a toasted bagel with cream cheese, yogurt, a banana, a cup of milk and a cup of orange juice). Then walked to a close by drug store (but I discovered later that there is one right next door to my hotel, but I didn't know then so I had to walk around the block). I needed bandaids and neosporin for my heel. It took me awhile to choose which bandaids to get because not all bandaids are created equal. I wanted something waterproof (because your feet sweat, I wanted it to stay stuck) I also needed one big enough. After finally make my purchase I came back to the hotel. I wanted to go run out by my old apartment in LaSalle. When I went up to my room the cleaning lady was in there. Dang, she got in there fast! Why would she come so early? I can't believe she got here before 9. So do I knock and go in? Or do I wait for her to finish? Well, I had hung up my towels and didn't need new ones, we didn't have much trash and I had already made the bed. I'll just wait. She shouldn't have much to do, it will only take a minute. I'm waiting, waiting, waiting. What is she doing in there?? I walk by the closed door and listen...the TV is on! Why? I wait, wait, wait...wait, wait, wait. I'm feeling stupid just standing out in the hallway. Finally she comes out of the room. She has a shopping bag of mine that I put trash in and tied closed and put on top of the stove. She untied the bag and started looking at the trash and throwing it into her large trash can one item at a time (all that was in there was a box from the chocolate cake I bought last night at the grocery store and my Subway meal trash). I found this strange. Is she supposed to, 1) take a bag that wasn't in the trash can and throw it away? 2) go through my trash? Then she goes back in my room for another minute or so then turns the TV off and comes out. Okay, now she has seen me standing in the hallway and seen me see her go through my trash. Do I walk into my room in front of her? or do I act like I'm waiting for someone else? I decide to wait for someone else. There is one room with a DO NOT DISTURB sign. I stand kind of close to this door while she knocks on two other doors and gets turned away. Then she does something around the hallway corner then takes the elevator. Yes. Now is my chance to sneak into my room. It is now after 9 o'clock. I had to have been out there in the hallway for 15 or 20 minutes. Really!! What was she doing in my room? It looks like she remade the bed and stacked up some maps we had on the little table. She restacked the extra towels she gave us yesterday that we didn't need or use. But the bathroom floor had not been swept, my hair was still on the floor. The trash was empty but there wasn't much to begin with. The dishes I washed last night had not been put away, they were still laying on the counter where I left them to dry, but the washcloth I used to clean them with was gone. Why did all of this take so long? I never saw her take a vacuum out of the room, so she must not have vacuumed the floor. She must have spent most of her time watching TV. I would have turned on the TV to see what she had been watching but when turned off the TV goes back to the movie preview channel and the volume goes all the way down (why does it do this? it is so annoying).

Well then I bandaged my wounds. Put on my shoes, tried waking around. Then determined that the shoes no my heel hurts too bad. I won't be able to wear shoes for at least a week. I'll only be in flip flops for awhile. So no running for me.

I proceeded to become so angry at myself for being so stupid for wearing those shoes and screwing up my feet. I had to kneel and say a prayer. I needed the Spirit to help remove this anger and embarrassment from my shoulders. The prayer helped greatly. I felt a lightness as soon as my knees touched the floor. When my prayer was over my anger was gone and my heel didn't hurt as much. I couldn't wear my shoes yet, but it didn't hurt to walk.

I made plans to meet my friend Rebecca for lunch. She had told me exactly how to get to her work for us to meet. They were perfect and I made all my metro and bus connections perfectly. We ate at Subway. It was good and we had a great time. It was nice to hear her laugh and see that she is doing good.

Shad was back when I got back from lunch. We hung out for a bit in our room and relaxed before heading out to walk around some more.

We visited Old Montreal. I should have taken a nap because I felt like I was walking around in a daze. You would think vacation without kids would equal more rest and sleep but it doesn't. I still went to bed late and woke up early.

We ate dinner at a Spanish restaurant. WoW I had some great chicken dish. I'm bad at getting "safe" food that I know I will like when I eat out. This trip I have tried getting things that sound good and is something I would not normally get. I've done well every time. This chicken was marinated in lemon and lime juice and then grilled. Then placed on top of some very spicy verde sauce. I wonder if I can replicate it at home? I felt like a strawberry daiquiri fix was in order. So I ordered one (virgin of course). YUM!

Then we went to see a movie and a really nice downtown theater. The Other Guys.

Movie Review: The Other Guys

2010-08-30T15:00:00.001-04:00

All I can say is that this movie is really really funny!!
You guys got to see it.
Thank goodness it is not as full of bad language as a lot of Will Ferrell movies are.
So funny.

How I killed my heel

2010-08-29T14:34:00.001-04:00

At the end of today I feel so embarrassed and dumb. I am angry with my own stupidity.

We visited our old ward today. It is so small compared to our ward now. Sacrament is so quiet. There are about no kids in that ward. If you have a small child everyone can hear them. In our ward now everyone (just about) has young kids, so no one notices your one kid making noise. Also, the ward is so small it takes no time at all for sacrament to be passed. There were 4 speakers! Our ward sacrament takes a while and your lucky if both speakers have full time to talk. I am much happier in our ward now. The old ward hasn't changed too much except all the little kids then are not grown up. There are a few people that have gone inactive or have gotten divorced. I'm looking forward to eating lunch with a girlfriend tomorrow to find out all the gossip (hahaha)

Just by chance or fait or I don't know what, pure luck. Our good friend the Catalini's are here too. Rochelle (and Fabio) moved to Australia (where Rochelle is from) about a year and half before we left. Rochelle was my best girlfriend here (I had other friends too, thanks Rebecca, Emilee and Lorraine). Fab's mother (who that are staying with) was kind enough to let us come over for dinner. It was fun to sit down and catch up. Rochelle has been through so much and I finally got all the stories. I don't want to lose touch again! Calling Australia is expensive but email, facebook, blogs and snail mail are possible.

Then tonight I was hungry. I wanted Chinese takeout. The front desk girl sent me to one several blocks away. I walk and walk trying to find the place. I finally do and order. When I pull out my credit card the man tells me they only take cash. What? What kind of place only takes cash? So I walk all the back, empty handed (I didn't have any cash). I can't find anything else on the way back I want so I walk to a grocery store and try to find something there. Nothing. I do buy a chocolate cake and a coke. I walked up the street a bit to a Subway and got a sandwich. Then I head back to the hotel. Luckily I brought my flip flops with me because this is the only thing I can wear on my poor feet.

The rest of the evening was spent eating chocolate cake in bed while watching Myth Busters. Best evening ever! Why can't every Sunday night be this good?

Now here is the story.
I thought a ton about what clothes I would bring on this trip. I was really stressing about it. For some reason I wanted some cute heels that I could wear to multiple places. I thought we might be eating dinner sometime with Shad's old advisor and one night we might go to a nicer restaurant with other people from the conference (these things didn't happen by the way). I found some to die for peep toe wedges by TOMS. I have a regular pair of TOMS and absolutely LOVE them. Why wouldn't the heels be great too? Well I wore them today and I butchered my feet. By Sunday School I gave up and took them off. I walked around the rest of the day without my shoes on. When we finally got home this evening I soaked and cleaned my feet and took a first look at the damage. Right foot heal, about an inch long and half an inch wide, top layer of skin all gone. Little toe has top layer of skin rubbed off. Left foot, little toe HUGE blister. Balls of feet hurt! I don't want to walk. I feel so dumb for packing these shoes. I hate myself for not planning my clothes around my red flats. They are comfortable and would have been way more practical for walking around. My feet will be in pain for not only the rest of my trip, but for weeks. Tomorrow morning I will be going to the closest pharmacy and getting neosporin, big bandages for my heel and small ones for my little toe and a needle to pop the blister on my other toe. I'm embarrassed to have walked around with out my shoes at church, around all those people. And I'm embarrassed about this in front of Shad. He must think I'm so dumb. I am putting this out there. No more heels. They are not ggod for me. Good thing these shoes are form Nordstrom. I think I can return them.

These boots are made for walken' and thats just what they'll do

2010-08-28T13:52:00.006-04:00

There have been so many changes since we lived here. They now have several streets downtown with a two-way bike path (of course as well as the side walks that have always been there). They changed two-way streets into one-way streets and made one lane into a bike path. Very smart in my opinion. So many people bike around here. I hated driving downtown for two reasons. 1) all the pedestrians just stepping into the road whenever they wanted and 2) the bikers will get so close to you. I always think I'm going to hit them.

We needed a 3 day metro pass. They have automated machines you can buy them at down by the trains. These machines will not take American credit cards even though they have the VISA and MASTERCARD symbols on them. The metro guy told us they wouldn't work because too many people were using stolen cards to buy passes. THAT IS SO DUMB! That many people are using bad cards there? give me a break. but you can use American credit cards at other places like stores and restaurants. They are just lazy and dumb.

We walked and walked and walked today. I hate that my ipod was dead (I ran this morning and discovered it was dead so I had to run without music and a treadmill, it was pretty boring)because I would have loved to have started my nike+ and tracked how many miles we walked today.

They replaced the stairs leading up to Mont Royal. The old ones did look like they were about to fall apart and there wasn't much room for people to walk past eachother. Now they are wide and sturdy looking.

We visited the St. Joseph Oratory built by Brother Andre. I'm not Catholic. I don't get why they focus so much on the death of Christ. Inside the chapel all the statues had to do with Christ carrying his cross. Outside they had a garden. Walking through it there were more statues. I really like the garden of Gethsemane. There was only one risen Christ, didn't really like it. I saw this one of Christ having nails put into his wrists. I could not help but think "That must have been excruciatingly painful." I could definitely feel the Spirit in this garden. Looking at all the exhibits about Brother Andre and the building of the oratory, I didn't really care. I want to see Joseph Smith's gravestone, pictures of how the temple was built, tour his home. Our next trip together will be to Navuoo.

Went to our favorite now $2, movie theater (it use to be only a $1) Popcorn, drinks and candy are still $1. They have really done a lot of work to the place. They put in several couches in the waiting area and they replaced all the seats in the theatre. It used to be a really old run down into the ground theatre. It is nice to see that it is doing well enough to upgrade so much.

Ate dinner at an Irish pub. Menus were the inside of a newspaper. I had Irish stew. Very meaty. I ended up poking around for the carrots and leaving the rest. I have never had lamb before. It has a different taste to it. I saw on the appetizers that they made their own chips. Great! I love "homemade" chips. I ordered them. We got french fries. I said to Shad "I ordered chips." he enlightened me that chips in England (and most likely Ireland as well) are french fries. Dang! I'm an idiot. O well.

Last night we had Italian, tonight we had Irish. Tomorrow I want Asian.

I did run this morning. I wanted to outside but figured running downtown would be hard with all the crosswalks and streets. So I ran on their treadmill upstairs in the exercise room. Not bad. It overlooked the downtown skyline. Monday and Tuesday I'm planning on running on the path along the river. I know LaSalle better and the streets are not as busy.

Movie Review: Knight and Day

2010-08-28T13:00:00.001-04:00

This is the movie we watched at the Dollar Cinema.

This is an action comedy. It was funny. I felt like it was making fun of the crazy impossible action and time and super strength of action heroes/super spies. Tom Cruse is a spy type guy that can do anything and has everything and knows everything. Cameron Diaz is a goofy woman that gets caught up in the whole thing. Shad said this movie didn't do well in the theaters because people want the real action like in the Bourne movies or the new Bond movies. And I am a big fan of those movies (I heart Jason Bourne!). But if you are looking for a movie to rent soon that has cool action, some funny bits and a little romance, then this is the one to get.

Heading to Montreal

2010-08-27T13:37:00.003-04:00

We got up early to drive from my in-law's house to the airport in Charlotte. Got through all the lines alright. I had packed my bag planning to carry it on with me, but at the last minute decided to check it. It just made things easier on me to not have to worry about dragging it behind all day. All I really needed was my Kindle for the day anyways and I was right as rain.

The Chicago airport toilets were so crazy! The seats had a plastic cover and you could swish your had across a sensor and change the plastic. I didn't have to touch anything for water or soap or hand towels. Now all they need is the sensored toilet paper dispenser.

Getting onto my flight in Chicago to Montreal was I swear Andy Sandburg in some getup for an SNL skit! This guy had to be french or maybe just a prick (same thing really I guess). He had crazy curly hair that wasn't fixed, huge hollywood sunglasses on (inside -- always the sign of a prick), his ear buds for his ipod in his ears, and talking on his cell phone, all while giving the gate keeper the wrong ticket to board the plane. The gate keeper kept saying "No this is not your ticket. I need your ticket." The Sandburg look-a-like had some normal looking buddies that had to help him get situated with the gate keeper. Once on the plane, I think they sat right at the very back. During the take off and landing, the stewardess was a spitfire. She would say over the intercom "The guy in the back, you have to turn your cell phone off." "You can't sit with a pillow behind you when we are taking off." It was funny. I just knew it was the Sandburg look-a-like guy. That is how pricks are.

A couple silly airplane observances.
--When the plane finally lands, and is pulling up to the gate the seat belt sign finally turns off. You hear this "click" sound all through the plane as everyone throws their seatbelts off like they are sooooo restricting. The people try to stand up, but it is a small plane. Where are they going to go? The plane doors aren't open yet so they can't actually get off. There isn't room for everyone to stand up and get their bags and stand in the aisle with their bags. So you see people "standing" but with their heads bent because they are in the inside seat and the baggage holder is above. Why not just stay seated till you can actually stand up and move into the aisle so you can walk off the plane?
--What do people do on a plane when they don't have anything to read (or watch) the whole flight? I couldn't read my Kindle during the landing and take off and I thought I would scream. I should have bought a magazine to read during these times.
--The flight from Charlotte to Chicago was uneventful. Except it made me peeved that I had to turn my Kindle off during take off and landing. The stewardess said "anything with an off switch has to be turned off." Why? that doesn't make any sense? How is my battery powered reading device going to affect the landing of an airplane? It hasn't effected it flying? It doesn't have internet access that I'm using. Should I turn off my watch? That has a battery?

"Please don't take them to the pool"

2010-08-26T13:45:00.002-04:00

This is what I told my mother-in-law to do while I was gone. I am terrified of my children drowning. I tried taking all three to the pool one day on my own and it was the worst 15 minutes ever! So I did not want her to try. For the kids to get some pool fix the 3 of us took them today, before our trip.

Totally Practical, Right?

2010-08-18T20:21:00.000-04:00

We had some friends over for dinner after church on Sunday.
I came straight inside and finished up the dinner before they came over.
I didn't take off my church clothes and shoes.
Which means I was in a skirt that came just below my knees and it kind of went out a bit.
I also had on heels.
While bending over at the waist to pull my baker out of the over with oven mitts I thought,
"Why can't I look like this everyday while making dinner?"
They did it in the 5os right? All I needed was a cute apron.

Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

2010-08-17T20:07:00.000-04:00

This movie was SO FUNNY!
I give it as many stars as you can.
We had date night this Friday and Shad chose this movie. He showed me a preview on youtube of it first (we don't have cable so I never know what movies are coming out). It looked fun.
It was such a fun movie to watch. People were clapping and laughing out loud.
How the movie was filmed was neat and all the extra nintendo game/comic book-like animation they added to scenes made it so funny.
How many times can I say this movie was so funny and fun to watch?
so far 6

So there is this kid, Scott Pilgrim. He starts dating a girl. And her 7 evil exes come back to fight him. Scott also has a band, and they are competing for best local band (or something like that). You get to hear a lot of their music. I really like the music! I downloaded the soundtrack.
WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR
hahahaha so funny.

You got to go see it.
Trust me
It is so funny!

now 8

Making a come back

2010-08-16T19:46:00.000-04:00

Briar turned 2 in January. Around then she started losing her hair. Every time I would comb it many strands would come out on the brush. You could see around her hair line and ears where it was very sparse.

Now you can see the new hair coming in. She lost a lot more then I thought! There was a huge patch in the back that is now coming in. I'm wondering when I'm going to need to take her for a hair cut so that everything is all the same length.

Anyways, the new hair is coming in a little curly I think. When she gets sweaty or is around humidity the hair at her hairline and ears curls. But it usually all curls back like Farrah Fawcett.

Really? It is already August!

2010-08-15T19:36:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that it is already August.
I told myself I was going to do so much this summer.
One of my goals was too teach Brody how to read.
I never really got around to that.

I also can't believe that not only is it August but it is the 15th of August.
I uploaded pictures from my camera and had 1 picture.
Just 1!
for the whole month so far!
I used to take soooooooooooooooooooo many more pictures,
and couldn't wait to run home,
upload them to the computer,
edit them,
and post them to my blog.

I also can't believe I have become one of those moms that takes hardly any pictures of their 3rd kid!
Finn is almost 6 months old and I don't have that many pictures of him.
I will make it my goal to get a couple of him this week.

What has happened to me?

Hot and Spicy Cow plus other random picture updates

2010-08-07T21:15:00.000-04:00

Happy family. Maple View Farms ice cream. Finn looks like he's smiling.

I saw a pink (mary kay) SUV last week on the highway. I have always wanted a pink Porsche carrera.

Tried giving Finn oatmeal baby cereal. He didn't care for it. We'll try again in a few weeks. He does like bottles though. So we are 95% weaned from breastfeeding.

Shark and crown face paint from the pioneer day celebration. When all 3 kids are crying at once, it is time to go home.

Did underdog for the first time. Briar loved it and asked for it over and over.

Movie Review: Taken

2010-08-06T20:55:00.000-04:00

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Ok. Shad and I watched this movie the other night. And it is crazy.
First, Liam Neeson (well his character in the movie) is a totally badass. I wish I could be like this so no one could mess with my kids.

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

That quote sums up the whole movie. What if Jason Bourne was your dad? yeah that is this movie.

The girl in the movie is supposed to be 17. What 17 year-old runs like a crazy 8 year old in the airport? Or to her parents? None that I know or remember. At the end of the movie, the girl comes home after being taken by human traffickers, being drugged on most likely heroin for 3 days and dressed up in underwear and almost had sex with some disgusting men and she happily lops to her mother and kisses and hugs her with a big grin on her face like she just came home from disneyland. If this had been me, coming home from this, wouldn't I be crying and clinging to my mother? Not this girl, it is all forgotten in a plane ride.

HOW DISGUSTING ARE THESE GUYS? So the movie is about men who kidnap young girls and sell them to other men who get them addicted to hard core drugs and then pimp them out. One scene had the girls in basically a trailer sectioned off into 'rooms' with blankets hanging from wire on the ceiling and men pay to come have sex with them while they are so drugged up that they have no idea was is going on. There are 4 things that I am totally afraid of. The second one is being raped. That is pretty much what is happening to these girls, except scarier I say. What kind of man 1) puts a girl in this type of situation and 2) will sleep with a girl who is gross looking and drugged out of her mind and just finished having a sex with another sleeze of a man?

The plot of the movie was disturbing, to say the least. When I see movies like these I think 'if someone can think it to write it then some one can think it and do it'. I also ask myself and pray at night 'when will it all end? how much worse can it get?'

So the movie had good action and an okay happy ending (what happened to all the girls he saw that weren't his daughter but he didn't/couldn't save?)

2 stars.

Movie Review: Bounty Hunter

2010-08-05T20:46:00.000-04:00

Shad had game night the other night. I like to rent movies that I know he will NEVER watch that I'm kind of interested in. I redboxed Bounty Hunter.

I'm sorry Jennifer Aniston. I loved you in Friends. It is one of the best shows ever and still one of my favorites. You were very funny and super cute. But since Friends ended, you just can't seem to make a good movie. You're still cute, I guess you just aren't doing the right films.

The movie was terrible, but I have seen better.

3 stars.

Do you like the skin on or off?

2010-08-04T20:39:00.000-04:00

My mother-in-law came up from SC last week. She brought some amazing peaches with her.

I am a no fuss mom, or maybe it is called lazy, or maybe I don't want to spoil my kids or teach them 'bad' habits or 'not needed' habits.

Basically, I don't cut the skin or crust off of food.

I'm so glad that Briar will eat the skin and even the funny looking inside of a peach.

YUMMY

Pedicure?

2010-08-03T20:28:00.001-04:00

Should I?

Get a pedicure?

A girlfriend had invited me to get one the other week. It was a crazy Saturday, so I was unable to go. So that night Shad had game night, so I painted my toenails. This is not something I usually do. I'm really bad at applying the nail polish for one. I also can never decide if the color I put on is too light, too dark, too bright, looks like fungus.

Never before have I ever been around so many girls who love pedicures! I feel like almost all the girls I know enjoy getting pedicures and long to get them often. They also always have their toe nails painted, and they always great! (Yes I'm looking at your feet. Your paint job has not gone under appreciated)

I have a thing about feet. I don't want my feet touched (except by me, you can't totally avoid that) and I don't want to touch other people's feet (I have to sometimes touch my kids feet. Baby feet are cute but Brody's are now not so cute and touchable).

I bought this coral nail polish. The night I put it on and for a few days after I thought it looked way to bright. But now a week later, I kind of like it and how my toes look. There was a purple color at the store I kind of liked. Maybe I'll try that next.

What do you think Shad?

2010-08-02T21:39:00.003-04:00

So I'm trying LABELS on my posts now. You can find those on the side bar.

I've also added the FOLLOWERS gadget. Become a follower.

And I've added the REACTIONS to the bottom of the post. Don't really know what it does, but I thought it might be fun to try.

Movie Review: Inception

2010-08-02T12:06:00.003-04:00

This movie was really amazing! The effects are crazy. I wonder how they shot most of the film? The acting was great (not that I know anything about that really). The plot was insane! If you think about this movie too much you will blow your mind. I want to see it again, just so I can really understand all the ins and outs of what is going on.

I like Leonardo DiCaprio. This was the first movie of his I have seen in almost 10 years, even though he has come out with a lot, they are never movies that seem to interest me.

I am loving Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I have been saying to Shad after the past few movies we have watched with him in it, that he is the next Heath Ledger (except he hopefully won't kill himself). He looks a little like Ledger and sounds like him too (when he puts on his American accent that is). Want another good movie with him in it? Brick.

5 stars (out of 5)

We went to the beach last weekend

2010-07-20T15:25:00.003-04:00

Rewards for bad behavior or stupid little girl at chick-fil-a

2010-07-19T19:24:00.004-04:00

We just got back from the beach last night and didn't really have anything for breakfast in the house, so we went to chick-fil-a for breakfast. We got there about 9ish. The place was pretty empty. Who really gets breakfast that late in the morning from a restaurant?

We had just gotten our food and were sitting down to eat when another little family comes in. A little boy about Brody's age. And a little girl about Briar's age. The little girl is throwing the biggest, loudest fit. The parents are trying to get her to come into Chick-fil-a and she just gets louder. I don't know what the problem was (but who ever does with 2 year-old girl throwing a tantrum), but one of the manger-like guys comes over to her and gives her a little stuffed chick-fil-a cow and says to her "do you want a cow?" Trying to help make her happy and want to come into the restaurant. She of course doesn't want it and continues to yell. Her brother also gets one.

Eventually the girl calms down and it is like the episode never happened.

My kids are watching all of this.

Brody whispers to me "I want a cow."
"No we aren't going to get a cow."
"But she got one."
..............."I know son, but we aren't going to get one today. Maybe another time they will have a special cow and we can get one of those." Trying my best not to have him start crying.

So I was a little POd at the chick-fil-a guy. Why are you going to give this screaming kid a reward for acting like that, when my kids, who were being PREFECT today,by the way, get nothing? You should have given my kids the cows and said really loudly and pointed out to the screaming girl, 'Look they get a prize because they are being so good and eating their breakfast so nicely.' That of course would be mean, but would be the right thing to do,and would make me feel really good, like I was the best mom in the world!!

Later, as the dad was leaving the same chick-fil-a guy says "So she finally calmed down." The dad says back 'Yeah she knows if she trows a fit she will get something to get her to be quiet." They both laugh and go on their ways.

WHAT!!! THE DAD KNOWS HE IS REWARDING HIS KID FOR BEING BAD, ANNOYING, YELLING, SCREAMING, TANTUMING, BEING OBNOXIOUS, ANNOYING AND EMBARRASSING???

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Better all ready

2010-07-14T13:13:00.003-04:00

WoW. The response I received from my out cry of frustration was great. Thanks for everyones kind words and encouragement. The afternoon ended up being salvaged and the night ended with a bang. I finally did some school time with Brody yesterday. We planted some sunflower seeds and put beans in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel so we could watch them sprout. We learned about how plants grow, pulled up some weeds to see their roots and took a short walk up the street to check out a house with 2 sunflowers that are at least 8ft tall. Maybe ours will be that big one day? We did make it to Target and I did remember to get ziplock bags and I found a tri-fold board for $3. Why on earth would you buy one from Staples for triple the cost? I had signing class last night, and that is always fun. Then Tuesday night is always game night at our house and our friends the Gordons brought over Rock Band. I really enjoyed singing!! I didn't do very well on the drums and guitar at first, but I got better towards the end (even if they were both played on easy, I was proud of myself).

Today has gone well. I am babysitting for a girlfriend, so I have 3 extra kids today. I also babysat for another friend just in the morning, so her little boy plus 3 extra plus mine, makes 7 kids! Finn sleeps like the whole time so he is no big deal. All the kids have been playing well together. And the key to snack and lunch is: make everyone the same thing and give it to them at the same time.

I would like to post part of an email my mother-in-law sent me in regards to my blog post yesterday. I think it is great advice and hope other moms can apply it to their lives as well myself (because I know that I'm not alone in my sometimes having crazy days)

"I've got to say, you were not being singled out by "the bad-day goblins". You were just having a "mom with 3 kids" day.....happens to the best of us. Barbi (my sister-in-law) says some days all you accomplish is keeping the kids alive......a pretty good accomplishment. I had a friend who used to recite to herself...."If I kill my children, they will put me in jail." Of course she was kidding, but we all feel that way sometimes. Hang in there. Your children are charming and sweet and normal. My friend Chris, who is the YW president that I work with, when asked what was the most important characteristic a mom should have, said that patience is the most important. I tend to agree. If we can develop patience, then a lot of other stuff falls into place."

Thanks Lois. And thanks everyone.

This also answers a question I have had in my head of late--Does anyone read my blog or blogs in general anymore? I have gotten out of the habit to sit down and blog every night. Is anyone even missing that? I know I do, but most nights I just can't make it to the computer and day times are usually pretty much out to blogging. But when I make a post and within 2 hours have heard from a couple of friends, my mom and my mother-in-law, I guess my blog is getting read. Thanks everyone. I'll try to keep posting and try to not have them all be such downers.

I admit defeat

2010-07-13T13:22:00.003-04:00

This morning was just horrible.

I just needed to get some shopping done.

I thought the morning was going to go well because I woke up this morning after a great nights sleep and went for a little jog. I french braided my hair perfectly on the first try. The dark circles under my eyes weren't as noticeable and that zit is almost gone.

Then enter the kids into the day.

Brody cried and ran from the table because he wanted me sitting next to him and Briar sat there. I continued to eat my cereal and only when I was done did I go find him under the dining room table, and had to convince him to come out. The whining continued on and off all morning (the day is not over yet so it might still go on).

Get everyone into the car and get Shad to work.

First stop Harris Teeter.
Toothbrushes and toothpaste are on sale this week. I have my coupons in an envelope. Look inside envelope to remember what brand I have to buy and notice "Crap! She sent me the wrong coupons!!" I ordered my coupons off ebay. The lady sent me whitening stripes coupons instead of toothpaste coupons. Darn it! At least I get several toothbrushes for free. I should go back tonight and get a few more. "Yeah, we got here early enough that all the balloons aren't gone. Which balloons do you guys want? Pink. Okay. Dark green. Okay. Lets tie them to your wrist so we don't lose them."

Next stop Staples.
"I can't believe a tri-fold board is $9. I think that is too much. I'll check Target for a better price or come up with something else." Leaving store. "Oh no mommy. pink balloon. pink balloon." Of freaken' course. There goes the balloon that she had to take into the store with her, it comes untied from her arm and floats away. The tears and cries begin. Lets just get everyone to the car and then I can console you. Why do I even leave the house with all you guys?

To stop the crying (Finn is crying now too, he must be hungry), we go back to Harris Teeter. I can't just walk in and take another balloon. So I buy a coke and let Brair pick out an orange balloon. Great. "Happy now. Happy now." While getting Briar into the car, the balloon floats past the roof and the string slips through my fingers. "Why oh why do you hate me so!" The mexican landscrapers had to of heard my pleas and my total breakdown. I lose it. Cries. Check. Swearing. Double check (a few times). Hating the world and wondering why I think I can possibly take 3 kids to the store and deciding that we will not be having anymore children. Check check. "Mommy are you crying?" "Why has this happened? Why can't we just go to the store, get what we need and leave? I have to get some shopping done today." Feed Finn in the front seat while I hang my head in shame and cover my eyes from the awful world, just wishing that someone would bring our balloon back. Because I am not going back into the store for another balloon!

Next stop SAMS club.
I totally ignore everything the kids say or argue about. I am slightly aware that Brody does not want Briar touching him and that Briar keeps touching him. Finn is being fought over and cries in intervals while looking at me with large baby eyes asking 'why aren't you holding me?' I should have bought some Ziplock storage freezer bags, oh well will have to get that too at Target later. Don't feel like going to the Dollar Store to get prizes for Activity Girls tomorrow night, they can deal. Lets just get home and take naps, I need a break. Hey a Taco Bell!

We make it home in one piece (maybe not my brain).
Kids eat. Finn goes to sleep nicely. The others not so well. And I still haven't lost that 'just get away from me and leave me along FOREVER feeling.'

Can the day be salvaged?

Water for Elephants MOVIE

2010-07-07T13:17:00.003-04:00

No Way!
I just heard this!
Did anyone else know about this?
They are making a Water for Elephants movie!
That book was great!
Robert Pattison is going to be in it along with Reese Witherspoon.
I hope it is good!
Here is a web page I found to keep us up to date on the makings of.

Let me get all the Twihard stuff out of the way

2010-07-05T16:44:00.004-04:00

I love Twilight. Everyone should know that. I'm also not ashamed it.

I went to see The Twilight Sage: Eclipse movie this weekend.
I thought it was good. I recently re-read the book so that I could remember all that happens.
I think...
--they did a good job at putting in all the important parts and shortening the back stories of Rosalie, Jasper and the Quileute.
--I really enjoyed the fight scenes. I appreciate seeing how fast and strong vampires are.
--I loved the sound effects for when the newborn vampires get smashed. It sounded like concrete and glass shattering at the same time.
--The mountain scene was obviously on a sound stage, or at least the up close parts during the fight.
--Peter Facinelli (Carlisle) is the only one of the bunch that actually looks normal in his vampire makeup and gold contacts. Elizabeth Reaser (Esme) looks like a dear caught in headlights. And I think Emmet's and Alice's hair was too dark. And Rosalie's hair was too straight and made her look funny, it looked better in the first film.
--I'm glad I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner before watching this movie, because they used some of that books story to flesh out the story of Riley, Victoria and the Newborns.
--I wasn't crazy about the soundtrack to the movie (I bought it the day it came out), but now after seeing the movie, I like it. I really like With You In My Head by Unkle.

-------------------

And for my review of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
I loved it!
A must read if you enjoy the Twilight series and want to understand Stephanie Meyer's vampire lore. It is interesting where she got the idea for the glittery skin (which my stand on is vampires are supposed to not be out in the sun or they burn). When you read this novella you become attached to Bree and want to see her live. **spoiler** I wish she had left with Fred, because if she had she would have been okay. I think Fred really liked her. You just die inside a little, like I'm sure she did, when she realized that Riley had been lying to her about Diego. I wonder why Riley killed Diego? You know that she dies at the end thought, because she dies in Eclipse. It is interesting to see the other side of the story and to know how Victoria created her army and just how long her plan had been in the works.

--------------

Well, here's to hoping they make Breaking Dawn, they don't totally screw it up, and that people actually go see it, because I think Twilight it getting run into the ground and it is a matter of time before the hard core follows (like me) don't care too much about it anymore.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

2010-06-26T10:00:00.004-04:00

I came across the Jimmy Kimmel primetime interview with the Twilight Sage: Eclipse cast.
I am super excited about this movie. I would like to see it at midnight, but I don't want to go alone and I'm not sure who would go with me. So I will most likely be going sometime this next weekend.

I wanted to make some comments about the Jimmy Kimmel interview with the cast. I don't have any other fans to talk all about it with so I will use my blog as my outlet (what else is it for really?).

--Robert Pattinson is a pretty funny guy. But I kind of wonder if you had to hang out with him for an extended period of time, if his off the wall comments and out of the blue answers might get annoying.

--Kristin Stewart is so obviously nervous and shy about the camera and people, I wonder how she can be an "actress" or even have a personality.

--Bryce Dallas Howard seems like a really likely person. If there was one person in hollywood I would want to be friends with, I think it would be her.

--Xavier Samuel (Riley) is very good lucking. He should have been Edward. O Well.

--Why in these interviews do they always get asked who they think would win in a fight, a werewolf or a vampire? Or they ask Robert Pattinson and Taylor Launter questions about how cool it is to be a vampire or werewolf? HELLO they aren't really vampires or werewolves!!

--Why do girls/women come on these shows in tiny mini skirts and dresses and super high heels and except to sit in a chair with their legs exposed and try not to flash there underwear? I mean I didn't see any, but they have to be uncomfortable the whole time trying to keep their knees together. Dakota Fanning was the only one who wore something that when she sat down almost touched her knees so she didn't look like she was having any issues.

--They had a Q&A session at the very end of the show, where they allowed audience members to come up and ask the cast questions (never a good thing). Could these questions have been any dumber?? The first girl asked Taylor Launter if his abs where sprayed on (a pretty interesting question) and if not could he show us his abs (WHAT? that was dumb). Well he didn't answer or show us anything. Jimmy stepped in and said something like "Now if this was a female and you were asking about her butt crack there would be NO WAY that would be acceptable, but since it is a guys abs it should be okay" I agree Jimmy. I agree. And it is soooooooooo annoying that girls scream like they do when they see Taylor take his shirt off. You can't control yourselves? Don't get me wrong, his body is amazing. He worked really hard to get it to look like that (much harder then Robert Pattinson ever worked) but I don't have to scream every time he takes his shirt off (which apparently he doesn't wear a shirt for the whole movie). The only other question that was, I thought, a pretty good question and something I have thought about was the very last person, a guy, asked the cast if there was a part of the books they wish had made it into the movie. I thought this was a great question! I always wonder why some parts make it into movies and others don't, especially things that I think should have. Well, the only answer was from Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), he wishes they had shown his transformation story, when he got bit and had to hid under potato skins (I think that was from the New Moon book)(and a lame answer).

Okay I think that is all the comments I wanted to make to someone about this show.
Coming soon, my thoughts on the Eclispe novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer.

All fixed

2010-06-23T21:59:00.001-04:00

the air is on.
we are all good now.
we will sleep comfortably tonight.

It feels like an oven in here

2010-06-22T22:02:00.004-04:00

I think it could be considered child abuse putting our kids to bed in a house that is this hot.

The AC guys are coming tomorrow between 11 and 1.

I hope they actually get the thing fixed or replaced tomorrow so that we can sleep comfortably tomorrow night.

I spent the morning out of the house, wanting to avoid the heat.
Came home at 1ish and didn't think it was too bad inside.
Finn needed a nap so I put him down then took the kids outside in our kiddy pool. After spending 2+ hours enjoying the water (which heated up real fast in the sun, so it really wasn't that cool) I came inside to shower. After showering, I'm standing (naked) in my bathroom combing my hair and I am sweating!

It is way too hot!!

Last week in review

2010-06-21T20:30:00.009-04:00

Saturday
Ran a 5k race for breast cancer with friends

My dad and his girlfriend came to visit

Sunday
Went to visit my mom because my grandma is in town (yes again).
Left Brody and Briar with them for a couple of days.

Monday
Fixed our dripping kitchen sink
Fixed a crack in our dinning room chair
Picked up dinner from Cheesecake Factory to share with Shad
Watched a movie (Brick, good movie) and shared a slice of key lime cheesecake.
Found bugs devouring my basil

Tuesday
Went back to my mom's to pick up kids and visit with grandma.

Had signing class and then game night at our house. Played Talisman, fun game.
Found out what was eating my basil

Wednesday
Park Day, man it is hot!

Thursday
Went back to my mom's house to visit with grandma.
Had lunch at a very busy Chick-fil-a. Spicy chicken sandwich, where have you been all my life?
Bought something to take care of the beadle problem

Friday
Frantically got ready to go camping.
Went camping.

Saturday
Swam in Jordan Lake.
Came home exhausted from the long week and went to bed at 9:30.
HAPPY 8TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY SHAD!!

Sunday
So tired!! Slept to much in the morning.
Subbed for a sunbeam class at church.
Went to bed real early again at 9:30.

and what happened today

2010-06-21T20:24:00.003-04:00

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!!!!!

That's right.
Brody watched The Super Mario Brothers Show on netflix all day today
Briar watched TV with Brody, or Pooh or played with toys
Finn slept, ate and hung out in his exersaucer
and I read and picked up clutter.

YUP
we did nothing.
But you need those days sometimes right?

OH and our AC died today.
Shad called and renewed our home warranty
and I called to have someone come out and fix it.
I sure hope they come tomorrow!

Thanks Again, Karen

2010-06-11T12:54:00.003-04:00

Finn turned 3 months old on May 21st
(Yes I can't believe it either)
I had Karen come over again and take some pictures.
They turned out great of course!

The best line on the Glee season finale

2010-06-10T16:10:00.004-04:00

"I love you"
Finn said this to Rachael right before they go on to preform Faithful at regionals. Yeah, I think I am totally into him now.

Second best line--
"We have got something the other groups don't. Finn's dancing."
Will says to the group before they preform their song at regionals. I think he said this as a joke because Finn can't dance. I have thought all season that he looks like he doesn't know how to move his tall frame.

And third best line--
"I'm having a really difficult time hearing anything you have to say today because your hair looks like a brier patch."
I think everything Sue says about Will's hair is soooooooooo funny. She has great delivery with her lines. I think Will's hair looks great, but I can see why it would be enjoyable to make fun of it.

--I think the season finale as a whole was kind of disappointing. There was no cliff hanger. (Which I do hate. House and Bones do those all the time and then the new season starts and they wrap up the huge cliffhanger in 10 minutes and everything goes back to normal) Everyone ends happy and pumped for next year. Their juniors right? So really there might only be 1 more season with this cast.
--It was sad that they didn't win regionals. I do think they were the best. I mean I didn't get to hear Oral Intensity sing their song but come on, Oral Intensity. What a ridiculous name. We did however get to hear Jesse sing and he sang great, but their performance sucked. And no one else in the group really sang. Shouldn't everyone get a turn? But of course us, as viewers, don't care about anyone except for Jesse.
--I thought it was neat how they timed Bohemian Rhapsody with the birth of Quinn's baby. But the time of her going to the hospital, having the baby, and the group getting back to regionals is not realistic at all. But birth on TV is never realistic.
--I also felt like we missed a lot of time between the last episode and this one. Like there should have been another episode or even two thrown in there, but there wasn't.
--I love the scene when Emma is fighting with the principal. She is really yelling at him. And then Will tells her he loves her and how they aren't done yet.
--I also love the scene when on the stairwell Finn is telling Rachael how they have to bring the group together and then she just kisses him. Yup. Great.

I think that might be all I have to say. I'm sure I could come up with a play by play of thoughts if you were to watch the episode with me, but I won't put you through that torture. Shad even ignores me when I talk to a TV show.

______and thats what you missed on GLEE!

Please remember to make your copies

2010-06-10T15:58:00.003-04:00

Recently I upgraded my cell phone to a smart phone with internet capabilities.
I love it!
But I had a rebate on the phone. Sweet!
I finally got all my stuff together. Filled out the form. Addressed the envelope. Cut up the box to get that UPC bar code. Put it all in the envelope and sent it off.
I didn't make copies because I didn't feel like taking all 3 kids to the store to do so and I just wanted to get it out that day because it was due soon and I had it all together already always.
I figured it won't be a big deal, right, not having my own copies. I mean, I had everything together and they were just going to send me a check (well actually a debt card with the rebate amount on it. Kind of a jip if you ask me. Why can't they just send me a check?).

Well......

I got a tiny one sided post card in the mail the other day and written in tiny, almost unnoticeable writing on the side of the post card it said that Verizon was not going to be sending my rebate because of the following reasons: did not include the UPC bar code from the box.

UMMMMMMMMMMMMM YES I DID!!!!!!!
damn it
damn it
they aren't going to send me my rebate!!!!
and there is nothing I can do about it because WHY???
I didn't make copies.
So now I can't call Verizon and be like "Yes I did send in the all the stuff. I have copies here. Can I send you those instead?"

So reminder to all of you out there. Make copies!!

Date Night

2010-06-09T21:12:00.004-04:00

We started switching off Friday nights with our frinds the Jones's. They have 3 kids and so do we, and all the kids LOVE playing together, so it works our perfect!

Shad and I have already gone out to eat
and to a movie
So what else is there to do?
How about putt putt!

I don't think Shad was totally sold on the idea, but we got his brother and his wife to join us and I think we had a great time. Shad had a smile on his face at the end of the night (but I think that is because he won).

First pick of the season

2010-06-07T19:41:00.001-04:00

We picked our first cucumber on Friday.
We cut it up and ate it with our lunch.
It tasted really good!
I'll have to buy some lettuce so we can have salads this week with dinners.
I have a few more ready to picked and eaten.

Memorial Day

2010-06-06T18:29:00.004-04:00

Shad had last Monday off (like most people) for Memorial day.
I invited ourselves over to the Jones's house to eat snacks and let the kids play on the slip n' slide.
It was a lot of fun!!

Briar was so worn out by the end that she fell asleep on Shad's lap.

It snowed at our house last week

2010-06-01T10:59:00.004-04:00

We had a water leak a few months ago
the plumber cut a hole in our ceiling to find it and fix it

I had to spackle it and sand it and soon paint it
I'm glad I thought to pick up safety goggles and a mask because that sanding was messy business.