Merry Christmas

Christmas goodies!

I finished our neighbor gifts today.  I think they turned out pretty cute.

 

Squanner also has been dying to make something with her new chef gear that her Aunt Tracy made her for Christmas.  So we made some cupcakes.

The holiday baking is all done!  Now for a collective, “Woot! Woot!”

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree…

Those of you that know me well know that I take a certain pride in my Christmas tree.  There isn’t very many things that I consider myself to be adept at, or to do particularly well, but I do like how my tree usually turns out.  I’m very picky about what goes on it. The ornaments that I use either have to be in the color scheme of that particular year, or be important to me.

A few of my favorites:

 

I love my tree, and I love looking at it during the Christmas season.  I am, however, usually ready for it to come down about 2 days after Christmas.  I can only take a disrupted room for so long!!

Better post coming soon!

So, I have been reminded (chastised, scolded, whatever you would like to call it) that I haven’t posted anything new for awhile.  I have an idea of something, but I have to wait for Hubby to get home to help me with Photoshop.  I swear, no matter how many times he shows me how to work that program, I can never remember the next time I sit down to do something with it.  Hopefully I will have something up later tonight or tomorrow.  Stay tuned!!

The G-man strikes again!

Let me preface this post by saying oh, how I love my G-man.  Our house would not be the same without him.  I love his cute little smile and most of his antics make me laugh.  There are times, however when I want to wring his warm, cuddly little neck!

A month or so ago, he came down the hall from his primary class at church with the tips of his church shoes ruined.  He had somehow peeled the top layer of the pleather of his shoe off of the toe part.  Of course we had the discussion with him about how he was ruining his shoes and he’d better leave them alone at this point.  I decided not to get him new ones because they still fit him and I thought if I just put some brown shoe polish on the bare part, it would camouflage it.

He left them alone until last week.

As he left his primary class, the shoes were even more peeled and the light tan part of the newly peeled shoe seemed to scream at me against the dark brown. (See where I tried to put the polish on and fix them?)

I sighed, shook my head, and let Hubby deal with it.

As part of his punishment, Hubby told him he has to help pay for the new shoes that we were now going to have to get.  So he had G-man bring him his wallet and empty it.

Including all of his quarters, he had a total of $7.00 to his name.  I decided that I was going to throw a little bit of torture in with the punishment and make him go shopping with me for his new shoes.  (G-man HATES shopping!)

Well, after only going to one store (we found some at the first store!  I was hoping it would take longer than that!)  we got him new church shoes and he has promised not to ruin this pair.  We’ll see how long that lasts!

Impatient? Me? No!!

You might say that that my impatience factor goes up around Christmas.  But I say that it’s not me so much as it is everyone else around me!  I decided the other day while I was waiting in line at the drive thru at the bank that if everyone could be a little more like me, things would go so much smoother!   (That’s not conceited, is it?  Ha! Ha!)

Let me illustrate:  I try to be efficient in everything that I do.  I watched the tellers at the bank laugh with each other and walk around like there was no big rush to anything.  I’m all for having fun at work, but when there are at least two cars lined up in every lane, the need to get transactions expedited overrules your right to just mosey around and  laugh and have a good time with your coworkers. 

I also try to be aware of the people around me so that I’m not in anyone’s way or blocking anyone from getting where they need to go.  Hubby and I took TRMinator to The Forgotten Carols the other night.  It was held at the Dee Events Center, which is a big basketball stadium.  As we were sitting in our prime, on the basketball floor seating, I was looking around at everyone around me.  I saw a group of girls taking pictures of each other to commemorate the event.  The one taking the pictures was standing in the aisle while the group being photographed was up against the gate with the stadium floor as the backdrop.  That was all fine and good, but there were people behind them waiting to get to their seats.  As I watched, she took the picture, then looked at it for a minute to make sure it looked good, then had to switch to someone else’s camera to take another one, and so forth for at least 3 camera’s.  Meanwhile the line behind them is building up for people waiting to get to their seats.  Sometimes I just want to scream, “People!  You are not the only one in this world!  You have to share your space with lots of other people!  Wake up and be considerate to those around you!  Seriously!”

I’m afraid the tendency for people to only worry about themselves and not care about anyone else multiplies at Christmas and it drives me nuts!  I think I should probably just stay at home or else I may end up killing someone!  Better yet, I’ll get all my errands done first thing in the morning, when no one else is out yet!

4.0, baby!

Hubby and I have an inside joke in our family.  Both our cars have a 4.0 L engine, so when we have to gun it to make a gap in traffic, or something like that, we say to each other, “It’s a 4-oh, baby!”   Of course, his car is a Mustang, (super charged one at that) so it goes just a bit faster than my Explorer.

That would not be the 4.0 that I am referring to in this particular post, though. 

I would be referring to my grade point average for this semester!

Yes, my grades were posted today, and I got an A!!!!  Woo!  Hoo!  I am so excited! 

Now, to keep it going for next semester!

Goodbye my little friend

                                                                  My little friend

 

I put away my backpack this week.  I’m actually a little sad about that!  I’m done with my class and I’m taking all online classes next semester, so I won’t need it for awhile.  I’m kind of bummed!

I’m a little sad that I’m done with my class!  I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by and that I manage to make it though with flying colors. (I’m pretty sure, grades aren’t out yet!)

I have mixed feelings about next semester.  I originally wanted to take just one online class and one class on campus, but it just worked out to take both online.  I kind of like getting out and actually going to class.  I like having the option of talking to the professor after class if there is something that I need a little help with.  I guess I just feel more like a real student if I am in an actual classroom.  

At least I have the month of December off from school so I don’t have to be doing homework while trying to get ready for Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday

Woo hoo!!!

 

 

In case you can’t read that, (his handwriting can be a bit hard to read!) that would be 590 out of 600 points on my paper, followed by a “Well Done”!!!! 

Hallelujah!!

And I recited my 30 lines of poetry in front of the class last week and didn’t bomb it.

Excuse me for a minute while I do the happy dance.

Whew!!…  I have one week of this class left.  I’m trying really hard not to go on cruise control, even though I really want to!  I’m going to try and get my reading and notes for this week finished up before Thanksgiving so I can be done! done! done! done!!!!!  (until next semester, that is!) 

Random Friday

We have a very special ring tone/message indicator/really any type beep announcer in our house.

She goes by the name Squanner.

Okay, let me just interrupt this particular train of thought for a minute.  My mom thinks that I just switched from calling her the Princess to Squanner without warning or an explanation.  I will grant the without warning bit, but I did explain in one post that I was changing what I was going to call her in my blog.  It was a bit buried in a post, so some of you may have missed it.  I changed her name in my blog to Squanner because that is what I call her at home.  I’m not really sure where that nickname came from, but she answers to it, so we go with it.

Okay, back to the regularly scheduled post:

Any time a phone rings, any beeper goes off, or my instant messenger on my computer dings, Squanner has to announce it to us.  Every time Hubby’s phone rings, she pipes up, “Dad!  Your phone is ringing!”

My oven beeps when it is up to temperature.  When it beeps, she announces, “Mom!  Something beeped!”

The best is when I am in the front room messaging Hubby on my laptop, she is in the office at the back of the house playing on the computer, and she hears the ding indicating that I just got a message, and she has to yell to me, “Mom!  You have a message!”

I really don’t know what we would do without our own special message indicator.  I don’t know if I would know what all that beeping and ringing was in my house without her!

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As some of you may or may not know, I am a closet British Royal family junkie.  I can tell you who just about every member of the royal family is and how they fit and are related.

The best part of the royals are royal weddings!!  Yes, my mom woke me up at 5 in the morning (as best she could!) when I was 6 to watch Charles & Diana’s wedding.  I remember watching Andrew & Sarah’s wedding 5 years later.  I still have all the magazines and books of pictures from those weddings.

Well, guess what!  There’s going to be another one!!

Yes, I am eating up all the details that are emerging about this one!  I will also watch it, but thankfully DVR is around now so I don’t have to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to watch it live.  I’ll record it and watch it at a more sane hour of the day.  I will probably sit and watch it with Squanner, so she can be properly indoctrinated into the royal family mania!

Wordless Wednesday

 

It must be that time of year again!

You know the holidays are just around the corner when you start getting the deal of the day emails.  I may be odd, but I love those emails!  I love to see what I might get a good deal on!  I don’t usually take advantage of those deals but it’s fun to see what it is for the day.

I’m excited for the holidays this year.  It’s going to be much less stressful for me because we are staying home!  Well, technically on Thanksgiving day we are driving about an hour to Hubby’s brother’s house, but I get to sleep in my own bed, and cook in my own kitchen, so that is staying home for me!  I’m excited because I don’t have to stress over a seven hour drive and worry if I have enough snacks and entertainment to keep the kids occupied for the duration, or how I’m going to keep myself busy for that long.

I think there’s also something to be said for cooking in your own kitchen.  I know where things are and I know what size of bowls to use when I am home.  I don’t know what it is, but when I don’t have the utensils I’m used to, it throws me off.  I know how much fits and what I can make in my bowls, but if you give me another set, it just makes me all discombobulated!

I’m also much less stressed this year because I’m trying to stay on top of the things I need to do.  I am trying to stay organized and am starting the things I have to sew and craft early.  I love it when life is organized and I can check things off my list.  I love checking things off of lists!!!  It makes me so happy!

I guess the true test will be to check back in a month and see if I am still organized and not a ball of tense nerves ready to explode.  You just never know!

Random Friday

I’m sorry!  I know I’ve been a blog slacker lately!  My life has been hectic and I keep waiting for it to die down.  I realized that it’s probably not going to, especially since I just doubled my class load next semester. (Yes, that would be a whole 2 classes that I’ll be taking!)  So I guess I’d just better get used to it.

I got a bit irritated this week with my great, prestigious university that I am attending.  Registration for classes next semester opened up this week.  So I sat down and looked at what I needed to take and when such classes were offered, (I’m still a bit limited as to what I can take since Squanner in only in school in the afternoon) and tried to plan out my schedule. 

I decided that I should take an intermediate college writing class because it was a prerequisite for several of the other classes that I need to take, that and I figured a refresher on how I was actually supposed to write would probably be a good thing.  Well the problem with the intermediate class is that it has its own prerequisite which is introduction to college writing.  I called the English department and asked if I could take a placement test and test into the class that I wanted.  They told me to go take an accuplacer test.  (Let me just add here, if they had told me to go take a placement test for math after a 14 year break from school, I would have been terrified.  A test for English after 14 years, I’m okay with.) 

So I dropped Squanner off at school and went to take the test.  The lady at the testing center told me I did really well, but you can’t test into the 2010 (intermediate writing) class, no matter how well you do.  I went home and called the English department again to see if I could count the English classes that I had taken for my associate degree as my English 101 that I need to get into the 2010.  Long story short, after talking with the the department head I realized that whatever classes I had taken the first time I went to school won’t count toward my degree now because they are over 10 years old.  My degree itself counts in that it still wipes out all my generals, but anything toward my major I will have to do again.  Luckily, they were only counting one class that I had taken toward fulfilling a requirement for my new degree. 

So I am signed up for introduction to college writing next semester.  Yep, I am going back to the basics!  I hope it’s easy.  Watch, I’ll have more problems with that class than the senior level British Lit class I am taking this semester!  I’m taking the 101 class online, so at least I won’t have to sit there in class with a bunch of 18 year olds! -- Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

Mostly wordless Wednesday

I realized that I didn’t put a picture up so you could see their whole costumes.

there

 

I also had to put a picture of the trunk or treat.

This was before the rain started!

Halloween frights, spooks and stress!

When you think of stressful holidays, Halloween probably doesn’t usually come to mind.  Well, it does for me!  I didn’t stress out too bad about making the costumes this year like I usually do.  I didn’t really have time; I was finishing up my paper the whole week leading up to it, so costumes were much lower on my priority list than usual.  The kids helped me out a bit with their costume choices as well.  G-man wanted to be a clone again, so he wore the same costumes as last year (at least I know he grew a bit from last year, it didn’t fit quite as well, but it worked) TRMinator wanted to be a zombie knight, which was actually pretty easy, and Squanner wanted to be a princess, which thankfully I had started earlier and my mom helped me by gathering the never ending skirt onto the bodice.

The reason that Halloween is always so stressful for me is that I never seem to plan my time just right on that night.  Something you may not know, is I always plan out a schedule in my head of when I need to do what so that everything gets done on time.  And if that schedule in my head doesn’t go according to plan, I most likely lose it. 

I usually need to do Squanner’s hair, and help everyone find all the pieces to their costume and get ready.  I’ve tried starting early, but them I am just trying to keep everyone from getting mussed up until it’s time. 

Our neighborhood always does a trunk or treat in the cul-de-sac behind us.  This year a few families were getting together to do a potluck before it started.  I guess I didn’t allot myself quite enough time to get my hot dog mummies (the dish I was contributing) wrapped and in the oven, Squanner’s hair done, and get there by the time I wanted to be there.  Needless to say, by the time I got her hair done, found the shirt for TRMinator to wear under his costume, put all of G-man’s pieces on right, and got to the potluck, I was about ready to burst.  But then, I calmed down and could enjoy myself.

But then, by the time the trunk or treat actually started, it was looking like this:

It had started to rain, and it was just wet and cold.  I was so glad that I took the time to make Squanner her princess hat and do her hair when we took the hat off because it didn’t fit very well under her umbrella, and then her hair was just wet and ruined.  Oh well.  They still had fun.  And that’s all the matters, right?

Oh happy day!

I’m done!  I’m done, I’m done, I’m done! 

I’ve got 10 pages of British Literature goodness sitting on my hard drive ready to be edited.

At least I hope it’s 10 pages of goodness.

I really don’t remember much of what I wrote.  My brain is kind of mush at the moment.

Oh dear, what if it’s crap and I have to rewrite practically the whole thing?

Kay, I’m not going there.  I’m going to make a few tweaks here and there and call it good.

Oh dear, I hope it’s good…

Ay yay yay

So….

Does anyone out there have any good ideas for some Neoclassic British lit (1660-1785) authors that raised some good social issues in their time that are still relevant today?  That I can write at least  2-3 pages with? 

Anyone? 

Anyone? 

(Bueller)

Yeah, me either.

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s Thursday…

 

Wordless Wednesday

I was going to post that yesterday, but I ran out of time.  That’s from our trip last weekend to Las Vegas.

Here’s why I haven’t been around my blog much lately.  I am using all my creative energy for school and I don’t have much left over for my blog!

I have a deadline for a paper looming over me like a big, black storm cloud ready to unleash its fury.  I have to write a 10 – 12 page paper that isn’t due for about a month, but I would like to have it done in about two weeks so I can hand it in, have my professor look it over, and hand it back to me if it sucks so I can redo it.  That would be on top of the weekly reading and papers that I have do, not to mention the 30 lines of poetry that I have to have memorized sometime by the end of class.  (Have I mentioned that I’m not a fan of poetry and that I’m not good at memorizing things?  Yep, that assignment should just be a barrel of fun!)

At least I’ve decided on a topic for my paper.  Now if only I could refine it more, so I will feel like I can actually sit down and start writing, that would just be awesome.

Of course, I still have to fit swimming lessons, piano lessons, scouts and church callings and lessons into my schedule as well.  I think I’m ready for a vacation, or someone to write my paper for me.  That would work too!

I’m probably just being picky…

I’m not trying to be a snotty English major or anything, heck, I’m only on my first class, but I have a few pet peeves when it comes to the proper usage of words.  (You may call that a run on sentence if you like, I don’t care!)

The word ‘sell’ verses ‘sale’.  There are several varieties of this that make me shake my head.  One is when people advertise a garage sell.  I’m pretty sure you are not selling off your garage, you are having a sale in the vicinity of your garage.  The other is when people ask if you could sale me something.  I could either sell you something or I could make it available for sale.  Take your pick.

The other is ‘accept’ verses ‘except’.  Two different words, two different meanings.  Let me illustrate;  I would like to accept your congratulations, except that I didn’t do the work, so I can’t.  Yes, there is a difference.

I know, it’s silly, but it’s things that I notice.  Call me a nerd if you would like, hopefully I can parlay my quirks into a career some day!

Somewhat wordless Wednesday

On Sunday we took at drive though the mountains during the second session of conference.  We tried to listen to it on the radio, but the signal was pretty crappy.  So we stopped at the North Ogden Divide trail head and hiked for a little bit and took some pictures.

What a beautiful fall day!!

Why don’t they ever ask me for my opinion?

I was flipping through the newspaper the other day and saw an ad for a fabric store.  I’m sure you all know that I like to sew a bit, so I stopped and looked at the ad. 

There’s something about fabric store fliers that I just don’t get.  I would assume (and maybe I’m reaching on this assumption) that these ads are supposed to draw people in.   They are supposed to advertise all the things that are on sale and also show nice outfits that you can make with some of the cute fabrics and patterns that they carry.  If they are supposed to draw people in and make them want to sew, then why do they have pictures of some of the worst clothes I have ever seen?!  Seriously, they are usually either the ugliest fabrics thrown together in what otherwise would have been a cute dress, or a cute dress, but it doesn’t fit well at all, so it ends up looking just as tacky as the ugly material dress.

They obviously didn’t consult me before they put those pictures in their ads!  If they did it would look much better!

Wordy Wednesday

Since I haven’t posted for awhile I figured I’d make this a Wordy Wednesday instead of a wordless one.

I think we might look into buying stock in Band-Aid.  Squanner has been so accident prone lately!  About 2 weeks ago, she fell on the playground at recess and skinned up her knee.  She came home with 2 band aids on and it took me about 2 days before she would let me take them off so I could even see it.  Then a few days later, she was walking on a curb in a parking lot and fell off and re-scraped that knee.  So a new band aid had to go on. 

Then last week, she was opening the door to church and opened it on her foot.  Since she was wearing sandals, she gouged some skin off at the bottom of her toes on one foot.  Let me tell you, that was a bit of a bleeder!  That is pretty well scabbed over at this point and is healing nicely, but she still insists on wearing a band aid on it.  I think it’s just because she can still see it, so it still must be hurt. 

Then last night, we were walking G-man back from scouts and she was running ahead of me and… I’m sure you have guessed the outcome by now.  Sure enough!  She fell down yet again!  This time she scraped up the other knee.  So of course she has to have a big band aid on that knee and thinks that she can’t walk because her knee hurts.  I’m about ready to put her back in the stroller whenever we walk somewhere so she’ll stop falling down all the time!

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So, I had one of those, “I can’t believe I’m such an idiot,” moments yesterday.  Thankfully I don’t have those very often.  I try to keep my life organized in such a way that I don’t miss things.  I don’t forget when it’s my day to volunteer in classrooms, or the nights that we have scouts or when bills are due.  I usually try to stay of top of things.  The thing that I messed up isn’t life-shattering, but I am still really annoyed with myself.  Grrrr!!

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My mom had to rescue me from gathering purgatory yesterday.  I am working on Squanner’s Halloween costume, which is a princess dress.  Holy cow!!  That stupid dress has enough skirt panels that they stretched the length of my kitchen.  And the best part of that is they have to be gathered onto a bodice that is small enough to fit a 5 year old!  So she came and took it home with her so she can gather it on there.  I am happily washing my hands of it!  Now I can start TRMinator’s costume.  This is his last year of going trick or treating.  I told him that he is getting too old, and so far he is okay with that.  I’m sure it might be a bit of a different story next year when his brother and sister bring home their hauls of candy and he doesn’t have any.  We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Wordless Wednesday

Seriously?!?

My hubby says he is going to put the word ‘seriously’ on my tombstone.  I guess I say it a lot.  It just seems to fit so many situations.  Like this one, for instance.  I had to give Squanner some cough medicine the other day, (we have a lovely bug going around our house right now) and the measurements on the side of the bottle for dosing were in tablespoons.  There weren’t any other conversions in parenthesis, just tablespoons.  Well, the cup that came with it for dispensing the doses only had ml on the side.  So I had to pull a different medicine dispenser out of the drawer to see how many ml were in a tablespoon!  Seriously?!  They tell you how much to give your child in one measurement, but then give you something to dispense said medicine in a totally different measurement.  So dumb!!!  Seriously.

(applause here)

I would just like to state, for the record, that I finally finished my Disneyland scrapbook!!  Woo hoo!!  And only about 2 weeks after I started it!  I got sidetracked for awhile and had to put it away for a week or so, but I pulled it out today and got it done.

Now to start in on the last 5 years of school pictures that have been sitting in my scrapbook bag waiting to for me to do something with.  Not to mention all the holidays for the past who knows how long too…  Oh dear.  I’m never going to be caught up.  Oh well, the feeling was nice while it lasted!

Sometimes you just need your mommy

Halloween is just around the corner!  At least it is in my book.  I have, like 6 weeks, (maybe less, I haven’t actually counted yet.  I don’t know that I want to!) and I haven’t even started costumes.  I’m not terribly freaked out about that yet, but I will be.  Probably soon.  And I’m sure when it hits, it will be bad.

Normally my mom & I shop for fabric for the costumes together.  She tells me what she thinks will look good together, and I listen.  Sometimes I go with what she suggested, sometimes (I’m sure to her consternation) I don’t.  Well, she was busy this morning, so I thought I would run to the fabric store by myself.  I thought I could handle it.  I thought, “How hard can it be?”  Well……

I can’t do it!!!  I can’t do it by myself!!!!  That tulle might look better with this satin!  Or what about that satin!  Should I do this netting or that?!  Do I like this shade better than that one?  Which ribbon looks better?  Aaaahhhh!! I can’t take it!!  Someone just tell me which one I want!

Hubby likes to tease me that ever since my parents moved here I can’t make a decision on my own anymore.  Well, when it comes to fabric stores it’s true, and Idontevencare.  I need my mother!!! 

Wordless Wednesday

Better late than never!

I know, I know.  I said I would post pictures from TRMinator’s birthday on Friday.  Well, I don’t have a good excuse, so here you go.

I decided a long time ago that throwing birthday parties for my kids with friends is a lot of work, and that I just don’t particularly enjoy it.  So I made them a deal and told them that they can have one when they are 5, 8, 12 and 16.  G-man is happy with low-key parties that just include a friend of two.  TRMinator, my social butterfly, usually wants to invite half the school.

Well, this year TRMinator turned the ripe old age of 12 and reminded me that this was his year to have a party.  I tried to remind him that I let him have an end of elementary party with his friends after the school year was done, and that should be good enough, but unfortunately, he wasn’t going to let me off the hook.  So I gritted my teeth and threw him a party.

  

I made him narrow the invites down to 8, (if he had his way, it probably would have been 20) and we played games from the show Minute to Win It. 

They were trying to get ping pong balls into a glass.  Not quite as easy as you would think!

Trying to get a cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands.

Let me tell you, that kid raked in the gifts!!

I think that was about the loudest rendition of Happy Birthday that I have ever heard.

He had fun, all the kids he invited had fun, and now I don’t have to do it again for another 4 years!!  Woo hoo!

Wow. It’s Thursday already?

A funny thing happened this week.  It went from Monday to Thursday in one day!!  I swear it did!!  The phenomenon that makes this odd little fact even weirder is that this week hasn’t been nearly as busy as last week.  Last week was one of those weeks where we had something going on every day.  I think I saw Hubby for a total of about 2 hours.

This week has been much more relaxed, so you would think it would go slower, but the opposite is true.  I’m not quite sure how that happened.  Maybe because I have immersed myself in the world of scrapbooking for the last couple days.  I got a Cricut last week and that has inspired me to actually start scrapbooking again!  I thought I would start with our Disney vacation from 6 months ago.  I’m sure once that is done, I’ll be done with scrapbooking again and all those school pictures from the last 5 years will have to wait for the next flurry of activity.

I realize that I haven’t posted any pictures lately.  I will try and remedy that soon.  I will maybe try and post pictures tomorrow from TRMinator’s birthday last week.  He reminded me that I promised him he could have a party when he turned 12.  I reluctantly upheld my end of that bargain, so I’ll have to post the pictures.  I’ll do that tomorrow, because right now I have to scrapbook!!  (Before I lose my motivation yet again!)

Hmmmm…. I think that’s a good thing

On Mondays I volunteer in Squanner’s class.  First of all let me say that kindergarten teachers are saints.  If I had to deal with all the whining, incessant questions and unchecked energy that goes on in class, I would be insane. 

As I walked down the hall to her class yesterday, Squanner was in the hall walking back to her class after she got a drink.  When I called to her to say hi, she turned and looked at me and in her put-out, I’m annoyed with you voice, said, “Mom!!  I’m not done yet!!”  I think I’ll go ahead and take that as a good thing that she wants to be at school, not that she wasn’t happy to see me.  Because my children are always happy to see me!  Right?!?!

Who says parables only happened in Biblical times?

When I dropped Squanner off at kindergarten today, the parable of the 10 virgins came to mind when I looked around me.  Maybe you might think that I am a Bible scholar and examples of parables present themselves to me on a daily basis.  Well, let me tell you, I’m not and they don’t.  Maybe it came to mind because I had to read Absalom and Achitophel for school this week which is a veerrrryy looooooong and drawn out poem that draws an analogy between King Charles II and King David of the Old Testament and bible analogies were already on my mind.  Also I have school tonight and we’ll be discussing this very long poem.    Did I mentioned that it was a very long poem?  Because it is.  Like, over 1000 lines long.

Anyway, I’m sure we all know the parable of the 10 virgins.  Let me paraphrase; there were 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom (Jesus) to come and they didn’t know exactly when he would arrive.  They all had lamps and only 5 were prepared and brought extra oil and they other 5 didn’t, so they were left out in the cold, so to speak when Jesus finally came.

Now I know you’re all asking, “What on earth does this have to do with kindergarten drop off?”  Or maybe those that know me well already know where this is headed.  Let me start by saying that today has been a rainy day off and on.  When we were driving to school the rain had stopped and the sun was sort of threatening to break through the clouds.  But I’ve lived in Utah long enough to know that you can never really trust the weather to stay one way.  I had dressed Squanner in jeans and a jacket (it was only about 50 degrees today) and had her bring her umbrella.

When we were waiting for the teachers to come out and get them (catch the foreshadowing here?) I looked around at the other children that were waiting.  About half were dressed appropriately for the weather, about half were not.  I saw flip flops on otherwise bare toes, there were bare little arms sticking out of short sleeve shirts, not to mention the younger siblings that were there, some that were babies in shorts with no shoes or socks on and parents in tank tops.  I’m looking around thinking that these people have to be at least a little chilly.  Then to top it all off, it starts to rain again.  The teachers still hadn’t arrived at the door yet, so all these under-prepared kids and their parents had to wait in the rain.  I bet they wished they had been a bit better prepared and brought some extra oil with them for their lamps!  Or in this case, maybe a jacket!

I swear, sometimes people just amaze me.  If you are an adult and want to go around in a tank top in the rain and 50 degree weather that’s your business.  But maybe, for the sake of your child, look out the window and try to prepare for what might lie ahead.  Because you just never know how long you are going to have to wait.

Seriously?!?!

How did my baby boy go from this…

 

to this…

in what, I swear has only been maybe 5 years.  Tops.

TRMinator started Junior High yesterday.  He has entered the realm of bells ringing to signify the end of the period instead of recess, lockers, and changing for gym.  I’m just not quite sure how this has happened so fast!  On the bright side, he still likes me enough to let me drop him off in front of the school instead of a block away.  I guess I’ll just have wait for high school for him to be properly embarrassed of me.  At this rate, that just might be in another 6 months!

Random Friday

It’s been a busy week, so I think I’ll make it a random day so I don’t have to tie everything together!

First off, we had a funeral last weekend.  Hubby’s grandma died last week, so her funeral was on Saturday.  It was nice to see everyone and celebrate her life since we know that she is happy and is with her family that has gone on ahead of her. 

Hubby, his two sisters and I sang a song during the service.  We know that Squanner thought that it was a boring song, because she loudly proclaimed as much to the people that were sitting around her during the song.  (The things you can get away with when you are 5.)  I pitched in because they needed another voice.  I’m not sure why, but I don’t really volunteer to sing any more.  I used to sing in church all the time growing up and sang in choir at school, but for some reason I don’t anymore.  I guess it’s one of life’s mysteries because it’s not that I don’t enjoy it, I guess I just don’t want to put forth the effort.

The funeral was in Heber Valley, and those of you who aren’t familiar with that area- it’s beautiful, so you know there will be pictures!

Hubby’s grandma had a barn that he has lots of memories of playing in as a kid.  It’s falling down now, but I still had to get some pictures of it.

You really didn’t think that I would have shots of just the barn, did you?  Of course my kids were in it too!  (hmm… I really don’t line them up that way, they just do that themselves)

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Then a couple of days ago my dad had a birthday.  His is only the second in the long list of August birthdays for our family.  We are going to have this birthday party thing down by the end of the month.  Anyway, whenever you ask him how old he is, his response is always, “I don’t know, I was born in ‘48, figure it out.”  Ahh, my dad is such a jokester.

My parent’s neighbors always bring him a cantaloupe for his birthday as kind of a joke.  My mom hates cantaloupes and my dad likes them.  I don’t know if he really enjoys the cantaloupe so much as he enjoys my mom’s reaction when he eats them.

Since I had my camera, and since my mom makes their back yard a mecca for hummingbirds, I had to stand there and take like 100 pictures to see if I could get a good one of some hummers.

Turns out, I could!

I had it in sports mode and just snapped away!

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Starting next week I am going to have all 3 of my children in school!  I’m not quite sure how I feel about that.  Although I am going to be in school myself, so maybe I won’t have time to ponder my feelings about being home alone.  I guess I will find out soon enough!  Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday

We had to fend for ourselves!

Ever since my parents moved to Utah 7 years ago, it has become a tradition that we have dinner at their house on Sunday evenings.  Well, this Sunday they let me down and made me make dinner for my own family!  All because they were in Arizona for my nephew’s birthday.  Come on!  Don’t they know that they have me trained now that I don’t have to cook on Sunday?!  Sheesh!

I managed to survive making dinner, (we had scones) then we needed to come up with something to do for the rest of the evening.  So we, along with half the town, decided to go to the park.  Of course, this was a perfect opportunity to take pictures with my new camera!  I don’t use it to it’s full capabilities, but I still have fun with it.

 

I suppose we fend for ourselves pretty well!