Category: Uncategorized (Page 34 of 118)

On the way to the bus stop today, John was telling me the pledge of allegiance. He did pretty well, too. I helped him a little bit when he forgot the words. We got to the end, and he said, “with liberty and Jesus Christ, amen.”
Well, that works, too.

It’s my sweetie’s birthday today. And to Ryan, I’d like to say:

You’re looking old, dear. Much older than your younger wife. What are you, now, 42? Yep, that’s pretty old. What? I’ll be that old soon? Well, you’ll still be older.

Love you!

You can never tell what those kids are going to like. The other night, we faced yet one more in an endless string of “what’s for dinner?” nights, and I thought, “tater tot casserole”. As I thought about it more, I realized that I did indeed have tater tots, but since the great freezer thaw of ’09, I didn’t have any ground beef in the freezer. I did, however, have chicken, and it was already cooked and ready to be used. So, in about 2 minutes, I threw together our dinner.

–shredded chicken,
–one can of cream of mushroom soup
–one can of french cut green beans (also kind of an improvisation, as I usually use regular cut green beans, not french cut, but oh, well, that’s what I had on hand)
–1/2 a bag of tater tots

That’s all folks. Then I put it in the oven for about 30 minutes and declared dinner done.

As we sat down at the table, I was dreading the whole experience. Hubby was was not going to be home for dinner, as he was helping my parents with some sort of cable issue, so I had no back up. It’s just me trying to wrangle these 5 kids and make them eat dinner, which I knew would be fraught with complaints.

I set out the dinner, which was said tater tot casserole and some other stuff (stuff like salad and grapes, maybe some carrots for good measure). “What’s that?” one of them asked.
“Tater tot casserole!” another one said with joy.

They SNARFED that casserole down. They even asked, “Do we have to save some for Dad, or can we eat the rest?” I was in shock. I mean, I hadn’t even made it right, using chicken (which is practically a swear word to one daughter), and they still loved it. Apparently, tater tots make everything better. They raved about this casserole, eating every last bite of it (well, except for John, who when I asked if he had tasted it, said, “I tasted it once before, and I don’t like it.” It wasn’t worth the battle, so I just let him eat his apples instead).

So, every one in a while I hit one out of the park. Even without trying.
And while we’d probably NEVER hear Martha saying this, I’m going to quote her anyway..

“Tater tot casserole. It’s a good thing.”

You want to know what love is? This post by Amy took my breath away, and made me cry. She really puts into words her extremely personal feelings about her late husband.

I hope I can appreciate and cherish my family, and especially my dear husband now, and this post reminds me that I need to express my love to them more often. I hope to do better at that.
Thank you to my husband, who puts up with my crazy life. I mean, really, he should have known when he married me that I wasn’t going to be content to just sit home and clean all the time. But he’s gone along with my silly plans to go off and do things, my obsession with winning things, and my creative ideas for family fun. He holds down the fort while I pursue my fantasy of being on stage, and supports me in all things bell choir related. He is sweet with the kids, patient and loving when needed, but tough when he has to be. He even dressed up in a Darth Mall Costume and let 9 crazy 5 year olds take him down. He supports our family without complaining, which is a quality that not every husband has. He lets me make my own choices and would support me in almost anything I decided to do. No, he’s not the greatest help when it comes to housework, but I guess I can live with that. He loves me unconditionally, and he loves the kids as much as any father I know. He can fix just about anything, except maybe the neighbor’s computer, which he’s been working on for about a week, now. And that laptop that he was going to fix and give me for mother’s day. *ahem* He knows all kinds of useless trivia, but at least he knows it. If I were on a game show, he would most likely be my “phone-a-friend”. Because he really is smart. He honors his priesthood and faithfully fulfills his callings both as a ward clerk and nursery leader, and he loves it when the little kids call him “Daddy.”

My tribute may not be as good as Amy’s but there is no shortage of love there. Ryan, You da Man, and I love you!

I got into my car today only to be met with a nasty smell. It only takes one water bottle spill or someone to leave a wet towel in the car to give the car that mildewy smell. I couldn’t find any fabreeze, so I grabbed a can of air freshener and started spraying. It didn’t seem to help.

I felt like I was in that one Seinfeld episode where the valet transfers his BO to the car.

I had to go somewhere, so I quickly pulled out the offending floor mat (yes, it was a leaky water bottle–I knew it!) and left the windows open just a crack for the rest of the day. Yes, it was about 48 degrees and I’m driving with my windows open, but you do what you gotta do.

Yesterday I went to the doctor. No, I’m not sick. I went to have some blood work done. You know, test the cholesterol level, thyroid level, and whatever else kind of test they are supposed to do, on, you know, “middle aged” people. I haven’t been to the doctor in quite some time, and I didn’t even HAVE a regular doctor. For the past 15 years, while I was in childbearing mode, my ob/gyn or the midwives were my doctors. I’ve gone to the midwives a couple of times in the last 5 years for the basic “yearly” check up and stuff, but honestly, now that I’m not having kids and don’t plan on having any more kids, I don’t especially enjoy hanging out in the waiting room with all those pregnant women. So, I made an appointment with a new doctor, but ended up not even seeing that doctor, I saw the nurse practitioner instead.

As she was asking me what I was in for, and I said I just wanted some blood work done, she looked at me with a quizzical look. “Any symptoms?” Um, no, not really. I feel ok. “So, you’re perfectly healthy?” she asked me. Perfectly healthy? Well, of course not! I’m obviously overweight, but must we bring that up? I’m thinking. And I have this here stupid broken toe, but I’ve already suffered for four weeks with that thing, so it seems a little bit late to bring that thing up.
“Well, I don’t know about the ‘perfectly’ healthy part, but I would say, that I’m basically healthy.”
“That’s very proactive of you,” she said. What is this? Am I the only person who ever comes in for a “check-up”? I mean, this is pretty new for me, too, but must you make me feel so odd for coming in?

She finally sent me to the phlebotomist, who, no surprise, really had to stab and poke and check the other arm, then DIG around in there to get a vein. I am NOT an easy stick. But she Did get a vein, and got enough blood to do the necessary tests.

As I was leaving, I stopped by the payment desk, and asked about Cole’s bill. I brought him in about a month ago with a different doctor in the practice for some x-rays and then some mole removal, and I haven’t received a bill. She looked him up, and said, “It looks like there’s a zero balance. Your insurance must have covered it.” Hooray! We’ve met our high deductible! Thank you vein surgery.
I was just curious, so I asked her to look up how much those visits were. Over $500, and we don’t have to pay ANY of it. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

So we have to do ALL our routine doctor visits between now and the beginning of the year. Flu shots, physicals, mole removals, bring it on. Because come January, we’re NOT going to the doctor again.

Yesterday was kind of a difficult day. Tuesdays are generally so packed it’s hard to get everything done, anyway, but it was especially discouraging. I had planned to go to the temple as soon as John was out the door. He’s only away at school for about 3 1/2 hours, so if I’m going to leave home and get anything done, I really have to plan it out well. I showered, got dressed up in a skirt, got my temple things to the car, and then checked to see if my recommend was in the pocket of my bag like it usually is. Not there. Well, maybe I left it in my wallet. Nope. My purse? Nope. My church bag? Not there, either. I looked and looked everywhere I could think that it would be, all the logical places I may have put it. Not finding it.

It’s our stake temple week, and our Stake President has asked us to be in the temple as much as possible this week, and honestly, as much as possible for me meant one morning and one evening. That is really about all I can fit in. And there I was, blowing my one morning. After futilely looking for about a half hour, I decided to just bag it and go to the grocery store. I hadn’t bought milk or bread for my family for quite some time, and we were down to a few tablespoons of milk left, and NO bread. And I don’t really like to take mr. John with me grocery shopping, since he’s currently suffering from a nasty case of the “I want that”s. So, off to the grocery store I went, where I didn’t walk out of there with a free cart of food or anything, but I did manage to get pay only $100 instead of the $160 it first rang up as.

My plan was to come home, unload all the groceries, then FIND that temple recommend. I ended up cleaning out two drawers, but alas, did not find the recommend. When John came home I made something for dinner later and prepared myself for the onslaught of after school activities. Tuesday afternoons go something like this
2:40–Jenna and Natalie come home. I get them a snack and ask about their day, while we gather up the piano books.
2:50–We pile into the car to take them to piano lessons. Then I run and return library books before coming home.
3:45–It’s time to take Cole to piano lessons (somewhere else). I drop him off shortly before 4, so I can
4:00–pick up Jenna and Natalie from their lessons.
Then I stopped at my friend Lisa’s house to get the 411 on the curtains she has asked me to sew for her. Talking to her took a little bit longer than I thought, so I was a TINY bit late to pick up Cole at
4:30. On the way, I called Megan at home to make sure she was getting ready for her soccer game.
At home, I gave instructions that there was food in the crockpot, that people should start doing their daily jobs (which they DIDN’T do, by the way) and that all homework MUST be done before anyone even thinks about turning on the tv. I fed Megan a sandwich, and we left at
5:00 for soccer.
Once at the soccer field, she bounced off to warm up with her team, and I set up my spot. I had my chair, my purse, my book, a drink and a salad. I was set. I sat in the sun and just soaked in the warmth. And the quiet. For two hours, I didn’t have to go anywhere, didn’t have to fix anything, do anything, or break up any fights. I was there to enjoy the soccer experience. It was heavenly. Not all soccer games are heavenly, I must say. The vast majority of them are either too hot, too cold, windy, rainy or snowy, or there are just too many kids there to actually watch the game. I read my book while they warmed up, and then when the game started, I ate my salad and drank my diet coke. And cheered on my daughter and her team. Go strikers! It was fun. It was just the moment I needed after the afternoon I had had. And I felt myself relax.
7:00, the game was just ending, it was starting to get cold, and we had to move on to our next activity. Megan’s team won. Great job.
7:10, I dropped off a teammate, then Megan and I went directly to the church where her Young Women’s group was throwing a baby shower for one of her leaders. This lady and her husband are soon leaving to a foreign country to pick up their two babies. They don’t have any other kids. They need everything x 2. It was a fun shower. So many people came and gave her baby stuff–some new, some used (she had asked for used, as she doesn’t want to burden people), and I could tell it was slightly overwhelming to her. She is very loved, and we all hope it goes well with these two little kids. I was hoping that while I was there at the church, I could meet with a member of the bishopric to get my recommend. No. They were all at a regional meeting. Darn. But I had a good time socializing with neighbors and friends to celebrate the growing of this little family.
9:00-Megan and I came home. She was very hungry and wanted some kind of food, but of course NOT the dinner I had made for the family. I think she ate two pieces of toast.
9:30–I told the kids to turn out their lights, and I climbed into bed myself.
9:50–The phone rang. It was a member of the bishopric calling because his wife had told him about my dilemma. He offered to meet me at 8 the next morning to get me a new recommend. So, maybe I will get to accomplish some of the things I had planned for his week afterall.

Why must my children come home by 2:30? Why? Usually it’s JUST about the time when I am starting to be productive, and then, BOOM–“I need a snack!” “Can you sign this?” “Help me with my homework,” “Can you drive me to (fill in the blank)?”

Either I need to start being productive earlier, or they need to stay at school longer. I’m just sayin.

Yesterday, John was talking about the “Freeze tag championships” and that his friends would be coming over after school for this important event. Um, okay. So, after school, we called a few of his friends and invited them over. One of the moms said, “Oh, yes, the freeze tag championships! My son told me all about it.” The other moms know about this? Once he had three friends over, I guess that was enough, because they all went outside to play. I don’t know if there was any freezing going on, but they had a good time.

Natalie is starting up volleyball. I’m so glad I have a friend who is willing to coach our daughters on their team. I asked Natalie how it went at practice, and she said, “I am definitely one of the best servers on the team!” I am glad she’s so excited about it.

Megan is full on into fall soccer, and they’ve had some good wins and some other not so good not wins. But even when they don’t win, it’s soccer and she loves it. She’s also been playing YW volleyball, Co-ed Dodge ball at church, and Flag football at school. She came home excited because her team, the Cheez-it’s, won the championship against teams with such names as Step Rebok, Fluffy Green of Sheep, No-names, Hello Kitty Bandaids, and the Terrific Touchdowners.

Tonight is John’s last soccer game. His little team has dominated the pre-K/Kindergarten division. I’m not sure why, but his team is bigger than all the other teams, and they have been doing great, winning all their games. The other coaches look at our team and say, “Are you SURE these are first graders?” Yes, we are sure they aren’t first graders, although quite a few of them, like John, have late birthdays so they are already turning 6. It’s been fun for them to all have a chance to score goals. John says tonight is “his championship game” and he’s very excited about it.

I guess it goes to show that you don’t have to be athletic to have sporty kids. I never would have thought I would have so many kids involved in so many sports. I remember playing YW basketball, softball and volleyball, but that was only so that we’d have enough people NOT to forfeit. I guess I was like the stand-in guy. I go and stand in for the real players so they could have a break. Yep, that was the extent of my athletic ability. And here I’ve got kids who not only play sports, but excel at sports, and love it. I’m glad that there are opportunities for them to play, and that we’ve been blessed to be able to put them in these teams.

Go Team!

Fresh baked bread and homemade jam. Darn. There goes the diet.