Category: Uncategorized (Page 17 of 118)

Even though it’s not been a typical January around here (no snow…what?), I think I’ve gotten the typical January blahs. Really. I don’t really want to go anywhere, I’d rather stay home.
Shopping? Na, I’ve got enough STUFF here already.
Groceries? We don’t really need bread and milk, do we? Can’t we just make dinner from the stuff we have?
Pick up the kids from school? Oh, all right, if I have to.
Exercise? I’ve got a treadmill here in the basement I can use if I feel the urge.
Take the kids to a friend’s house? Couldn’t they just come and play here?
Go to work as a substitute teacher? I do have a job for tomorrow that I’ll have to GEAR UP for, but I don’t really want to work much, especially if hubby’s out of town. And that’s good because people with smart phones must snatch up the available jobs so quickly, that it’s actually not that easy to get subbing jobs unless you are requested.
Go to a Jazz game? I gave away tickets to a Jazz game last week. I had won them and actually gone to pick them up myself, with plans to take one of the kids for a fun night out. But then I kind of changed my mind and didn’t really want to leave the kids alone two nights in a row, and drive up to Salt Lake two nights in a row (I always have bells rehearsal in SLC on Wed nights), so I offered them up to friends and got a taker pretty quick.

And when I do venture out, I try to make sure I can do more than one errand on each trip. Save gas, less pollution, right? If I’m going to Costco, let’s make sure to pick up whatever I need at Walgreens on the same trip. Or better yet, I order things online. My kids mocked me and laughed when a big package arrived from Staples, and when we opened it, it contained 12 rolls of paper towels. What? We needed paper towels, and there was a sale and a coupon and free delivery. Same thing when a shipment of toilet paper and cheez-its arrived from Amazon. Hey! Free shipping, sale, what’s the problem? I see no problem with having the groceries come to me. In Manhattan, everyone does grocery delivery! Of course, they do it because they don’t have cars, not because they don’t feel like going to the store for paper towels. Same diff.

Because I’d really rather stay home. I have a lot of purging, cleaning, and organizing to do. Books to read, kids to clean up after, bills to pay, chickens to feed, dinner to cook, sharing time to plan, laundry to fold, etc. Is there anything wrong with just wanting to stay home? I mentioned to my hubby that I felt like I was turning into a hermit and didn’t want to go out anywhere lately, and he said, “Are you kidding me? Compared to MY mom, you’re still a social butterfly! You go to bells at least once a week, you go to church things, you take the kids to piano lessons and school things, you go to book club.” Oh, that’s right. I guess I do.

And should we get to the paranoid part? My nephew was recently hospitalized for gall stones, but when they were in there to remove his gall bladder, they found out that he had pancreatitis, and it’s changed his life forever. He’s been on a feeding tube for almost two months, can’t eat solid food, and now has to manage his insulin. And all this started with heartburn, then stomach pains. Scary. So, when I had heartburn a couple of nights in a row, then had unexplained stomach and back pain, where do my thoughts go? Oh, my gosh, do I have pancreatic inflammation? I went to bed last night with not one heated wheat bag, but two. One for my back and one for my tummy. Paranoid? Maybe. Hypochondriac? Maybe just a little. Concerned citizen? Yes. The good news is, I don’t feel any of that pain this morning. Maybe that ‘strenuous’ 30 minutes on the treadmill pulled something. Maybe it was something I ate that was giving me gas. Who knows. If it comes back, though, I’m calling the doctor.

So, for today, I will just stay home and enjoy my day at home. I do have about 100 pages of my book club book to read, so I’d better work on that.

Ryan was out of town for a few days. Ok, more than a few days. I guess it was more like 11 days. Time to go to China AND Las Vegas for business. I know! Anyway, while Ryan is gone, I usually try to do some kind of organizational project that makes a big huge mess and then I don’t really have to worry about getting it cleaned up at the end of the day. Not that he would complain, but my projects sometimes involve rearranging our bedroom, cleaning out the closet, etc, and I tend to pile a bunch of stuff on the bed, and it’s just nice to not have to move that pile to the floor so that both of us can sleep at night. I also don’t mind that I don’t have to cook while he’s gone. I mean, I still cook for the kids, but our dinners tend to be more kid friendly. You know, the chicken nugget, macaroni and cheese, cheese on tortilla type dinners that the kids like, but I don’t really serve for family dinners that often. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Julia Childs here, but I do usually make dinner every night, and by dinner, I mean a main dish with some kind of fruit and veg.

I didn’t take pictures, but I did rearrange our bedroom again this week. Moved the big old dresser, cleaned out drawers, sent a whole bunch of stuff to DI, organized the shoes, etc. As I was in the thick of that job, I realized that my makeup drawer was pretty out of control.

I couldn’t throw it all out, of course, but I did get rid of a lot of old makeup. I realized that the blush I use the most is about 3 years old and was from Costco. I still use it! I had some very old mascara and some foundation that I’ve never worn because it has a smell, and I couldn’t stand having a smell on my face all day. I would always wonder what that SMELL was, not realizing it was right on and under my nose. Out it goes. I still have too much makeup, but at least it’s corralled and contanerized, and the eye stuff is no longer fraternizing with the cheek stuff and the lip stuff.

I just tackled one of the “junk drawers” in the kitchen today. Ugh. Disney park hopper passes from our vacation in 2002? Countless pens and pencils, googly eyes? What? I did find a really cute pair of purple sunglasses that I don’t ever remember buying, so score one there. Primary music leader helps, stickers that say “I led the music in Singing time”, and even Cole’s scout card saying he had earned his bobcat badge (not the badge, just the card). Now most of that is in the trash.

If only I could get every area of the house cleaned and purged and cleaned out more often than once every 5 years!

I may occasionally (cough cough) drive carpool in my pajamas and greasy hair, but I will not, I repeat NOT walk into the school like that. Not any school. Not ever. I may be a slob, but I can’t let everyone at the school know that, can I?
Besides, do you really want that office girl (who now knows your NAME) to see your mom walk in with your homework looking all scroungy in a bathrobe and curlers? I think not. I can only IMAGINE the rumors that would spread. Did you see so-and-so’s mom? Not only was she wearing orange crocs, but she was wearing pajamas!!! Oh, the shame.
So, if you text me that you left your
a-mathbook
b-chips for a party
c-photos for digital photography
d-permission slip
e-lunch
f-whatever

I will first have to get everyone else out the door, then I will have to get ready, which might even include a shower.

And that is why it might take me two hours to get your stuff to you at school.

Getting everyone up and ready for church at 9:00 after staying up late celebrating last night was not that much fun. Thankfully, Ryan got up right with his alarm, and the both of us were ready before 8, so we could encourage the kids along in their getting ready process. I even made a smoothie for me and made pancakes for John and a couple of other kids who also decided they would like pancakes.

Primary was interesting. Half of the kids were either out of town or their parents let them sleep in. So we were already pretty sparse. And then those new sunbeams…they didn’t know what in the world was going on. They looked so confused! “Why do I have to sit on this chair? Where are my snacks? Where are the toys? Why are we at church in the morning anyways?” Seemed to be the thoughts of those 5 little three year olds. Luckily, we have the most wonderful nursery leaders and they were absolutely prepared, handing out fruit snacks, then taking a break from sharing time to go for a walk. These same sunbeam leaders can be heard singing and playing the guitar during their class time.

I was in charge of the sharing time (I volunteered, since I basically was gone most of the month of December) and we talked about agency, and choice and consequences. I got a lot of blank looks from the junior primary, but they did think it was cool that they get CTR rings. I wonder how long they will hold on to those? My guess is 2-3 days and then the majority of them will be lost.

Today marked a sad little milestone in my life. My youngest child moved from the junior primary to the senior primary today. He told me this morning, “Mom, I won’t see you until SENIOR primary.” I told him that he should just stay in junior primary because those kids in the senior primary are naughty. Jenna, who is already in senior primary, didn’t take too kindly to that remark.

For Christmas this year, we are starting the work on our basement. Although right now it doesn’t seem like such a gift, as we have to haul all the junk out of our basement. Ten years we have lived in this house, and we have accumulated quite a bit of STUFF that has been shoved down in the basement. Out of sight, out of mind, right? But it’s not ALL junk. We had reasons for saving it all in the first place, so we can’t just throw EVERYTHING out. We have found diplomas, my mission call letter, old high school yearbooks and photos, unopened boxes of dishes that we got for our wedding, and lots of craft things.

Years ago I taught a craft class at our home in the basement. The kids would come for an hour twice a week and do little crafts and activities. It was fun, but I have WAY too much craft stuff down there. So, if it’s a little craft kit, it goes. Felt goes. Fabric goes, feathers go, wood goes, it all needs to go.

We have made many trips to DI and the dump to get rid of old couches, chairs, and usable items. Last night alone Ryan made three trips in the little truck. We still have a large sofa sleeper to get rid of, but we’ll have to enlist some extra help. All those trips up and down the stairs to haul things out have taken it’s toll on our out of shape bodies, and today we are sore. I have a bunch more stuff I need to get rid of today.

A-choo.

The dust is thick, and the trash on the floor amazing. We got a LOT of boxes and bins stuffed in the cold storage area, though. Impressive, right?

The one thing I am very glad about as I sweep up years of dirt and dust and piles of crap is that I am not finding any mouse poop, or evidence of mice or other critters in the piles of dirt. That’s comforting. Years ago we had a very icky experience with mice when we moved from our house in Lehi and rented to my cousin. When we came back, the whole basement was infested with mice. Baby mice, little mice families, little mice neighborhoods all set up and eating our food storage. Can’t tell you how paranoid I am about mice now. Ick. Double Ick.

Now we have a nice pile of wood down there to begin the work.

It’s time to get our Christmas on! Love everything about the Christmas season. Love to make gingerbread houses, put up lights, listen to Christmas music, and watch “it’s a wonderful life” on tv. And we like to have a good time. Here’s what we are up to in our Christmas celebrations so far…

Friday night I had a wonderful Christmas party with a group of ladies I have been friends with for more than 30 years. Really. I’ve known these girls since gradeschool (most of them). They have been a rock of friendship and fun for my whole life. I know how extremely lucky I am to have such a longlasting group of friends, and I am thankful for them! My dear friend Lisa, who is busy enough getting a missionary ready to leave next week, offered to host our party this year at her house. We went with a ‘favorite things’ theme. Like Oprah, we each brought our favorite things to share with the audience. Only in our group, there were no cars, flat screeen tv’s or other such extravagances, as our price limit was $6.

Who knew that two of us would pick the very same spatula set from Ikea for one of our favorite things?

Now our friends will HAVE to use them, since they got two sets, right?

The food was great, and the conversation was even better. We shared our laughter and stories of kids and work, and our Christmas plans. It was so wonderful to just sit and chat. I finally had to peel myself away when I noticed it was almost 11. It was a wonderful way to start the Christmas season! Thanks, Ladies!

Another great way to start off the season was our Bells on Temple Square Christmas concert. We performed this the weekend before Thanksgiving, and while it may seem early for a Christmas concert, it’s the perfect combination of Christmas and non Christmas music, and just early enough to give us a break between that concert and the big Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert that we participate in next week. It was our first concert with our new director, LeAnna Wilmore, and we were pleased. I think it was a great concert. Just the right length, with well placed songs. Of course, I am a bit biased. I was thrilled that some of my book club came to the concert. It was so nice that they were there!

On Saturday, I dragged the family over to our local high school for a breakfast with Santa. The school officers are doing a bunch of fundraising this month to help a little boy with cancer, and this was one event I could get behind. I mean, pancakes, a visit with Santa, AND the money goes for a good cause? I’m there.

And Santa even let me sit on his lap!

Here at the house, I’m working on getting lights up, pulling out the decorations, and getting the house cleaned. Wish me luck with that last one, because I’d really rather sit and watch my favorite programs on tv, or even go to work and substitute than clean bird poop off the windowsill.

How are you getting into the holiday spirit?

Back in August we rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night because Ryan couldn’t breathe. While we never did figure out what caused that allergic reaction, from that visit we learned that Ryan probably had sleep apnea. Since then he’s experience the joys of the sleep study, where they strap you to all kind of wires and monitors and then tell you to sleep.

Kind of like in this picture, only the cartoon person seems to actually be sleeping. I love how in picture #9 he’s just walking away happy. Waving. The way Ryan tells it, he had the WORST night’s sleep in his life when he went to the sleep study. Hmmm. Couldn’t be worse than being in LABOR all night, but whatever. After the first sleep study, there was a long wait, while we waited for the docs at the sleep center to get the information to our doctor. This took weeks. Seriously? How hard is it to read a couple of print-outs to see that the man had something like 82 non breathing episodes and hour, call the doc and say, “Nope, that guy’s not sleeping”? Fortunately, our doctor is also a good friend, so he didn’t get too bent out of shape when he was asked several times if he had the results.

Eventually, they did get the message to Ryan that it looks like sleep apnea, and he was able to schedule another sleep study test. Efficiency in medicine, folks. He scheduled another night at the sleep study, this time when they actually test the sleeping with the CPAP mask. He was smart and asked for an ambien sample before this test, so that he could maybe actually fall asleep.

More happy sleeping people.

After THAT test (Oh, these tests run a couple thousand bucks, by the way. Most expensive hotel EVER!), we just wanted to info so we could get all equipment needed ordered during THIS calendar year. Since those sleep studies helped up exceed our LARGE deductible, let’s make sure all the expenses are This year, so they are covered. They eventually called, and he went in to the medical equipment place to be fitted for his lovely mask. When I asked if I could take a picture, he protested, but said I could post a picture of ME modeling the mask, so that is what we have here.

Looks comfy, right?
This is what he gets to wear each night, and it’s hooked up to a tube and connected to a little machine thingy. Anyway, it helps him breathe. It also helps him not to snore and make all those loud gaspy noises during the night. It’s supposed to help ME sleep better. After the first couple of nights, I started to get used to the Darth Vader sounds as opposed to the snoring. At one point it sounded like someone was taking a shower. I kept thinking, “Why is someone showering? It’s 2 in the morning?” Then I realized it was the mask. Or I will think it’s raining outside, when, in reality, it’s the humidity control on his mask. So, yeah, it takes some getting used to.

Ryan now looks at his stats in the morning and says, “Oh, I only had x number of sleep episodes last night.” He’s not dragging around so much as he has been, and it’s a good thing. Supposedly, you’re also supposed to lose weight once you start getting good sleep. I asked him about that one, but there wasn’t much of a positive response.

So in a way, we’re thankful for that ER visit, that helped us realize there was a serious problem with the sleeping here.

And now that we know that’s what’s going on, we discover sleep apnea all over the place. Ryan’s friends, my friends, relatives, almost everyone we know has had some kind of contact with sleep apnea. Even on tv, on the sitcom, Mike and Molly, which I don’t watch, they had an episode featuring sleep apena issues.

“You know you can get different color head straps. I went with basic black.” — Mike, on his sleep apnea machine
—“Nice, very slimming.” — Molly

Or have you heard this joke about 2 cows diagnosed with sleep apnea?

This one cow with sleep apnea is talking to another cow and says, “I don’t care what they say the one size mask does not fit all.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had around here!

I really appreciate the fact that since I live so close to both families, I NEVER have to cook a whole Thanksgiving meal. This year I made three pies and made the yummy green beans. Not the green bean casserole with those icky crunchy onions on it. No, I make a green bean dish with apples and bacon and it’s quite yummy. So yummy, in fact, that my children accused me of NEVER making it. Excuse me? I’ve made it at least twice this year, thank you very much. And if you like it so much, why haven’t you asked for it? With a little bit of notice, I can surely whip up some bacon green beans on a weeknight, if I had known they would like it so much.

The night before, we decided to make some oreo turkeys.

I discovered them and we made some last year, but this year went much better. You’ve got to make really really strong frosting to hold everything together.
We had so much fun, we made a LOT.

And watched Elf. One of my favorite Christmas movies. When we returned the movie to our neighbor, we took over some turkeys. Just for fun.

Thanksgiving day was nice. We met with Ryan’s family at his sister Julene’s house. It ended up being kind of a small group; just our family, Julene and Italo, Ryan’s Mom and Dad, and his sister Vicki, her husband Chuck, and their daughter Camille. They have two boys, who we thought were coming, until their oldest son ended up in the hospital for an emergency gall bladder surgery the day before Thanksgiving. The other son stayed in the hospital with him. Everything was set up so nicely and the table was so pretty.

And the food was all so wonderful!

After dinner, we made our way over to my sister Amy’s house. She lives about 3 miles from Julene’s house. My parents were there for Thanksgiving, and it was so convenient that everyone decided to have their dinners so close, so we could visit some of my family, even if it was an Erickson year (we usually alternate between the Colemans and the Ericksons. It’s GREAT to have so much family around!) WE enjoyed visiting with them, but couldn’t stay and eat pie, as we had made pies and left them at Julene’s house. So, we made our way back, to find everyone lounging around “digesting” their food. We stuffed in some pie.

We were so full and SO tired, we could barely keep our eyes open to make it home. What a lovely day!

Black Friday I resisted the urge to get up early and go out shopping. I did some online bargain hunting and found many of the things I was looking for at nearly the same price, so why fight the crowds? I decided to take John to the aquarium, just the two of us. I had a parent and child membership I had to redeem. Hopefully the two of us will enjoy a few visits to the little aquarium this year. We decided to stop at IKEA and have lunch. John of course wanted to be checked into the playland there, so while he played, I did some FAST shopping. Then the two of us had lunch (his was free). Yes, it was crowded, but we survived the wait. When we got home, we found the kids deeply engaged in rockband, just as they had been when we left.

Julene had invited us over for a game night/scrapbook night, so we went over there AGAIN. We enjoyed a lovely night of games, the kids had some much needed cousin time, and it was another fun night!

Saturday we sorted out some lights. I had to take all the lights off my very big wreath, as only about 1/4 of them were lighting. So, I bought new lights and strung those up, tied a bow, and had Ryan hang that up. We have SO many lights in boxes, it’s hard to tell which ones work and which ones don’t. Ryan wants new fancy lights for the house, but I’m not ready to pay all that money for LED lights. We have a large porch (times 2), so I’ll settle for the lighted wreath and maybe lights on a couple of trees. Maybe next year I’ll feel ready to make the light purchase. Or maybe I’ll buy them in January when they go on sale! I did go to Costco and splurge on new large outdoor ornaments to hang on my porch, but only because Ryan told me my old ones were not looking good and I should go and buy some new ones.

I know a lot of people have been feverishly putting up all their Christmas decorations, but I haven’t felt the need to get everything up. Maybe after we get all these lights put away and sorted out, we can bring up the tree and work on that. Some of the decorations I like to do by myself, without the kids helping, so I’ll wait until they are back in school to do it.

It’s been such a nice relaxing weekend. No fighting crowds, not a TON of food to bake and frantic house cleaning. I do have a turkey that I will cook on Sunday, but I’m not making all the fancy trimmings to go with it. I’m just enjoying the down time with my family. A wise girl once said, “family is what God gave us time for.” I love spending time with my family (although I admit I did send a few of my children off to play with friends today while I went to Costco.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and one more day to enjoy the family. I hope we can get the tree set up, although Megan has to give a talk in sacrament meeting and that might cause a lot of drama.

We have so much to be thankful for! It’s been a wonderful year full of blessings and a wonderful week to remind us of those blessings. I hope your holiday was wonderful as well.

I stepped outside and found a poor praying mantis right outside the door.

The poor thing was not moving, probably barely alive. I like praying mantises, myself. They are a good bug to have around, as they eat other, smaller, more annoying bugs. But this one was obviously on it’s last legs and going to die in the cold anyway.

So I scooped it up and took it out to my chickens. Wow! They went after it like chocolate in a class full of teenagers. I just wished I had THREE praying mantises (or praying manti?) to give to them so they could ALL have a nice big bug to eat. One grabbed it and then dropped it and another charged. Hopefully they all got some nice crispy bite. Grasshoppers are also a nice delicacy for them.

A rare late autumn treat!

I did a week long substituting job this week. I survived it. But working every day? Not my thing.

But if you are subbing, the second day is SO much easier than the first day. The first day you are pretty much flying by the seat of your pants, but the second day and each day after that, you are starting to get a sense of the routine and the kids’ names. And since this job was at my kids’ school, and I knew the teacher, that made it that much easier. But the physical and mental energy that it takes to be on top of those 30 kids all day every day is enormous.

Some things I’m learning from subbing, though, include:
–Always be nice. You never know when you are going to be some kid’s teacher. I walked in on Monday morning, and one observant child said, “Do you play bells? Were you on TV yesterday?” Well, yes I was, in fact, on Music and the Spoken Word the day before. But I was surprised that he or anyone in that class would recognize me. I went in for a few minutes on Friday afternoon to get the lay of the class from the teacher, and he must have recognized me. Another time, after an especially challenging day in a Jr. High class where the teacher had already been gone for 3 days and didn’t leave nearly enough work to keep them busy, I ended up yelling at a class for their extremely rude behavior. We went out to dinner as a family that week and there was a kid in the restaurant who looked VERY familiar. I kept looking over there and thinking, “I hope he wasn’t in that class where I lost my temper.”
–Games are good. We played a spelling game called “sparkle” and the kids LOVED it. They wanted to play that every day. We also played “I have, who has”, a fun game that the teacher had. On Friday, after they had finished their reading and work, they all started to get out games from the cupboard. What are you doing? I asked. “It’s Fun Friday,” they said, as if that should explain everything. The plan I had said nothing about a fun Friday or games, but it sounded good to me, so I went with it.

–Young girls love to draw pictures for the teacher. I love how this one says I’m the best sub. She gave me that on the first day, so I don’t know how she could think I was the best sub, but maybe their last sub was really bad.
–Everyone needs recess.
–And the library. We all love to go to the library.
–Not everyone knows how to skip. I had the kids skip back to class after having taken them to the portable for specialty. Some of them just took off charging ahead in a run. Some of them skipped REALLY fast, like it was a competition. And some kids said they couldn’t skip.

So, after the whole week, I earned a whopping 325 dollars. Really. And I was SO exhausted and my house was a wreck. I came home Friday ready to crash on the couch, and Ryan showed me a bonus check he had received that day. It was WAY more than $325. I looked at it and said, ‘What’s this check for?’ Ryan said it was his bonus. I looked at it and said, “This is probably more than I’ll make the rest of the school year. Why am I even bothering working?” Then I got a little crazy (keep in mind I was really tired from working all week) and I jumped up and down with the check and said, “I don’t have to work anymore!!!” The kids (especially the 15 year old) rolled their eyes at their crazy mom. Oh, well.

So, really, if you are going to substitute teach, hopefully you aren’t in it for the money. Because there isn’t any.

This week I have no plans on subbing. In fact, I plan to NOT sub. Because this week is CONCERT week for the Bells on Temple Square! Fun.

There is a wonderful article about the bell choir and our new director in the Deseret News. You can read it HERE if you’d like.

Since it’s concert week, that means we’ve been having Saturday rehearsals for the past few weeks, and that this week we’ll rehearse on Tuesday and Wednesday and have a concert on Friday. So I don’t really need another job, I’ve got that one, thank you very much. I’m excited about our concert. Although there’s one song that is seriously giving me wrist and elbow problems, I am pretty confident that we will do well and put on a really great concert. You should come!