Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: summer fun (Page 4 of 7)

4th of July Weekend

July 8, 2011 / / 1 Comment

It’s really summer here! With rehearsals in full swing for Cinderella (opening night is TOMORROW!), the holiday kind of snuck up on us. A few days before, I realized we didn’t have any plans. NO plans for the holiday weekend. So, I started looking around at what was going on and made some plans. On Saturday, we took the family to Provo for the Colonial Days going on at the Crandall Printing Museum.

We love this event and try to go every year.

Here we are with Ben Franklin after seeing an actual copy of the Declaration of Independence.

It’s a fun event where we actually learn something about those early American colonists and what life was like for them.

And of course we are big fans of the whole printing press, and never tire of learning about it.

Our favorite is obviously the Linotype.

Afterwards, we had lunch at Los Hermanos. Yeah, we’re chips and salsa junkies for sure.
Then we went to Spanish Fork and picked up a car. Yes, a car. Ryan’s parents have decided they don’t need two Camrys anymore, and have given us the 1989 version. We brought it home and let the kids commence cleaning it out.

Ryan and I escaped that night for a little “date”. Ha! Not really a date, as we had to shop. Shop for a new mattress. Our 10 year old mattress had gotten saggy and I was waking up with an aching back every day. I’m WAY to young to be waking up with an aching back, so we’ll try a firmer mattress. We picked out an average mattress–nothing fancy or too expensive in California King. When it was delivered on Wednesday, however, it didn’t fit the frame like the last one had. Why would this mattress be narrower? After looking up sizes on Kings vs California Kings, we learned that we had bought a California King, but we had been sleeping on a King all these years. We were both SURE we had bought a CALIFORNIA KING way back when. Doh. Mattress experts we are NOT.

On the 4th, we went to a breakfast and flag raising at Julene and Italo’s.

It was a great way to start the day, and we had some citizenship questions along with our breakfast.

That night we went over to my friend Michelle’s house for a fireworks party/barbecue. It was great to be able to join in on their party! We ate, then made our way over to Sugarhouse park to see Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. And the fireworks! Oh, there were fireworks.

It was a fun holiday weekend!

Summer–Week 3

June 27, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Have THREE precious weeks of summer vacation already passed us by? ACK!!! Where is the time going?

This week we didn’t do quite as much as the past weeks. We actually tried all week to get ourselves to Seven Peaks Water park, but things like piano lessons and swimming lessons and other things kept getting in the way. We finally made it there by Friday. It worked out nicely because our friends the Hilmos were there, so Jenna had a friend, and more importantly, I had a friend. Cole brought a friend with him, and Natalie met a friend there. Megan and John did not have friends, but things worked out. Each of the kids and I took turns watching out for John, while everyone else was pretty much happy on their own. Tess and I had a place in the shade to call home base, and I’m VERY glad it was in the shade. Even with liberal use of sunscreen, we all got burned. Even I got burned, and I was really only out in the sun about half the time the kids were. Cole burned his shins and feet VERY BAD. In fact, it’s been two days, and he’s still red as a lobster. Ouch. As we were watching the slides, I thought, “that boomerang ride looks like fun. I think I’ll get Megan to go on it with me. As we climbed the three story tower, I began to wonder what I was thinking. The heavier person goes in the FRONT of the tube, so there I was, facing death. There was screaming. Plenty of screaming.

This is not actually us on this ride, but you get the idea, right? Just with more screaming. Later, my friend said, “You sure were screaming. Everybody had to look up and see who was doing all the screaming.” Right. Other people scream, too. It’s not just me. It was actually kind of fun. So much fun that I decided to ride it again later in the day with Natalie. Funny how it was much scarier the second time! When Natalie and I rode it, we flipped around a lot and the whole thing made me MUCH more queasy the second time. I was done. No more slides for me. And nothing that goes around in a circle, thank you very much.

It wasn’t until the next day that I felt the full effect of my careless abandon of all that is rational. Oh, my neck! I honestly think I wrenched something on that slide. We won’t be going back there anytime soon. At least not this week.

And since we are talking about water, let me just mention that John is having tons of fun with his swimming lessons. We did one week of our two week lessons, and even though he wasn’t thrilled about having to have swimming lessons, he’s enjoyed it (that’s why taking lessons with a friend is such a great idea).

Ryan’s family did a tour of the Crandall Historic Printing Museum on Monday night. It’s a wonderful place, and if you’ve never been on a tour there, you REALLY need to do so. Where else can you learn about Guttenberg, Ben Franklin and Joseph Smith and how the printing press changed their history?

We also went and saw the movie Rio. Cute movie!

Ryan took the kids to a picnic in Provo. Natalie and I had rehearsal, so we couldn’t go, but I was glad he was willing to take them. John also had his post baseball party with his team. The coach’s family sure knows how to throw a party!

Saturday night Ryan and I invited another couple to go and see Singing in the Rain at the Scera theater. It was fun show, and very well done. And I knew two people in the cast! Small world.

Still enjoying the summer. Hope you are doing the same!

Hey, Chicken!

June 25, 2011 / / 3 Comments

If you are anything like me, you’ve probably been wondering a few things. Questions like: ‘Is Jimmer going to stay and play in Utah, or go somewhere else?’ or ‘What will Katy Perry be wearing in her next music video?’ or ‘What the heck is up with these gas prices, and when are they going to come down?’ Oh, you’ve got questions, allright.

But I’m here to answer the more importantly, the burning question…what’s up with Paige’s chickens?

After the little gal was attacked by a dog and had her near death experience, We realized we had to beef up security around those chicks. Since that’s not really something I can do (without about three trips to the hardware store and 4 hours of frustration that would probably end in injury or swearing), I was ultra thankful that Ryan took over and reinforced the coop.

When I was talking about the dog dangers in the neighborhood, a friend offered up a dog run. Seems they had an extra one in their backyard after having a relative live with them for a year. Cole and Megan went over and dismantled the run, loaded it into the truck and brought it over here (have I mentioned how much I enjoy having a child that can DRIVE and run errands for me Holla!!), and even set it up for me. At first we set the run up around the coop, but that was problematic. The footprint of the run is about a foot wider than the base of the chicken coop. Although that added to the security, it made it hard to open the coop and feed them.

We decided it would be better to have the dog/chicken run next to the coop, so that the little ladies could have a safe outdoor space to wander, scratch the ground, and look for bugs and weeds to eat. Ryan took over the remodel project, and figured out how to make a little sliding door for them. How awesome is that? And all this from the man who supposedly didn’t even want chickens!

I figure these chickens are now about 8-9 weeks old, and they are growing bigger every day! I like to let them out when I am changing their water and getting them food. They especially like to wander through the garden boxes–Don’t eat THOSE plants, chickens, eat the weeds. I am hoping that they will eat squash bugs and slugs, too.

The kids all love the chickens. Almost as much as I love them! It’s actually quite irrational how much I love those chickens. I mean, they are just chickens, but I really do love them! We try to hold and pet them just about every day so they will not get all mean on us. Nobody wants a mean chicken around, especially when they get bigger. This is not the best picture of John, but you get the idea that the kids are having fun with our new little pets.

They have starting eating some fruit and veggie scraps, as well. I never know what they are going to eat and not going to eat, but I give them food just in case. They do like stale bread, so they’ve had some of that for the past couple of days. They will also eat lettuce and some weeds, and cleaned off a corn cob like it was candy. I just took out the strawberry tops, some cabbage, and celery tops that I would have thrown away, but giving them to the chickens is much better than throwing them away, right? (The CIRCLE of LIFE….(sing it with me, now)
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life)

Don’t think I’m talking about THAT circle of life. These little poultry are not going to be put into a casserole anytime soon (or ever), but I am looking forward to getting some eggs from them in the early fall.

Oh, and they aren’t going to be FRIES, either.

Summer-Week 2

June 19, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Is it the end of the week already?

What have we done?

Friday’s concert was wonderful.


It was sad to say goodbye to our retiring director, Tom Waldron. There’s a great article about the bells and Tom in the church news HERE.

Lagoon!–Saturday was Ryan’s company party at Lagoon, and we had a fun time there. I, of course, do not ride vomit inducing rides such as the ones that are plentiful at Lagoon. Instead, I took John around to the kiddie rides, and enjoyed visiting with my good friend Kimberly, who also avoids those icky rides. Ryan and the other kids had a fantastic time being turned upside down, thrown around in circles, and generally being bumped and jostled. And it’s SO much easier now that everyone has cell phones. I could just text them, ask them where they were and when they were coming to meet, and I didn’t feel abandoned when they went off for hours riding the sick rides and I was stuck waiting for them. The best part was that it was FREE.

Barbeque with friends– Cole had requested that we could have a get together with his old friends David and Sam. When they were little, we used to get them together a lot. Mostly because MY friends, Melinda and Michelle and Tina, wanted to get together. Those kids played so happily together! Well, time moves on and kids grow up. Schedules get packed, and it’s harder to get families together. But the stars aligned to get Melinda’s family and Michelle’s family together for a barbeque. It was lots of fun to get those boys together. David just graduated and is going to BYU in the fall, Cole and Sam will be seniors. Sam and Jesse stayed over that night and it was fun to have them here the next day.

Tennis lessons–Natalie finished up her tennis lessons, and she really enjoyed it. I don’t know if she mastered the sport, but she had a good time and learned some new skills and got some exercise.

Piano lessons–The kids are continuing piano over the summer, and since John is now reading like a champ, we decided it was time for him to start piano lessons. He was SO excited about starting his lessons, he got up early (well, let’s face it, he always gets up early) on the day of the lesson. After his lesson, he came home and PRACTICED his simple tunes. He is practicing EVERY day! I’m so thrilled that he’s thrilled.. Another 10 years of this and he’ll be a musician playing John Schmidt songs like his brother.

Swim–I have a certain child who is constantly asking if we can go swimming. Seriously. The first day temperatures crept above 65 degrees, she was bouncing home from school, asking if we could go swimming. I’ll admit it, I’m not a HUGE fan of the public pool, but since I don’t have a pool in my backyard, and I’m sadly not best friends with someone who does have a pool in their backyard, so the public pool it is. We had a fun time there on Wednesday, and then Natalie went with a friend on Saturday.

Visit the farm–I’m going to try to visit some aspect of Thanksgiving Point once a week, since we have the pass and all. This week we picked a not too hot day to visit the farm.

I only took the two youngest, since the other three were busy with youth activities. It was fun to see the grown up chickens and all the cute fluffy animals. Jenna and John enjoyed riding the ponies, and we had a carriage ride.

Youth Conference–Megan and Cole had Youth Conference Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They had a great time going down to Ephraim and attending the Manti pageant, among other fun things. I was just happy to have one half of the amazing duo of fighting, arguing sisters GONE for a couple of days. It’s kind of fun to only have three kids at home, and for that middle child to be the oldest. While they were gone, we went out to dinner (two kids cheaper!) at Mimi’s cafe and I took them out garage saleing on Saturday morning.

Ice Cream social–As it gets closer to Cinderella time, we had our annual Alpine Community Theater ice cream social. (Don’t you love the way this sticker adds a little class to the rusted old tailgate?)
All the ice cream you want to eat for only $1 per person, free entertainment, and the opportunity to buy tickets to the show for $2 less. It was a perfect night for it, too! Overcast, but not cold, and while the rain clouds threatened, there was no rain.

Father’s Day!–And today is Father’s day! Happy Father’s day, everyone! We made Ryan a scrumptious breakfast of scrambled eggs and waffles, and gave him the oh-so-extravagant gifts of new socks and a nice watch. We will have my parents and my sister’s family over for dinner tonight, so that will be fun.

That’s the week in review. Gosh, it’s no wonder I’m tired. I’ll have to have the kids read here when they inevitably complain or whine that we haven’t done anything fun all summer.

Summer–week one

June 10, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Oh, how I love summer. I love the lazy feel of the days, the free time, and the fun activities!

Our first week has been good.

We started out with a clear list of jobs, and expectations of what needs to be done before we up and have fun. Day one was GREAT. The kids were excited to do their jobs, and they even picked EXTRA jobs off the “extra pay” job list. John wanted to wash the car. I couldn’t get any of the taller kids to help him with that job, so John and I washed the suburban. He washed the bottom part, and I washed all the rest. It was fun, though. The second day they did their jobs, although less enthusiastically. By Friday, they are pretty much back to their usual, “Jobs? What Jobs? You want me to do jobs?”

Natalie has had tennis lessons every day this week, and next week. She has been having a fun time, and it’s good for her to get some exercise. One day this week while she had her lesson, I hit the track. I managed to walk/jog for two miles before I thought I was going to die. John sprinted about halfway around the track. Boy is he fast! Jenna jogged with me, and honestly, even she is faster than me.

When we came home, Megan said to me, “Mom, you might need some sunscreen. You’re face is red.”
“Yeah, that is red because we did some jogging. And I will never be able to beat any of my kids. They are all faster than me. Because I’m old and fat.” I said.
“You’re not that fat, Mom,” she said, trying to make me feel better, “There’s lots of people fatter than you. All those people on the Biggest Loser are a LOT fatter than you.”
Thank you SO much.
She went on to tell me that someday I will be able to beat John. When he’s old and can’t run fast, she will get me a really fast Jazzy or electric scooter. Only she kept saying she’d get me a really fast electric chair. So which is it, you want me to be able to go fast, or you want me to GO fast?
Yeah, that makes me feel a lot better.

This week we’ve had a lot of two things: Baseball and rehearsals. Since my concert is Friday night, that means extra bell rehearsals, so I’ve been gone a couple nights. Natalie and I also have tiny parts in this year’s Alpine Community Theater production of Cinderella. So that adds a couple more rehearsals this week.

John had his last regular baseball game, then started his tournament. Wednesday they pulled off two wins in a row, despite micro bursts and plummeting temperatures. That means two more games, whether they win or lose. And he’s not the only one. Megan and Jenna are also playing softball, so they’ve each had at least one game a week.

Wednesday I took the kids to Trafalga in Lehi. We had fun miniature golfing together. They also rode the merry-go-round, the go carts, and had a great time. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Since we have some extra time on our hands, I managed to go to the temple on Thursday. When I got there, there were 4 or 5 wedding parties taking pictures and being generally happy! When I came out of the temple, the wind had picked up and clouds had rolled in. I hope all those brides got all the pictures they needed before the weather turned.

I’m going to encourage the older kids to also go to the temple often during the summer. I think it will be a good bonding experience for the three of them, and also keep in focus what really matters. They did go Friday morning, and it was fun to see the three of them getting into the beat up old truck and head off to the temple. They said it was “crowded”, and they had to wait a long time. I guess that’s a good thing, right? Maybe they will be nicer to each other after having that service experience. Let’s hope.

I can’t believe how big my chickens are getting! We’ve only had them a week and a half, but we love them. We survived the drama of the dog attack, nursed that little chick back to health, and the kids named her Pirate (because she had one eye that wouldn’t open after her brush with death (or dog). The others are: Henrietta, Gabby and Caramel. Good names for chickens, I think. They aren’t quite the scraps eaters I had hoped for yet. I gave them celery and strawberries yesterday and those same foods are still out there. But I think as they get bigger they will eat more and different foods, not just their chicken food.

So, that’s what we’ve been up to this week. How’s your summer shaping up?

We CAN do it

May 27, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Our school is doing a new fundraiser for the summer. And, since I’m the fundraiser chairperson this year, even though I’m not in charge of this particular event, you can say I’ve been heavily involved.

We made up #10 cans for each family in our school. We had to close the cans and put the labels on. My friend MaryAnne (who is heading up this campaign) had her son make ALL the slots in ALL the lids.

Then we put all the labels on them.

And loaded them up into cars to transport to the school.

On to distribution. It took a WHOLE lot of preparation and lists to make sure that every family receives one and only one can. At our school, the youngest child is the family rep, so that meant that every Kindergartener and a lot of the first graders get to take the cans home. We went to each classroom with a big box of cans and explained how we want the kids (and parents) to put all their loose change in the can and bring it back when school starts in the fall. I gave my little speech to one of the kindergarten classes right before they left for the day. Shortly after, my the PTA president elect reads a text on her phone and starts to laugh. She reads it out loud for us, “Tell Paige her motivational speech was just a bit TOO good. My kindergartener came home and immediately put her $60 of birthday money into the can.” We were all just busting up. These cans only have the one slot for money to go in. Good luck getting that $60 out of the can.

John got to bring our can home, and it’s now perched proudly in our home, inviting all to dump their spare change from pockets, purses and wallets.

Let’s hope it’s a successful fund raiser. To find out how successful, you’ll have to tune in in September, when we get to open all those cans and count all the money–Hooray.

Why I hate flying

September 29, 2010 / / 3 Comments

I do not enjoy flying. Do you? My husband can just fall asleep on the plane, and after the flight he’s just ready to RUN through the airport, grab the bags and find the car. Not so for me. Flying makes me anxious, to say the least. Even though I take dramamine, I must always made sure there’s a barf bag in my seat back pocket, or that I have a big old ziplock bag in my purse. Hopefully both. I have thrown up on a plane, haven’t you? More than once. Not every time, thankfully.

To make the flight more bearable, I come prepared with a few snacks, a water bottle, a book and an MP3 player, yet it still doesn’t make it a pleasant experience. My flight to Atlanta had just started, and then we hit a MAJOR pocket of turbulence. I actually hoped for a moment that I would just die instantly. I did make it through, and the rest of the flight, while less jumpy, was still not very fun.

My little touchpanel on the back of the seat in front of me wouldn’t work. I KNOW how to work a touch panel, yet it won’t DO ANYTHING. People all around me are watching in flight tv or a movie, yet my dumb screen is stuck. When the flight attendant came by with my choice of beverage, I asked her about my faulty touch screen, and she said, “Hmmm, those things are pretty touchy sometimes.” Why thank you so much. And, I’ll take the peanuts and that tiny cup of diet coke, please. My batteries in my MP3 player were waning, I couldn’t really read because it was kind of bumpy, and I really just wanted to distract myself with some mindless tv. Ugh. The sweet lady who was sitting next to me took pity on my. She saw me trying over and over to get my screen to work, and said,
“Would you like to use mine? I’m listening to my book, and have no need for it.” Oh, the sweetie! I plugged my earphones into her plug, and then I got to watch at least one hour of tv. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers, right?

When we arrived, I found my way to the shuttle to take me to baggage claim, and there was Ryan waiting for me. I was so happy to see him! He had driven the company’s rental car in to pick up another guy whose flight arrived before mine, and after he picked him up, Ryan gave him the car and he circled around waiting for us to call and have him pick us up. So great! While driving through the city at night, I was a-starving, and b-nauseated. But I knew that once we got to the hotel, I could eat something and then sleep, so that would probably take care of both problems.

Our return flight was better. I was traveling with Ryan, so even though our seats were not together (I was in the VERY back of the plane), I got to board with the special people because he’s a gold medallion member or something like that. I settled into my MIDDLE seat and waited for the seats around me to fill up. For a moment or two I thought that the window seat might be vacant, but no such luck. I don’t think airlines fly with very many vacant seats these days. On one side I had the old guy wearing shorts who fell asleep immediately, and at one point he had his head just about on my shoulder. He startled and woke up and apologized. I got a chuckle out of it. On the other side I had a bearded guy who was quietly talking to himself from the moment he sat down. I wondered if I had some kind of crazy next to me, but then I looked a little closer at his book and realized it was Romeo and Juliet, and he was probably memorizing. I asked him if he was memorizing, and he told me he was playing Lord Capulet in his local community theater production next month. We chatted a little bit about theater and then he went back to his memorizing and I tried to read my book. Even though I knew he was memorizing, it still felt a little like I was seated next to a crazy person.

When we landed, I was pleased that I had not thrown up, or even felt the extreme urge to throw up. It took me forever to get off of that tin can, however, since I was way in the back. Ryan had time to go use the bathroom and was back in time to meet me. It was with semi shaky legs that I made my way to baggage claim. Unfortunately, I was trying to keep up with hubby, who was off like a bat out of…well, you know. When we finally made it to the safety of the car, I said, “Don’t you feel sick?” I asked. Nope, he feels fine. I, on the other hand felt completely wiped out and slightly sick for the rest of the day. Worth it? I guess. But I still hate flying.

ps–I think I left my whole makeup bag there in the hotel somewhere. I remember trying to stuff it in one of our bags, but they were pretty full by then. I fear it didn’t make it into a bag, because I’ve unpacked and can’t find it anywhere. No, I don’t have expensive cosmetics, but those were my favorites, and now I have to use the “what’s left”. I may have to go out and buy a new mascara and some makeup brushes. grr.

Hello, y’all

September 25, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Hello from Atlanta, Georgia!

I did actually make it to Georgia, and I’ve been having a nice time. While Ryan works and schmoozes and talks and explains endless at the trade show, I’ve been having a nice time. On Thursday, one of my former BYU roommates met me at my hotel and we went adventuring together. We got our map and set out on foot to find the CNN building. We had an interesting tour. Did you know that the CNN building is home to the world’s largest freestanding elevator? The Building once housed an indoor amusement park built around the theme of the old H.R. Puffenstuff cartoon show. It was called the World of Sid and Marty Croft. When the Amusement park went out of business, Ted Turner soon bought the entire complex and renamed it CNN Center. Who knew?

Unfortunately, they did not allow us to take any pictures while on the tour. One of my favorite parts of the tour was when they let us sit at a mock anchor desk and read “the news”. Their photographer took a picture of the two of us at the news desk which we could purchase for a mere $20. Cough. No, thanks.

We walked through the Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park, and then looked for someplace to have lunch. Honestly, it was SO hot that all this walking was making me so hot and sweaty and tired, I just wanted to sit ANYWHERE that was inside and air conditioned. We chose the Hard Rock Cafe. We had a super fun waiter who was sweet and charming, even though he called me “Mama”. I’m not used to THAT. He said he wanted to be a motivational speaker. Laurie and I had a fun time catching up and discussing our lives, our kids, and all that has been going on.

After lunch, we walked and walked and actually got a little bit lost trying to find my huge hotel. Once I looked up, there it was. We just adjusted our course and found our way back. It was so much fun to visit with her, and I’m so glad she braved the traffic to come and visit with me.

I then called Ryan and asked how his day was going at the show. I told him where I had been, and he said, “The convention center is a block away from the CNN. You should have just taken the shuttle to the show and then walked a block down hill.” Well, then. So, I put on more deoderant, powdered my sweaty face and took the shuttle bus to the show to say hi to Ryan. I finally found the Control 4 booth and found him. He was busy talking to everyone, so I just set out on my own to peruse the show floor and look for cool “stuff” for my kids. I walked around for two hours until I could take no more. My feet were killing me. I found a place to sit down, drank from my water bottle and called the kids.

When Ryan was done, we came back to the hotel, dumped our stuff, and then met some of Ryan’s work buddies to go to dinner. We had a fabulous dinner at Ted’s Montana grill. It was fun to get to know some of the people Ryan works with, and hear their praise for his knowledge and abilities. And the food was GREAT, too.

The next day Ryan went off to the convention center, and I slept in a bit. I had a meeting planned with another of my BYU roommates who also lives near Atlanta. Lisa picked me up at my hotel and took me to the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum. It was FASCINATING! This HUGE painting depicting the battle of Atlanta has been made into a diorama.
*The circumference of the painting is 358 ft.
*The painting covers 15,030 sq. ft.
*The depth of the display is 30 ft.
*The painting alone weighs more than 10,000 lbs.
While the history of the battle was interesting, I really was drawn in by the history of the painting! It was commissioned in 1885, traveled with the circus, and eventually was donated to the city of Atlanta. You should read about it. Amazing!

I loved looking at the old lovely houses as we drove. I would love to spend a few more days exploring. We decided to go to “the Underground” for lunch.

We laughed as we walked, turned around, asked for directions, and walked some more. We found the underground, and I felt conspicuously white. I was glad I was with Lisa, because she’s used to being a minority, but we were seriously the only white people there. We had fun, though, eating, laughing, and looking around the shops. We both tried on some INSANELY high shoes that I can only classify as “hooker heels”. We didn’t walk in them, we could barely just stand there without falling.

Lisa dropped me off at the convention center, where I met up with Ryan and managed to pull him away from work a little bit early. Even though it was hot and we were sweating, we walked the long few blocks over to the world of Coke museum.

It was fun! We saw all the coke memorabilia, there was a 4-d movie experience that was hokey. Our favorite was tasting all the flavors of soft drinks from around the world. “Beverly” and “Stoney” were both NaSTY!! Who would drink those? And so many of the flavors were SO sweet and fruity.

After all those weird flavors, when we sampled the regular coke flavors that we know, it tasted weird. It was a fun tour, and something I wanted to see (Ryan joked that it was the “mother land” for me), and I’m glad Ryan could get away to see it with me.

That night we went to a private party for Control 4 at some trendy club. It was loud, but the food was good and even though I didn’t know anyone, it was fun. We were both exhausted by 9, so we decided to bow out. We took a taxi back to the hotel and pretty much fell into bed.

Saturday Ryan went to work and I decided to take the day off. I stayed in bed until I felt like getting up. After showering, I decided to explore the hotel, and found there’s a connecting “mall”. It’s really just a glorified food court with a few stores, but they call it a mall. And you can go through the skywalk from this hotel. After lunch I found the hotel pool. I spent the afternoon reading my book by the pool. When I got too hot, I would swim for a bit, then get out and read some more.
There was no work to do, no emails to answer, no PTA stuff to worry about, no kids to take care of, nothing. It was wonderful.

Except that I didn’t bring any sunscreen (who thinks about sunscreen at the end of September?) and my shoulders and chest seem to be quite burned.

When we get home, I’ll post more pictures and tell you about the rest of our adventure! Bye for now.

What I’m doing with all my “free time”

August 30, 2010 / / 1 Comment

School started last week around these parts. So far the kids have attended 3 days of school. All day school, I might add, none of this 1/2 day or three hour stuff for my first grader through high school junior.

I will admit that even though I’m sad to see them go, sad to have to say goodbye to the fun and spontaneity of summer, and sad to jump into the planning, the scheduling and the homework, I have been looking forward to having some time without them to get things done. Think about it. It’s been 16 years since I’ve had a little one at home with me for all or part of the day.

I have plans. Yes, I do. I’m going to work out, clean the house, get myself organized, take care of all my PTA responsibilities, manage the Primary stuff, paint, etc. But it’s amazing how quickly the time goes from the time the last one goes until the first one gets home.


Lest you think I’m a slacker, let me tell you what I got done on the first day of school.
*I took my kids to the back to school breakfast at the busstop
* I went to the Gym. Yes. The Gym. Ahem. I DO know what a gym is. You over there..Stop snickering. I kicked out 30 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the eliptical thingy, walked 10 minutes and did about 5 minutes of arm weights. Exhausting.
*I came home and took a shower and got dressed.
*I organized about 6 weeks of coupons that had been waiting for me to organize them.
*Then I took all those newly clipped and organized coupons to our local Smith’s store, where they are currently running their big coupon event, where any coupon that is valued and $1 or less is equal to $1. I saved $50 with my coupons. Yeah, I love that!
*I had time to bring my groceries home and put them away, and then BOOM, the kids were home.

The other days were even less productive, unless you could presidency meeting and visiting teaching as productive. But I am enjoying the time without the kiddos. I get some cleaning done, get myself organized, and then hopefully I can be on my game when they come home and the chaos begins.

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