Category: Uncategorized (Page 109 of 118)

Thank you all for your kind words. We made it through rehearsal last night, but not without a lot of crying. But I’m feeling quite a bit better today. That is, until I pay my American Express Bill. Let’s see, it’s got all the Disneyland passes, hotel, food, etc from our vacation, plus lots of other charges (to the tune of about 5K–ugh). Add to that the fact that our van is currently in the shop and won’t be out until we pay over a (cough) thousand dollars for some stupid head gasket repair (excuse me while I pick myself u off the floor). Why does this stuff hit us right before Christmas?

I had a dear friend die enexpectedly this week, and so the week has been full of sadness, flower buying and other arrangements. But mostly I’m just sad.

-So if I saw you in the grocery store and avoided your gaze and didn’t say hi, it’s not becuase I’m a snob, it’s because I’m sad.
-When I was short tempered with my kids, it wasn’t because they were doing anything really wronge, it’s because I’m sad.
-If I don’t clean my house, but instead mope around and do nothing, it’s not becuase I’m lazy, it’s because I’m sad.
-If I skip the PTA meeting, it’s not because I’m a flake, it’s becuase I’m sad.
-If I totally forget piano lessons or dance class, it’s not because I’m losing my mind, it’s because I’m sad.
-When I eat all the brownies and the kids’ Halloween candy, it’s not just that I’m being a big pig, it’s also because I’m sad.

I don’t know how long I’m going to be sad, but I do know that I need to go and buy some waterproof mascara, because the urge to break into tears has not left me, and I’m sure I’m going to need it for the funeral.

I will miss you, Tennille, you were a dear friend. Click here for the obituary

Here are the kids at Halloween. It’s so much fun to dress up! For more pictures, click on the picture:

Which country produces the most apples?

A-China
B-The United States
C-Norway
D-Mexico

For knowing the correct answer (thanks, google) and being the correct caller, I just won
–a four pack of apple beer,
–a four pack of root beer,
–and a gift certificate to the Old Spaghetti Factory.

So, if I give it to you for Christmas, you’ll know that I didn’t pay for it.

Well, I wrapped my first set of Christmas presents on Tuesday night (while watching the Amazing Race). Melinda pointed out Organized Christmas site to me, and I looked it up and decided I’d better get myself going and get organized. I had already bought a few presents, so I might as well write down what it was and who it’s for, and get it wrapped. So, I now have 4 whole presents wrapped! Hooray for me!

Today I’m looking through the Kraft Food and Family Magazine to figure out what kind of baking I want to do, and let me tell you, everything in that magazine looks Wonderful!

We’re getting busy with Bells. Christmas music tends to be played so darn fast. It’s quite a challenge, and we don’t have that many rehearsals until performance time. Every Thursday I tend to have a “Bell Hangover” because I’m up late, and then when I come home I’m often too exhausted to fall asleep. Does that ever happen to you? At least I don’t have the songs going through my head over and over every night like I did in the beginning–that was a nightmare.

Well, I’d better go cook or wrap something!

Ok, yes, I’m known for telling jokes (or at least I used to be), but it came as a surprise when my two year old told me a joke today. So, without further chatter,
here’s his joke:

him: Knock Knock
me: Who’s there?
him: More snacks now?

He knows there’s lots more Halloween candy to eat, I guess.

He’s so darn cute it’s almost a crime. What fun we have together!

What a fun day we had yesterday! I spent the day running around getting things ready for class parties, treats for teachers, etc, and the kids had a wonderful day at school, each with a party.

I went to Megan’s class party (I’m the room mother) and did a mad German scientist bit with creepy ingredients for my creature (spaghetti=guts, peeled grapes=eyes, hot dogs for fingers, etc). I had my assistant, Pooh Bear (aka John) with me, and we had a nice time.

Boo.

After school we piled in the car and went to Ryan’s work, where there was trick-or-treating cubicle style. It’s much faster than walking up long driveways, and indoors! Great idea! The kids got enough candy to call it quits (in my humble opinion), but not enough for them.

Boo.

So we went home, ate a lovely and nutritious dinner consisting of hot dogs and spaghetti-O’s (I know, I’m still a bit ill thinking about it) , and then put the costumes back on and went out in the neighborhood. We had an 11 year old Nemo, 9 year old wizard, 7 year old dragon, 4 year old sea turtle, and 2 year old Pooh Bear, plus an extra 11 year old knight/chocolate bar combo costume. After going through about 1/2 of our little neighborhood, John and Jenna tuckered out (they were slowing us down) and went home to “pass out candy with Dad”. I took the 4 of them in the car to a couple of other neighborhoods in our ward, until the nice dark time of 7:30 when I declared that they had had enough, and we all needed to go home.

It was a fun and festive Holiday, and we all enjoyed our Halloween.

Boo.

I hope your holiday was also fun.

p.s.–I’ll get some pictures up soon. And, as a side note, my two kids who are home today are pretty sugared up and hyper (as if I expected differently!)

So, the Primary Program went really well. Jenna and her friend sang their little hearts out, Cole did well with his flute number, and my solo wasn’t bad, either. The kids all sang well, stood relatively still, did their parts with style, and it only went over 10 minutes. And to thank me for a job well done, I’ve been released.

I’m very sad about leaving Primary. Really, the junior Primary chorister is the most fun job ever, and I was just looking forward to doing all the fun and relaxing “post program” stuff. But I guess it was time to share the fun and let someone else do that job (even though secretly I feel they won’t do as good of a job as me).

I’ve been called to be an instructor in Relief Society. Which is a fine calling. Really. It could be much worse. *sigh* I’m really trying to have a good attitude about the whole change, but since this is MY blog, I’m allowed to put down my true feelings, so deal with it.

Apparantly, they’ve been “clammoring for me” in Relief Society for a long time (and why wouldn’t they? I’m awesome!). Maybe I’ll just get up and teach them a song using puppets and my stop sign and visuals from Primary and see how much they want me then!

Ok. Enough about that. I’ll get over it and move on.

In an unrelated train of thought, I turned on the radio this morning to….Jingle Bell Rock. What the…? Today is Halloween, people, not Thanksgiving. I’m all for rushing the season and playing a tiny bit of Christmas music early, but on HALLOWEEN? NO. I’m changing the station right now. Well, right after this song, because it’s one of my favorites.

For PRIMARY PROGRAMS.

Our practice was today, and it kind of bugs me (ok Really bugs me) that they say we will start at 9:00, and the Primary Presidency doesn’t get there until 9:00. So then the kids are all running around while they set up the microphones and the extra chairs and all that. Shouldn’t they get there before and set up so that we can really start at 9 and be done by 10? Just a thought.

Anyway, the practice went pretty well. They (the presidency) wanted Jenna to sing the first verse of “teach me to walk” by herself, and then I sing the second verse by myself. Not a great idea, but I’ll go along with it. I just had to recruit one of Jenna’s friends to sing with her, and they sounded great. I didn’t sound too bad myself, but tomorrow I’ll probably have a huge vibrado because I’ll be nervous and shaking. It’s only one verse, but solo? UGH. Cole and his friend are playing a flute/cello duet. They are playing “I will follow God’s plan for me” and they actually sounded better than I thought they would. Way to go Cole! It’s really not an Erickson family program, there are lots of other people involved, too.

Wish us luck!

The great thing is, that after tomorrow, it’ll be over and then we can do fun stuff in singing time (not that we don’t do fun stuff anyway, it’s just now we can do fun stuff and sing whatever songs we want!)