Category: whining and complaining (Page 2 of 12)

Friday follies

February 21, 2015 / Superpaige / 2 Comments

Friday’s show was QUITE a doozy. Crazy, really.

First of all, just getting to the theater today was hard. John wasn’t feeling well, and I woke up feeling like I might have a UTI. Not sure if things were going to get worse. Couldn’t get an appointment until the afternoon, so I had Ryan take John to school a bit later so he could rest a bit, and I took off to Orem. As I walked in, I saw the BIG wings leaning up against a garbage can. You see, my butterfly wings have been falling apart little by little, and during yesterday’s butterfly/bee/bird number, my wing just fell off. WHAT? I swooped down and picked it up and danced off with it. At least it was toward the end of the song, right?

So, I gave it to Danielle, our stage manager and asked her what we do about it. She took it over to costuming and said they would take care of it. Well, our costume director has the flu, so Danielle just brought back over the BIG wings for us to use today. We had started with the big wings, but they were afraid they would get beat up from being bumped so they had us use the smaller ones.

The big wings have to be laced up like a corset, which takes more time than just putting the elastic over your arms, so my fellow butterfly Rachael had to REALLY hustle (she has less time to change) and she decided to leave her tights on under her “Alison” dress. Audry, who is our bird, was worried that we would whack her with those big wings.

BUT, before we even got to the wings, things started to go downhill. Sound problems. Right before the scene change to the Dr’s office, the music stopped. Pinkalicious continued with her lines and we changed our scenery with no music. Everyone kept going, but I was starting to panic. How can I do my song (and DANCING) with no music?! We did our lines, and kind of slowed things down, hoping that the music would start at any moment. It did not. Ugh. So, we got to the part where I am supposed to start singing, and I had to just do it. I did my little song, and then am supposed to start the dancing. REALLY? I have to dance with NO MUSIC? Crap. No choice but to do it. Luckily, this audience is mostly kids on a field trip, so maybe they wouldn’t be TOO overly critical. More lines, and then another song part. As I started to sing, I think I said, “Sing with me, now!” and we all kind of SANG the music with some doo doo doo’s along with the words.

Nightmare.

Right after that, Peter has to sing his “Pink Blues” song. He did that one with no music, too. How long can this torture we call a show with no music go on? Before we launched into our Buzz off song, they got the music working again. Not the whole track, but more like the practice track without the sound effects. Whatever, it’s better than nothing.

We got our BIG wings on in time and there wasn’t THAT much bumping into people.

Afterwards, we were laughing about it and amazed that we pulled things off as well as we did. Although, I wonder how it looked to the audience to have us singing and dancing with no music.

I came home and was just eating lunch when John called from school. Sick. Go pick him up. Then I had to leave to go to my doc’s appointment. Yes, my suspicions were confirmed. I have a Urinary Tract Infection. Thank goodness I caught it in the early stages so I’m not TOTALLY in pain every second; I’ve heard they can be really bad. I’ve never actually had one before, so I’m lucky there, too, I guess.

After eating some soup for dinner, it was time to go back the theater for our evening show. Mondays and Fridays we do night shows, and honestly, it’s hard to get ourselves BACK there to get ready for a show, but once we are there, it’s all fun. I love to chat with the other cast members and joke around while we get ready. There’s only 8 of us, and I really do like everyone in the cast.

Fingers crossed that the track would all work, and we started the show. Hooray! It went well. The track was a bit loud, but who’s complaining?

After the show, I decided to go out to greet people in my butterfly wings instead of the doc outfit. Kids don’t really like the doc, and I thought they would get a kick out of the butterfly wings.

This is my friend from bells, Janeen, with her nieces and nephew. I love saying hi to all the kids after the show. So fun.

So, crazy day, but we made it through!

And the drama goes on

January 31, 2015 / Superpaige / 4 Comments

(Rant ahead. You’ve been warned)

Friday night was super busy. And not just because it was Jenna’s birthday.

Grandparents came over in the afternoon, we opened some presents, things were happy! Then Megan and her roommate Sarah came home for the weekend, Hooray! I do love a full house (too full, actually, and Megan and Sarah got to sleep on couches because there were boys staying in their rooms).

6:00 came and it was time to load up the chimes into the car. I picked up John’s friend and we were off to the High School for our playing of the National Anthem at our second basketball game this month.

All the kids got there (one in the nick of time, after I called his mom to see if he was coming), and did a great job. It’s such a pain to do these things, but the kids feel like rock stars when everyone stands and applauds. it’s great. After we got all the chimes put away, and back in the car, we dropped the friend off at home, crammed all our people in the car, and headed off to a dinner appointment with Julia and Andres, our Brazillian friends. The exchange students were not with us. Even though both Ryan and I had asked them if they could come home for dinner, they were at a party with friends. Friends that they had been with ALL day, EVERY DAY, I might add.

While we were at dinner, one of the boys messaged that he was getting on the train, and would we be able to pick him up? One? Where was the other one? He arrived at the station at 9:45, and even though we (well, mostly Ryan) would have liked to stay longer with his Brazilian friends, it was actually nice to have an excuse to have to go. We were all pretty tired. So, the boy had to wait about 10 minutes for us, but we brought him home to the warm house.

We had no idea when the other boy would arrive, but he had assured us that he ‘had a ride’ home, and we didn’t need to go get him. At 11;15, however, he messaged us to ask if he could stay over with a friend, since a taxi ride home would be $70. “Is that ok?” he asked.

What?

Ryan wrote back that that was NOT ok with him. We had no idea where he was, who this friend was and where it was. No WAY would we allow our kids to do something like that, we would be IN the car to get them that minute. However, when we asked where he was, he gave us some address like parkside 255. What? I could just imagine driving around forever trying to figure out where he was.
I tried to get in touch with one of the teachers to ask if that was allowed. I didn’t get a reply. Ryan was NOT cool with them staying “somewhere”. I wouldn’t let my own kids do this. Maybe we are too strict. So, I asked him to have the mom of the house call me, and she assured me that he was going to stay with another friend who lived close to her. She was in West Jordan and said they were welcome to stay at her house if we wanted. She had hosted this party for the kids that were going home the next day, and said she’s had such a great time with these kids. It made me SO sad.

We should be having a good time with these kids. Instead, we feel taken advantage of, not appreciated, and we aren’t having any fun with them. We are trying, but they act like they don’t want to have anything to do with us. We are merely a place to sleep and a ride to the train station. Yes, we do get paid for hosting, but that’s not why we do these hosting things. We do it so our family can meet people from different places, and learn a little bit about other cultures. I think all I’ve learned about Brazil is that we don’t ever want to go there, and we don’t really need to meet any more people from there.

Anyway, it was 11:30, and we caved and said sure, he could stay with his friend overnight. Probably against the rules, but how would I know that, since I never was given much information about what the rules are. 9:00 curfew? Ha.

This morning, Arthur came upstairs and asked if I could take him to the trax this morning. He wanted to be in Salt Lake by 11. I looked it up, and saw that he could catch the 9:15 train or the 10:15 train. 9:15 was his choice, so we left at 9:00. When I got to the train station, I looked at my phone and saw that Lyndsie (also hosting a student) had left a message that she had picked up Henrique from the station, and she had him with her. I hurried and called her and said I ws at the station and could take him. I guess his phone was dead or he would have messaged me. So, I brought him back home. Drop one off, pick one up. As we were driving home, he just said that he would need to be back to the train in an hour so he could get to the ping pong tournament at the school by around 11.

Whatever.

I can’t wait for this experience to be over.

I came in the door with Henrique, and Megan said to me, “Did you miss the train?” No, we just swapped one boy for the other. I had Ryan drive him the next time.

After Ryan came back, he said, “This is the about hardest $1000 we’ve ever earned. I don’t know if I totally agree with that, (try substitute teaching and earning $60 a day) but nothing about this experience has been easy. I figure if I’m driving them to the train and back, that’s 1/2 an hour. Do that twice a day (or 3 or 4 times a day), that’s an hour of driving.

Breathe in, Breathe out. One more week. Patience. All of these are things I keep telling myself. Oh, and the big one… “We will laugh about this later”. Right?

Oh, and I just opened my email to see that another host family coordinator is looking for families to host kids from France for a month in the summer. Oh, that makes me laugh. Do not talk to me right about hosting other students.

TOO SOON.

My missionary Christmas disaster story

December 23, 2014 / Superpaige / 2 Comments

When I was a missionary in Germany for my first Christmas, I had only been in the country about a month, and I was trying to be the best missionary I could be. I decided that calling home on Christmas might make me too homesick, so I wrote to my parents and told them my decision to not call home for Christmas. Selfish, stupid girl.

That Christmas was the worst Christmas of my life. Not only was I far from home for the first time ever, but my companion and I were living in a small trailer parked at a member’s home. There had been such a large influx of missionaries all at once that they had trouble finding enough apartments, so this was the best they could do for a time.
(I’m glad I found this picture. In my memories, it was a silver trailer. Funny.)

It was cold and damp. We had to go inside the members’ house to use the bathroom and kitchen. We would cook our little rice and sauce and maybe corn and eat there in the kitchen when the family wasn’t using the kitchen, and then go back to the cold trailer. We tried to stay out of the way of the family.

Here I am in my area, trying to get warm by the “fire”. You can see my “dresser” or my blue suitcase in the background. We tried to make light of our situation. We were both new in the area, so neither of us knew anyone. My sweet companion, Sister Thunell, was great. When our situation looked bleak, she would say, “Things will be SO much better when we get an apartment and have a real area. It’s not always like this, I promise.”

(All six of the missionaries at the church)

I was excited to be in Germany for Christmas, so I tried to keep a good attitude.

On Christmas eve, which is the big holiday in Germany, we didn’t have any appointments. No one from the ward had invited us over for dinner, and the host family didn’t invite us to join them. We tracted and street contacted for as long as we could on Christmas eve, but when all the shops closed and the people went home, there was not much more we could do. We went to the bus stop to go home. Oh, busses don’t run on the regular schedule on Christmas eve. When we finally got home, we were tired and dejected. We went inside the house and cooked our little packaged meal, it was probably rice and Maagi sauce, and my companion asked if she could use the phone to call her family. I sat by as she talked to her family and tried not to cry. The family had all gathered in the living room and they did not invite us to join them. We walked by and said Merry Christmas to them and tried to stay out of their way.

They were not trying to be hurtful, but they did not want us there. They had offered to let the missionaries stay in their trailer, but had assumed that it would only be for a few weeks. They wanted their married daughter and son to be able to stay in the trailer for Christmas, and were therefore not pleased that we were still there. I was very sorry that I had told my parents I would not call. And I didn’t think I could just call them without having it arranged and having not bought a phone card or anything. Oh, I was so stupid.

Never once did I think how much that phone call meant to my mom. I was only thinking of myself at the time, trying to be a good missionary. And since our communication took about 10-12 days for a letter to get home, they didn’t have the time to dispute my decision. How stupid I was. Yes, I survived without that phone call home, but at what cost? My family didn’t get to hear from me, and I didn’t get the boost of calling and hearing that they loved me. Instead, I went back to that silly trailer and cried. As the mother of a missionary, I now realize how important that phone call is. We want to make sure our child is happy and healthy and being treated right for Christmas.

Back to the story in Germany, that night we had to call in to our District leader and check in, as we did each evening. I guess he asked how our Christmas Eve was and my companion told him it was pretty bleak. The next day, on Christmas day, I think we might have had a lunch appointment. When we saw the Elders they told us that they had had two appointments the night before and two for Christmas day. They were so stuffed and full, they could barely move. We felt very sorry for ourselves. I guess everyone in the ward had assumed we would be spending the holidays with the family where we were staying, and so they hadn’t bothered to invite us. Since we were new and didn’t know very many members, we didn’t invite ourselves anywhere.

(Christmas pageant at the church. I honestly do not remember this, but I have a picture, so I must have been there.)

In our letters to the president that week we probably both sounded pitiful. Christmas for us had not been a joyous experience. We celebrated our Saviour’s birth in private, with scripture reading and prayer. But a few days later, we got a call from the mission president. He said, “Sisters, pack your things. You’ll be staying with us in the mission home until we can get this sorted out.” We felt like we were being sent to the principal’s office. We had no idea what was going on, why we were being pulled out of the trailer. We did not know that the family had called the president in anger and asked why the sister missionaries were still there. No wonder we weren’t invited in to the family celebration. They wanted that space for their family.

I try to not harbor ill feelings toward that family. They tried to offer up a space for the missionaries, but it didn’t work for them. I don’t think they were trying to make us feel unwanted. But, no, we don’t send Christmas cards or keep in touch or anything.

For the next three weeks, the two of us lived in the president’s home. We still traveled to our area to try to do missionary work, but at the end of the day we would take the train back to Duessldorf to stay with the president and his family. Even though it was a bit awkward, we felt welcome there. We even were allowed to use the kitchen and bake.

Even when I nearly burned down the house, and at the very least, nearly burned my suitcase by setting it to close to the heater at night,

we still felt loved. We forged a special friendship with our mission president and his family, and got to experience living in the mission home, which not very many missionaries get to do.

In January, they found us an apartment in Essen. A nice apartment, by missionary standards. It had previously housed a missionary couple, above a member’s house.
I finally felt like my mission had begun. We had our own kitchen and bathroom! What a blessing! (The president did tell us that we had nearly been transferred OUT of the mission, that they really wanted sisters in a neighboring mission, and if they hadn’t found us an apartment, that might have been our fate. I hope he was kidding.)

I was only there about three weeks before being transferred.

That Christmas was one of those “builds character” experiences for me. When I had my second Christmas in Germany, it was SO much more fun, with member appointments and presents AND a phone call home. I’m glad I got to experience it both ways.

As I get to skype with my son this Christmas, I feel so lucky. So blessed to know that he is taken care of, that his ward gave all the missionaries a big box of food and presents. I know that he is working hard on his mission and that I get to call him and tell him how much I love him.

Merry Christmas to all of you missionary families out there.

How I wasted a lot of time this week

August 19, 2014 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

I have been having some headaches and was feeling generally tired and run down, so I made an appointment with the doctor. My old doc died last fall from cancer and I really didn’t want to go see someone else, but I sucked it up and made an appointment with someone else in his practice.

Don’t you love explaining all your symptoms and complaints to a stranger? So fun.

Anyway, he reassured me that I most likely don’t have a brain tumor or some other degenerative disease, just tension headaches and stress causing the problems. But he agreed to do a blood test to look for weird hormone levels and such, gave me a prescription for a stronger pain killer and also some hormone replacement that might help with all the peri-menopausal stuff.

So, on the way home I went to the Walmart pharmacy to pick those up. Sadly, I realized I had taken the health savings credit card out of my wallet in order to pay some bills, and hadn’t put it back. Well, I’m not about to pay for a medical expense out of pocket when I can use the tax free money we’ve put aside for that, so I did some back to school shopping and came home.

Later that night I had to take Natalie to a party, and figured I would stop by and get the RX then. I looked in my wallet and couldn’t find that card again. I was SURE I had put it in my wallet. What? This time I did NOT buy any school supplies and just went home. At HOME, I discovered that card in my pocket, where I had put it. See, I’m losing my mind.

On Saturday, after the trip to Ephraim, Ryan suggested we stop at Walmart and get John’s pencil sharpener and colored pencils that he needed, and pick up those prescriptions. Of course there was a line at the pharmacy. There’s always a line. I have a friend who is a pharmacist there, and she pulled me up and said, “Paige, do you have a new insurance card, because it’s saying that the one I have on file isn’t valid.” Nope. Same card. Seh looked it up under Ryan’s name and said that for some reason I am not covered under his policy anymore. Um, what? I thought about just paying for it without the insurance (had my credit card this time), but it was $120 for just one rx. I asked about the other one, and she said they only had one. Seems they need pain killer rx to be actually called in, not just sent over electronically. So, I would need to call the doctor’s office AND call the insurance company.

When I came back to the car, the family was wondering what in the world had taken so long, so I explained my predicament and laughed. That night, I asked Ryan to log on to his insurance website and print out a new coverage card, which he did. Sure enough, the prescription coverage had a different number.

On Monday morning, I called the doctor’s office and explained that I needed them to actually call in that rx. Monday, after taking the kids to DI, we stopped at Walmart….again. I was sure I was armed with all the stuff I needed that that this time, the fourth time, I would get things taken care of.

They did indeed have both rxs this time, but when I gave them the newly printed off insurance information, they said THAT wasn’t correct, either. They would have to call the insurance company, if I wouldn’t mind waiting. Of course not. I sent the kids to go and buy milk and bread and gave them some money. Soon they were back and complaining that they were hungry. Well, we have milk and bread….. Not helping. I dug out all the change I had in my wallet and told them to go and buy whatever treat they wanted to with $1.30. Soon they came back with milk duds, and that was a good snack for us all to chew on while we waited. Once they spoke with the insurance company, they put our correct information into their system, so I guess we can only go there for our pharmacy needs.

I finally went to consult with my friend, the pharmacist. She explained that this pain killer was a mix of three things, and that it would make me sleepy, so if I couldn’t drive if I took it. What good does that do me, if I can’t drive? Probably won’t be taking THAT. And the headache is pretty much gone, now. The other one was a estrogen thing, but she was concerned that there wasn’t progesterone to balance it, since estrogen alone can cause cancer. What? And this one month supply was $110 WITH insurance. What? No generic, no synthetic? I ended up not getting that one. I guess I’m going to have to ask for something else there. So, after four different trips to Walmart and many hours spent waiting, I came home with one RX that I won’t use.

Later, I got a call from the Doctor’s office to tell me the result of the blood test (wonder how much that one is going to cost me?). All my levels looked normal, except my iron was low. I just about cried. I was so hoping that there was something that could FIX me, something that would help me have energy, help with the not sleeping and the crankiness.

I’ll be taking iron.

And you wonder why I don’t go to the doctor very often?

Not the day I had hoped for

May 4, 2014 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Just as I was about to drive to Provo for women’s conference, I realized I didn’t have my tag and the booklet of classes and info. I came back in the house and looked in my office. I found the booklet, but where was that envelope with my name badge? After 15 minutes of looking, my frustration level was raising higher and higher. Why can I not be organized? Why are there so many piles of paper and crap around here? Why can’t I remember where I put that dang envelope?

I was already irked that I had paid for the full two days of the conference and wasn’t able to go to the first day. So it was going to be my one day conference, spiritual boost, make me a better person day.

Ryan came in and asked what I was doing and then proceeded to help me look, which only annoyed me more. I had already looked in all the places he was looking, and I should be able to find the dang thing myself, thank you very much. But he could tell I was disheartened and he was trying to help. He even called BYU conferences and found out that I could, for $5, get a replacement name badges at certain registration locations at the Marriott Center. But I didn’t want to pay ANOTHER $5 when I had already paid MORE than I should have for the conference in the first place. I continued to look. As soon as he left, I couldn’t stop the tears. First I got rejected by the theater, then I couldn’t find this ticket. I felt like I wasted that registration money.

As I searched, I started to throw things away. Since I was already late, and would be even later if I went to do the registration, I decided to just skip it and make the best of it.

I was going to do some service. Service to myself and my family. If someone came to me and asked if they could help me do one dirty job around the house, I might say the laundry room. It’s a total mess and we neglect it all to often. So, I decided that to pretend like I was in someone else’s house, doing service for them. If I were helping someone else, I wouldn’t stop before we were done, and I wouldn’t complain about it. I would try to make the experience as pleasant as I could. While it was too noisy to watch a movie or a show (what with the washer and the dryer running), but I did turn up the radio, grab a diet coke from the fridge, and got to work.

So many clothes on the floor! We could probably outfit a whole family in just the clothes on the floor! While it wasn’t a HUGE purge, I did have a big garbage bags for too small items, and a lot of garbage.

When I had everything sorted, I had to address the mess on top of the washer and dryer.

I should be embarrassed to even show you these pictures, but it’s all service, right?

Eventually I got the washer and dryer so clean, they almost look like new appliances.

When all the clothes were sorted and put in everyone’s basket, I hauled the garbage out (3 bags of trash), and hauled the bags to go to DI (4 bags, just from the laundry room, plus another 2 bags I had already collected)

I was tired and hungry, so I loaded up the donations and took them all to Deseret Industries, then stopped and got myself some lunch on the way home.

I lost steam in my day of service after lunch, but I did manage to fold all the kitchen towels and tablecloths and fold one basket of my own clothes.

When Megan came home from school she said, ‘Hey, did you put my clothes in the dryer for me?’

Oh, I did more than that. Go see.

She took a look and said, ‘Wow, Mom! If I had money I’d pay you! Good job!’

That thank you and a little recognition of my hard work is all the payment I need.

After all, it was SERVICE.

I can think of better ways to save $26 a month

March 27, 2014 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

On Monday we did a little yard clean up. Clipping dead stuff, raking leaves, etc. We filled up a couple of our garbage cans with yard waste, so I sent Megan and Jenna to take it to the green recycle place in Lindon. They loaded up the truck and off they went.

Half hour later I got a call from Megan. I had a had time understanding her. She was pretty upset. The truck had died and she couldn’t get it started, and she was stuck off to the side of the road on the freeway overpass. I told her not to panic, that I would be there in 10-12 minutes.

Car problems, argh. About a year ago we had a similar experience with the truck not starting when we were at the dentist’s office. You can read about that SUPER FUNNY experience here. It has been running fine, but didn’t pass inspection in November until we bought a new handle (due to that lovely dentist’s office experience) and a new emergency brake.

So it was $500 bucks in repairs so that the dumb thing would pass the safety inspection. I was ready to just let it go then, as I have been several other times through the years, like when we replaced the clutch about 5 years ago. But, it has run like a champ for many many miles.

But not that day. I got in the suburban and hurried down to meet her. When I pulled up, there was a nice man in his car parked in front of them. He had helped them push the truck over to the side of the road, and then said he would wait there until their parents came. What a nice man. Ryan got there at the same time as I did. Seems she had called dad first and he left work a bit early to come to the rescue. But it took both of us to help out. Me, because I drive the suburban. Him, because he got to drive the truck as I towed it back home. Megan got to drive the Kia home, and once we had the tow rope hooked up, she took off.

I have never towed a car before. Not super fun. Ryan had never driven a car being towed before. Also not super fun. We had an open phone conversation going the whole time, commenting on when we needed to slow down and stop, etc. The tow-ee is driving VERY close to the tow-er, and ther is a risk of being rear ended if you aren’t careful. Well, I am a careful driver, and we went pretty slow. The 21 minutes it took to get home felt much longer.

We got the truck home, breathed a sigh of relief, and then Ryan did some investigating to see if he could figure out what was wrong. His best guess is a cracked engine block (I think…help me out and correct me here, Ryan, if you are reading this) and that’s not something that would be cheap to repair. We haven’t done anything about it, haven’t taken it anywhere to see if it’s something else that could be fixed, yet. Maybe we will. I don’t know.

It will be sad to say goodbye to that truck. We bought that truck the first year we were married. Before we had kids, before we had a house, before we had anything, really.
We used to cram a car seat in the middle seat and take Cole on outings in that truck.
Both Cole and Megan have learned to drive in that car, and learned the valuable skill of driving a manual transmission. Everyone should learn that!
It has hauled countless truckloads of mulch, grass clippings, garage sale finds, tress and plants, and the list goes on.

No, it’s not much to look at, that’s for sure.

But it is 24 years old, after all.
We aren’t exactly sure how many miles are on it.
Funny thing about the odometer.

I don’t know if you can read it, but that first number is between the 5 and the 6. Some years ago the first number started turning with the other numbers, so instead of 175K it said we had 475K or something like that. So we don’t really know how many miles it has driven, but let’s just say it’s a lot. Over 250,000, I would think. That’s a lot of miles.

Since we aren’t driving it and don’t know if we will ever drive it again, I cancelled our insurance on that vehicle. That’s a savings of $26 a month, right there.

Not the most efficient way to save a few dollars.

Share the music

February 11, 2014 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

I just got back from taking 18 of my 3rd-6th graders on a little performance field trip. We played the National Anthem at American Fork High for a basketball game.

Why? Why? Why do I bring these things upon myself?

Hmmm.

There are several reasons, none of them seem all that valid right now, when I’m tired. Tired of the kids and just tired.
1-After we played the National Anthem at Lone Peak’s basketball game in December, the kids were SO excited. They felt like they were the most important ‘musicians’ in the world when they got that huge applause. I want them to have that kind of experiences with music.

2-We had already learned the song, so it wasn’t that much rehearsal to just adjust it for the few kids that are new this semester. I felt like since we had already put so much work into the song, it would be a waste not to play it again.

3-I want to share the love of handbells and handchimes. Most people who go to a basketball game haven’t seen or heard anything like this before, and so we want to share our art.

4-I may be trying to prove to myself or anyone who cares that I can actually do this job of teaching a chime choir. Maybe.

This time, at least, it was only ONE game. When we played at Lone Peak, they had us play for the girls’ game at 5:30, then play for the boys game at 7:00. This time it was just one game, but we still had too much time. I had everyone meet over at the school too early, and we had too much time to kill. We found music stands, rehearsed our song a few times, but don’t want to overrehearse, so we played a little game, then got ready. I told the kids if they wanted to do more fun stuff like this, they would be ABSOLUTELY silent in the halls. We had to go around the auditorium (where they were just starting the school play) go outside, and around to the gym door. Try keeping the kids quiet through that!

They actually did GREAT. The song sounded nice, and even though they were nervous, they played well.

Two people stopped me on my way out and said, “That was amazing!” The second one was a cop, who put his hand on my arm. I thought I was in trouble, but he said, “WoW! They did GREAT! I guess that’s why I do it.

Afterward, we traipsed back outside and around to the music rooms, put the chimes back in the boxes, and hauled them to the car. I brought four noisy boys home with me.

And my hubby just brought me a shake, and it tastes yummy and feels great going down my throat.

I can feel proud of a job well done. I can feel good that I got those squirly kids to calm down long enough to learn and perform our national anthem, and hopefully they are learning a thing or two about music along the way.

On Birthdays

January 2, 2014 / Superpaige / 3 Comments

Birthdays are a funny thing. On the one hand, no one over 40 wants to get any older. On the other hand, it’s my special day, and I want people to notice, let me know I’m special, and give me presents–who doesn’t want that on their birthday?
Right.
When you have a birthday that is four days after Christmas, this presents a challenge. The good things about my birthday are..
-I NEVER had to go to school on my birthday. I ALWAYS had the day off, so school wasn’t a problem, although I have worked a few years on my birthday, and that was a drag. But, then I never got to bring treats on my birthday, or have the birthday crown and all that stuff, either.
-End of the year clearance sales. I remember one year my mom took me shopping at a certain store on my birthday and they were barely open. “Doing Inventory” they said. But I did manage to find this certain doll that I wanted, even though they were hardly helpful.
-It’s at least better than having your birthday ON CHRISTMAS DAY, which is when my brother’s birthday is. (My Dad’s birthday is on December 20, too. My poor mom! I also have an uncle and a cousin with a December 26th birthday, so I am in good company)
-Because so many people forget on my actual birthday, presents trickle in for days afterward. Even up to a month after. One year my hubby decreed that we would celebrate my birthday on JANUARY 29th, and we did. It was GREAT! Because really, who cares if you celebrate on the actual day of your birth, as long as you are celebrated, right?

That’s about it for the perks of this birthday date.

Both my brother and I were kind of hosed in the birthday department. My mom would try to have parties for us, but who has a birthday party on Christmas? No one, that’s who. And on the 29th? Not many. People are either out of town, or they just don’t remember in the after Christmas lull. Often we would each get to invite a friend and we’d all go to a movie or skating or something. When I got old enough to do my own parties, I would often have a slumber party, which worked well, since there wasn’t school to clutter up our young lives.

Now that I’m a grown up, I usually buy some things I want, and give them to hubby and tell him to have people wrap them. Yes, I am buying my own presents, but do you blame me? My husband is wonderful and amazing, but bless his heart, he doesn’t always do great in the birthday department. There was one year he went above and beyond and got me a fridge. And he didn’t just get the fridge, he bought it, hid it at the neighbors, cleaned out the old fridge and installed the new fridge ALL in SECRET after I had gone to bed. Can you believe that?

One year I had the birthday blues and really just felt sorry for myself. It seemed that everyone but my mom had forgotten my birthday that year, and I think the kids and Ryan had gotten me a spatula and a slotted spoon or something like that for presents (this was before I started buying my own presents). The kicker was when I went to church a day or two after my birthday and listened to a “year in review” in Relief Society when the president gave a wrap up of what the relief society had accomplished that year. She said something like, “And we personally visited each sister on her birthday.” I started to cry and left the room, because they hadn’t visited me. Because usually when an organization decides what they are doing for the birthdays that year, they are burned out by December and just forget the after Christmas stuff. I KNEW I was just being stupid, but I really felt picked on.

After that experience in church, I decided I had to grow up (literally) and get over it. If I wanted to have a good birthday, I needed to make it happen myself. I needed to change my attitude.

When I turned 40, I threw myself a party. I arranged a place to hold it, invited people, made the food, etc. I had a friend who insisted that I shouldn’t be planning my own party, but I didn’t mind. She did insist on buying the cake so that I didn’t have to get my own cake. But I have seen what she does for birthdays at her house, and she’s pretty amazing, so I can see where she’s coming from.

My birthday was on a Sunday this year, which usually means it’s going to be pretty low key. However, I had planned a get together with friends for the day before my birthday. It was actually our Christmas party, but that was the day that worked. To me, it felt like a birthday party. There were presents and food and ice cream, so I’m counting it! On Sunday morning we got up early to go to a friend’s mission homecoming. Afterward there was food and mingling at the house. More people, food and laughter, it was like ANOTHER PARTY! WE came home from that and skipped out on our own church and I took a nap. A BIRTHDAY NAP! After the nap, I got a surprise visit from my sweet visiting teacher. She had a gift for me. She said, “I told myself I was NOT going to forget your birthday this time! I always miss it and end up giving you your gift in January, but NOT this time!” I was touched and impressed. And she gave me a cute necklace that I really love. I did make dinner, but my family made a cake. A CAKE! Usually we are sugared out by this time and we skip the cake, but Natalie and Ryan made a cake and even frosted it! Color me impressed.

I got several cards, emails, and texts to wish me a happy birthday, but FACEBOOK really is the biggest perk for birthdays. Every one of your friends sees that it’s your birthday, and I got over 100 birthday greetings on facebook that day. LOVE IT!!! Say what you want about facebook, but I think it’s especially great when I get greetings from long lost, or even close by friends, who normally would not remember or even know that it’s my birthday.

After dinner, we were watching Amazing Race (reruns) and my parents called and said they wanted to come over and play some games. Instant party!!! Hooray!

Why does the cake have a 5 on it? Because I didn’t want ALL the candles for my actual age (I don’t think we even have that many candles) so they just put a 5 on there. I like it.

So we played games, ate some cheese ball, and had cake. It was a fun night!

While we were playing, there was another ring of the doorbell, and there was Ron (my friend Robin’s husband), with a birthday gift for me. He said he just came from Arizona where Robin was lamenting that it was too late to mail me a gift, and yet again she would miss my birthday. So, he BROUGHT me some lemons and tangelos from Arizona, packaged up in the cutest happy birthday bag. ( He was coming back to Utah anyway, it’s not like he came JUST to deliver something for me, but how sweet that he came over). What a wonderful surprise!

Monday was declared VACUUM DAY. It’s a new holiday in which everyone cleans and vacuums their rooms. The kids weren’t too hip on Vacuum day, but we declared it, and everyone did it. Ryan and I even cleaned up our mess of a room. And the best part of vacuum day was going to lunch at Los Hermanos.

Megan had decided she wanted to take the family out to eat (on her dime!) so we chose to go to Los Hermanos for our favorite Mexican food. We even told them I was celebrating my birthday so they brought out a free fried ice cream and sang happy Birthday to me (I told them my name was Susan, so they actually sang to SUSAN, but it still counts).

So, no bummer birthday for me this year! It took an attitude change on my part, and some thoughtful friends who are determined to remember my special day. I still don’t like getting older, but I can deal with the celebration part.

I didn’t mean to be Scrooge-like, but sometimes it happens

December 1, 2013 / Superpaige / 3 Comments

My decorating for the holidays weekend didn’t go quite as planned. Let me explain.

Last week I hauled out the fake tree and started setting it up in the basement. I knew there were some lights that were out last year and I wanted to get those taken care of, so I put up the bottom section and went through all the lights to make sure they worked, tweaking and adjusting as we went. I got the middle section up, but had to take off a whole string of lights and put on a new string because half the string just wouldn’t light up. I hadn’t gotten to the top section yet, and got distracted by Thanksgiving. So, Friday morning, I had the kids help me haul up the tree to the living room, moving the furniture out of the way so we could put the tree in the traditional spot in the bay window. When we got the top section on, things did not look right. About half of the top branches were just hanging there, sort of limp. I took off the top section to see that the tree was broken. The only thing holding those branches on were the lights. Probably from being dropped, shoved around, or handled by kids, the tree was broken.

NO!!! I don’t want to have to buy a new tree (budget things and all), and if I WERE to buy a new tree, 10:00 am on Black Friday isn’t the time to realize you need to buy a new tree. If there had been awesome black friday deals, they would be taken by now, and I hadn’t realized my tree was broken, or I would have been shopping around. Everyone knows you buy a new Christmas tree AFTER Christmas to get the best deal, right?

Full of despair, I went upstairs to ask Ryan if he could maybe help with our tree. I decided to look for the lights for the house. I hauled up the huge wreath, found a bunch of other Christmas decorations in our horribly unorganized storage area, but couldn’t find the lights. I found the OLD lights that we used to use, but not the new LED lights that I bought and we first used last year. Looking everywhere in the storage area, I could NOT find those lights. I did find a bunch of stuff that I decided we didn’t need (two non working drum sets for rock band? Really?) and started filling the truck with things to go to DI. While I felt good about getting some (just a tiny fraction, really, but it’s a start) of the junk out, I was frustrated that I couldn’t find the lights. Ryan wasn’t going to get the ladder out to put up the big wreath if he couldn’t just do the lights, too. Ugh. No tree, no lights! And to add insult to injury, I kept seeing ALL these Black FRiday amazing deals, but my budget was empty for the month, and I since we ARE really trying to stick to the budget, I didn’t want to buy anything we really didn’t need, just because it’s a great deal. My day is shot.

I did get out my favorite nativity and set that up, and the kids took a load of stuff to DI, but the day was kind of discouraging.

In the afternoon, a friend from Scarlet Pimpernel messaged me that she had one free ticket to that night’s preview of A Christmas Carol at the Hale Center Theater, and did I want it? (I had previously asked her about attending a preview). Even though it was just one ticket, I said I would love it. I needed to get out of the house, get away from my Christmas frustrations, and go see some of my friends in a show.

As luck would have it, another of her friends cancelled, and she offered me another ticket at the last minute, so I invited Ryan to go with me. Free Date night!

Can you believe I had never seen A Christmas Carol? We did that SCrooge play in Jr High and all, and I’ve seen several tv adaptations and knew the story, but hadn’t seen the play, and I was excited to see it AND support several of my friends who were in the show.

I meant to take some pictures, but didn’t. So, here’s our selfie before the show started.

What a great show! ~~Six~~, no make that seven of my friends were in the show that night, and it was such fun to see all of them on stage again. Plus, there were several other friends and people I knew in the audience. Ryan got tired of me telling him who everyone was, but I was just excited for them.

It helped me realize that it’s not the end of the world if my lights don’t get up, and we can deal with our broken tree issues. So thankful that we got the opportunity to go before the season gets really busy.

Saturday dawned with new determination to find those lights. Ryan looked in the storage area, under beds, in our closet, in every closet we could think of. Still could not find them. However, we did start putting up some lights on a couple outside trees, and got a few house decorations up. He even worked on a way to fix our struggling tree.

There’s 3/4 of the tree.

At noon, we were just about to leave to go to lunch with some old friends, and it hit me. I knew where those lights were. “I KNOW where the lights are!” I exclaimed. We went downstairs, and looked not in the storage area, but in the new closet under the stairs. BEHIND all the tables and chairs, were the lights. That closet area had just been finished when we took the lights off in the January or February, and I remember thinking, this will be a GREAT place to store our Christmas things. But then we bought extra tables and chairs for Cole’s mission farewell, and they found a home in that closet. Lights were buried and forgotten.

Hooray! We found the lights!

Here we are at lunch with some of my childhood friends from my ward. That’s Ken Clayton, Chris Cooper, Carolyn Archer, and me and Ryan. Ken was in town and organized the little get together and it was so much fun to catch up with them!

After we got home from lunch, Ryan started on the lights. He didn’t actually get them up, however, because one of the strings was broken and he didn’t know we had two more boxes of lights. BUT, at least we HAVE the lights now, and can get them up soon.

So, no, the lights are not up, the tree is not fixed, the house is still in chaos. BUT, we have made progress.

And talking Santa? He needs to move. Right by the front stairs is NOT a good place for him. He startles us every time we walk by.

Insert your name here

November 4, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Theater for young audiences is different than the other shows I have done. Each weekday we would do a show at 10 am. Even though it’s a short, one hour show, being there every day was challenging. Every. Single. Day. There were several times when I had to rush from the show to something else. There was a funeral that started at 11:00, and I raced straight there from the show. I’m sure I looked wonderful, removing my twirly eye makeup with a wipe in the car. And even then, I was still a bit glittery.

After the show, the cast would come back out to answer some of the kids’ questions. The manager would have us introduce ourselves, since there was no program for the kids’ shows. After about a week and a half, I got bored with just being Paige Erickson. This should come as no surprise, since many of you know about how I changed my name to Jess the whole time we were in Illinois. First I was Jess Williams, the next day I was Lisa something, then Melissa something. I also lied about my favorite color, favorite candy, and anything else the kids asked of a personal nature. That day someone had asked how old we were, and I said 34. Hey, if I am going to be Melissa, she can be 34.

On Friday night, when I was going through the awkward process of having Kendall stick his hand down my back to attach the mic pack to my bra (after the first time or two you just get used to it, really) for the evening show, he asked, “Did you say your name was Melissa today?”
Yes.
“Why?”
Just getting bored.
“And you said you were 34?”
Yeah. What of it. I can be 34.
“Well…”
Ahem.
“It’s just that Joel’s 33, and you don’t exactly..”
Here’s where I cut him off with a witty, “Shut up,” because I am so clever and can think on my feet.
“Stop right there,” I said, “I can do 34.”

Can’t I?
Maybe not. The next day I was Christina Rose, and when someone asked us how old we were, I said I was 41. But that’s as old as I’m going.

Category: whining and complaining (Page 2 of 12)

Friday follies

And the drama goes on

My missionary Christmas disaster story

How I wasted a lot of time this week

Not the day I had hoped for

I can think of better ways to save $26 a month

Share the music

On Birthdays

I didn’t mean to be Scrooge-like, but sometimes it happens

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