Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Field Trips (Page 7 of 10)

Vacation, all I’ve ever wanted?

January 17, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Claire from “Modern Family” said, “I’m a mom traveling with my kids. This isn’t a vacation, it’s a business trip.” I must say, I can relate. We are taking our long awaited trip to Disneyland. And yes, I did win it, back in the summer. But when you “win” a trip to Disneyland, that includes two nights in a hotel and four 3 day passes. Since we have to actually GET to Disneyland, and we have more than four people in our family, our “free” trip is definitely not free. But it is fun!

When I scheduled this trip, I wanted to be sure that it wouldn’t be crowded. We’ve taken too many trips over spring or fall break and seen half of Utah in the park. This time, while we will be there over a holiday, only Monday is the holiday, and we are hoping that Tuesday and Wednesday we can have the park to ourselves. But I didn’t consult with the kids about when they thought we should go, since this trip is kind of a Christmas gift to them. When I told them about it, a certain son of mine was very concerned with how many days of school we would be gone. After figuring it out and after a lot of thought, he decided that he would rather not miss 3 or 4 days of school. I gave him the option to stay home, and he took that option. Can you imagine? A child who would rather go to school than go to Disneyland?! He decided it would be too hard to make up the missed work in calculus and AP physics, among other classes. So, we left him home.

Before you think I just left him home all by himself, let me explain. He’s not totally on his own. He’ll be spending a couple of days with Ryan’s sister and her husband. They planned to take him out and show him a good time, since he willingly stayed home from Disneyland and all. He’s also going to spend the holiday with one of his friends. He’s even going to stay for dinner. Speaking of dinner, I’ve lined up dinner appointments for Cole for every night we’ll be gone. I just called up some friends and asked if Cole could come to dinner. One of my friends was all, “what’s his favorite food?” and I’m sure she’ll put on a lovely spread for him. Another friend likened it to feeding the missionaries, only he’s just one. I’m sure he will eat well.

Yes, he’s capable of making his own dinner, but I wanted him to know that people are expecting him, and care about him. I don’t want him to just stay holed up in the house doing homework all night, but enjoy a nice dinner with friends, and then go home and do his homework. I’m very thankful that my neighbors were all so willing to feed him. I really have wonderful neighbors and friends.

When I called to check on him the first night, he was watching a movie, had gone to dinner at a cool restaurant, went bowling, and had already had a fun day. It sounds like he had a lot more fun than we did driving all day. But the drive wasn’t all that bad.

Now, on to Disneyland!
(be prepared for lots of pictures when we get around to that)

Halloween Happenings

November 4, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Before the holiday is Completely past and we are halfway to Christmas, I must post some pictures of our Halloweening.

I had bought a pair of scrubs at a garage sale earlier this year. I think I paid 50 cents or something great like that. I was so excited. Instant costume! And it’s comfy!

So when the kids and I went to our ward Halloween party on Tuesday night, I was set. Instant costume! John decided to be a parrot and Jenna is all sweet in her Hershey bar costume.

On Thursday evening we took our exchange student, Kazuki, to Gardner Village to see the witches, and to have dinner.

So, now Halloween is over and I need to pack everything away. I’ve discovered I either need to get ride of some of those costumes, or I need more boxes!

In one shop, all the Halloween stuff was 50% off. I saw the Medusa hat that I had coveted when I saw it in Cedar City.
But this time it was ON SALE!! I had to have it. I had wanted that hat, but didn’t want to plunk down $30 for it, so when I could get it for $14, I jumped at the chance!
See, it looks good on everyone!

When we came home, we had to do some finishing touches on Megan’s costume. She designed her own digs this year, and wanted to be a Control 4 remote control. Check it out. Here’s her design for the costume.
She made all the buttons.

I sewed the costume part, after we figured out the details of the top and all that. Here she is trying it on.

Well, Friday was the day of celebrations at school. I woke up and put on my scrubs, then drove my carpool of Japanese boys to BYU. But when I got home, I realized I couldn’t just NOT wear that awesome Medusa hat to John’s school party. So I threw together a costume.

John had decided to be Harry Potter for his school celebrations. (This is the problem with having a great big box of costumes. The kids tend to change their minds at the last minute)

Blonde Harry Potter? Sure. Whatever.

Jenna stuck with her original Hershey Bar costume, and Natalie was a french maid.

After school, we went to dad’s work to trick-or-treat through the cubicles. This is one of our favorite activities. The kids like it because they can get a lot of candy in a short amount of time. I like it because we don’t have to deal with the weather, and I usually end up seeing my friend Kimberly, whose husband works with Ryan (and decided to be Rick Astley).

John decided for this event he was going to be a dolphin.

Megan was the big hit of the event, there at Contol 4. She had many people want to take her picture in her remote costume.

The actual trick-or-treating at night was a little bit of a let down. It was cold and POURING rain when we were all set to go out. I mean SHEETS of rain. But we braved it and made our way around the neighborhood for a little while at least. Notice that John wore yet another costume, his ninja outfit that I thought he was planning on wearing all along. Kazuki was a good sport and threw on a cape and came with us. Cole did not don a single costume this year. He went to a party. Costumeless. He’s such a disappointment to his costume loving mother. Sigh. I guess he takes after his dad.

We may have been dressed like this, but in reality, we looked more like this.

Goodbye. Or shall we say Sayonara?

November 2, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Hosting an exchange student for a week is a whirlwind experience. On the one hand, you only have a week to show him or her all that you can of your home town. On the other hand, it’s only a week.

This is our second time hosting a Japanese student, and it’s been a good experience both times. Although last year our student ended up getting sick with the swine flu right after he left us. The poor kid was sick for their Disneyland trip, and our family had a few people down from sickness as well. Out of 240 boys, I think 70 of them got sick. This year we didn’t have those annoying swine flu issues, which was nice.

Kazuki came on a Tuesday, which was also the night of our ward Halloween party, so Ryan ended up picking him up alone. By the time everyone got home, it was bedtime, so we basically said hello, here’s your room, welcome to our home. The next day we sent him off to BYU. Even though it had snowed that night, they took the kids to a farm for some farm type activities. He said he rode a horse, but that’ about all I know about that day. I had to take John to a basketball game and then go to rehearsal myself, so the rest of the family had dinner with him, and then played that great ice breaker, the Wii. He started to warm up to the kids and had a good time.

Thursday he was done with school earlier, since he didn’t have to go all the way to BYU. That day our students went to a local junior high and went to classes there. They had buddies who spent the day with them, and he said it was fun. We decided to go to Gardner Village for dinner that night. The place was all decked out for Halloween, and we thought it would be fun.

The whole concept of Halloween is strange to him, since they have no such holiday in Japan, but Kazuki was a good sport, and I think he enjoyed dinner, at least. He ordered pasta and finished it all.

Friday morning I drove the carpool of 7 boys to BYU, and it was fun to listen to them chatter in Japanese. I felt like a taxi driver. By the time he got home, we were just getting home from our Halloween activities for the day, so we had a dinner of pizza, and then got down to the business of carving our pumpkins. Again, a new thing for him, and he must wonder what in the world we are doing, but we want to show all the aspects of American life at Halloween time, so we dived right in.

Saturday we had a fun day. We all went to John’s basketball game in the morning, and then had McDonald’s for lunch. Kazuki had written in his letter to us that he wanted to eat a really big hamburger at McDonald’s, so we wanted to grant his request. Then we went off to have some serious fun. The weather, while not raining, was overcast and cloudy, but still warm enough for outdoor activities. We went to Trafalga in Lehi and spent a few hour in the pursuit of having fun.


We played mini golf, rode go carts, rode the merry go round and even the bumper boats. Well, I didn’t ride the bumper boats, because someone had to take pictures, right? And I couldn’t get my family to promise not to squirt each other. They did not promise, and they ended up doing quite a lot of squirting.

So you can see why I didn’t want to be involved in all THAT, right?

We timed it just right so that we were leaving in the afternoon just as it started to rain.
After dinner, we dressed Kazuki in a “costume”, or actually, he just put on a cape, and we geared up to go trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, it was POURING rain about then.

Trick-or-treating was less than fun. I’m afraid he didn’t get the whole FUN idea of it. We made it around 1/2 of our neighborhood, then stopped in for donuts at our neighbors, and came back home. Just as we got home, the raining subsided. Ugh. The girls, after changing shoes, wanted to go back out, but Kazuki and John were done. They decided to stay home and hand out candy and watch tv instead.

On Sunday, we got up nice and early to attend the live broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word.

We did a little Temple Square sightseeing while we were there. We couldn’t stay long, though, because we had to make sure we were back in time for primary. So, it was a long day for all of us. The afternoon was spent in naps, playing games, and doing puzzles. We had a nice steak dinner and the kids even played outside.

Monday the boys went to BYU for more activities/lessons, and then we met them there at 5:30 for a closing social. The banquet was yummy, the program was too long. When we came back home, we gave Kazuki some American gifts.

Tuesday we had an early morning, waking everyone up by 5:45 to say goodbye. Thankfully Ryan drove him to Provo, so I could get the kids ready for school.

It was a good experience! The kids are already sad that he’s gone, but hopefully they will have a pen-pal in Japan, and some fond memories.

Better than one post, it’s a bunch of mini-posts!

October 28, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Busy, Busy.

I’ve got a BUNCH of pictures that I meant to do blog posts around, but instead, I’m going to just lump them all together and tell you a little bit about them. Think of it of a bunch of mini-posts!

My good friend Lisa just posted about our fun time at Witches Night out last weekend. Since she used my pictures, I feel perfectly justified in sending you over to her blog to read about it. So, go HERE for the fun details.

Natalie finished up her volleyball season. They even had a tournament this year.

This is my favorite picture. She’s the one ducking away from the ball. Love it! But in her defense, that was just one time. She’s actually pretty good, and she’s got a wicked serve.

This one is a little dark and kind of blurry, but she JUST bumped it. Can you see that blur that is the ball there?


The girls and I went to see Thriller by the Odyssey Dance Theater. It was, as usual, AMAZING! I enjoy it more every time I see it!


I spent a day with my parents making and bottling applesauce. They have the apples, the know-how, and all the proper equipment, so it was much easier to go to their house and do the work with them, than to bring the apples here and do it myself.

They’ve got the operation down to a science, and it’s all set up outside! Which keeps your kitchen from getting totally stickified from apple juice and sauce. Jenna was home from school that day, so she even helped. Here she is with my dad.

I ended up with 26 quarts of applesauce and about 13 quarts of apple juice. Yum!

Every where you drive in Utah County, there is construction.

And every road that gets to my house is torn up. My friend Tammy wrote about the ongoing headache or the construction on her blog HERE.

My kids have been working on entries for their schools’ reflections contests. “Together we can” is the theme.

I’m relieved to NOT be in charge of our school’s reflections program this year. I have scrounged around and gotten prizes, but I’m not in charge. Happy Dance!!! But the kids are still entering, and since they are due today, we got 6 entry forms, 6 media release forms, and 6 entries ready last night (and this morning. Who am I kidding?)

We picked up our Japanese exchange student, Kuzuki, on Tuesday night.
(Sorry about the sideways picture-erg. — Fixed)
He seems like a nice kid. Yesterday he went to a farm with his school group, then had sloppy joes (we want to give him the American Experience, right?) and then played Wii with the kids. Tonight we plan on taking him out to dinner. We’ve also got carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating on the agenda. He won’t be here long, so we’re trying to make his stay enjoyable. Too bad it got so flippin COLD here all of a sudden! He and the other boys were playing in the snow yesterday, so I guess they don’t mind.


This picture just does my heart good. For any of you who have had little boys who hate reading, you’ll understand my frustration. All of my other kids are very advanced readers, and were reading well by the end of kindergarten. Two of them were reading before Kindergarten, actually. Then, my youngest is all boy, with no interest in reading or any of that school stuff. But he’s finally getting it. He can actually put words together and he told me the other day “I love reading, Mom!” Thank you Mrs. Barker!


Do you ever feel like you are “up to your neck”? Well, here’s John in the sand.
He let his sister and some random boy bury him while at Thanksgiving Point’s Dino museum the other day.

So, there you have it. A bunch of random mini posts! Stay tuned for pictures and the run down of all of our fun Halloween activities!

Ring a ding ding

October 22, 2010 / / 4 Comments

When Our Director, Tom, told us about the Advanced Ringers Workshop, it didn’t sound all that exciting. Another all day bell thing? Those are SO exhausting. But when he explained a little more in detail about what a great opportunity it would be and that he needed 13 of us to go, I considered it. Yes, that would mean sacrificing a few Saturday mornings for rehearsal and one entire Saturday, but when I looked at my schedule I saw that it was possible, so I volunteered.

Even though I have been ringing hand bells for over 5 years, I don’t consider myself an “advanced ringer” by any stretch of the imagination. I’m more of an “ok ringer who tries really hard to handle my own part and not mess everyone else up.” But I love playing, and I love our choir, so any time spent with them would not be wasted.

When we met for our first rehearsal, we had some interesting bell assignments. Everyone seemed to be just one note off from their familiar ringing spot. Instead of playing F and G, I was assigned E and F. That shift was harder than any of us thought it would be. Even though we are reading the notes right, the wrong hand would ring, out of habit. Then we would find ourselves looking at the bell in our hand with the look of “Bell, what’s up with that?” Maybe you know that look. But the music was fun, and challenging.

On October 9th, (my husband’s birthday)we met in Springville, and set up. I wondered who the friendly looking guy in the ponytail was. Oh, that’s Dr. William Payn! I didn’t know much about him, but if I’d had been prepared and looked up his bio, I would have been impressed. He’s been playing hand bells for longer than I have been alive! He plays, directs, composes, teaches… he does it all. He has a calm quiet countenance, and he directs like he loves the music. Even as we were playing his piece, “Psalm of Peace”, he was not critical or demanding, but positive and encouraging.

Throughout the day, Dr. Payn taught us techniques, tips, and tricks. He was hands on, and took the time to demonstrate what he was talking about. He was engaging and energetic. Even during the most difficult of passages, he was full of praise, applauding our efforts. It made me want to play even better. Yes, it was a long day. But even though we were tired, it was worth it. After we had worked the four pieces we had prepared, we sight read about 5 pieces. Some were new, some were more familiar. It was refreshing to just play those pieces as well as we could. Not rehearsing for a performance, but just to play. Sometimes we may forget that playing a song together should be a joyful experience.

I hope that everyone in attendance felt as involved as I did. I was on the front row, really close to Dr. Payn, but I think he brought us all in. The group was not huge, so we all had a chance for personal interaction. Dr. Payn even sat among us at lunch, answering questions, laughing and talking. And lunch. Did I mention that lunch was GREAT! A variety of sandwiches, fruit and salads—it was all so yummy. Thanks, Karen for the super lunch and the nice snacks.

When the workshop was over, I felt like I was leaving a better ringer than I had come. The instruction and the day full of ringing together made that happen. Yes, my back was aching and I was feeling my age, but I was happy. If felt good to be with fellow ringers who were there not to compete or to perform for each other, but to learn together. Thank you, Dr. Payn, and thank you to all those in AGEHR XI who put this workshop together. The only thing missing was a “I rang bells with Dr. Payn” t-shirt.

This is an article I wrote for my director about our experience. It’s probably not all that interesting to the general public, but I thought I would post it here just to share what I’ve been doing the last month.

Le Bard Bus

October 5, 2010 / / 4 Comments

A few weeks ago, I won tickets to the Utah Shakespearean festival, but when Ryan went to go pick them up, they couldn’t find them. They promised they would mail them out to me. Well, days came and went and I had assumed that I would never see those tickets, and really, when was I going to use them, what with the trip to Atlanta and all? On the day I was leaving, I got a call from Laura Bedore, asking me if I’d like two seats on the “Bard Bus” instead of just the tickets to one show. Wow! Of course I would. Three plays and hotel room instead of just one show? You bet. Of course, that only left me a week to find someone to go with me. I set out to find a friend who could drop everything for a Friday and Saturday and come with me.

I must say I am saddened that my friends are all so over-scheduled that they couldn’t come. They all had valid excuses, to be sure. A husband running a marathon, friends coming into town, school obligations and work. I know, I know. I was just lucky that it happened to be a Saturday that I didn’t have too much going on. I’ve had extra bell rehearsals on most every Saturday in September, and next Saturday have a bell choir commitment, as well. So I understand! We live busy lives. But this was SO worth taking the time.

Since I couldn’t find a friend to go with me, and my dear sweet husband has been out of town for about 50% of the last 8 weeks, and we just took a trip together, I asked him to stay home for this one. I took my 14 year old daughter, Megan. Actually, she was my second choice. First I asked Natalie, since it was her birthday weekend. But she actually didn’t want to miss school on her “birthday” and didn’t want to miss her volleyball game. So I asked Megan, who had NO problem missing a day of school. “That will give me more time to study for my test!” she said happily. Although I don’t think she got much extra study time in.

We met the “Bard Bus” on Friday morning.

As we got on the bus, it was pretty obvious that Megan was by FAR the youngest person on the bus. There were a few people younger than me, but most of them were older. But we didn’t care. We said hi, picked out a seat, and got comfortable.

We stopped in Scipio to stretch our legs and get snacks, and there was a little petting zoo right there off to the side of the road. Well, isn’t that random?

When we got back on, someone suggested we watch a movie on the bus wide DVD system, so we watched the Prince of Persia for the rest of the ride. Not a bad way to get to Cedar City.

Once we arrived, our hotel rooms weren’t ready to check in, yet, but we walked over to the nearby Subway restaurant and got lunch.

After lunch, the bus driver took us over to the Randall Theater for our first show, Greater Tuna.
Such a funny show! It’s a two man show where the two men play ALL the characters. So funny! It reminded me of my friend Kevin, who in High School did a scene from Greater Tuna as a humorous interp back in our drama days.

After that we had a couple of hours to rest, and I went back to the hotel and took a 45 minute nap while Megan watched tv. Then we headed over for the literary discussion about the new show The Adventures of Pericles. It’s not one of the Shakespeare plays that I was familiar with, so I was glad we attended the discussion, where we learned the basic plot of the show, and some interesting things to look for. While not my favorite play, it was interesting, visually beautiful, and well done. Very enjoyable!

The next morning, we had a FABULOUS breakfast spread at the Crystal Inn. And by fabulous, I mean that I wish I could have just eaten more breakfast and then not had to eat anything else for the rest of the day. After my Belgian waffle and hash browns, I was pretty much full up, and I hadn’t even had the biscuits and gravy or the scrambled eggs. I did manage to stuff down a piece of watermelon and a mug of hot chocolate.
But alas, I had to stop eating or I wouldn’t have been able to move. We checked out of our rooms in order to be over to campus for the 10:00 and 11:00 seminars. The first one was sort of a question and answer, where we discussed both Greater Tuna and Pericles. The next seminar was with the prop master, and that was SO interesting. Those prop guys work very hard scrounging, borrowing, buying, finding, adapting, making and changing those props. He said that in The Diary of Anne Frank, he’s even in charge of the food. They have soup, bread, and a cake. And wouldn’t you know it, in the cast of 12, there’s a diabetic, a celiac and someone who can’t have salt. So he had to find a salt free, wheat free, sugar free cake that they can eat 4 times a week. Megan came out of that one wanting to work in the prop shop.

During our lunch break, we decided to walk and explore a little bit. After sandwiches, we shopped a little in town. I decided I wanted this here chicken. Wouldn’t he look great on my porch or in my yard? I know! We also played with the hats for sale in the gift shop. I SO wanted to buy this Medusa hat, or this crown, or this mask, or this wizard hat but they were all a bit pricey.

The afternoon show was the Diary of Anne Frank
We went to a discussion before hand about the history of this adaptation. Originally they took out a lot of the “Jewishness” of the play to make it more relatable for everyone, but this version has a lot of that put back in. It was touching and beautiful. Yes, I cried. I knew I would.

After that show, we stayed to watch the changing of the sets. It was so interesting! Since they have three shows going on the same stage, they have to get the WHOLE set and all the props OFF the stage, and bring in the next set. The set manager talked to us while they did the whole change over thing. It took them about 20 minutes to completely change the stage. I loved these little extra learning experiences.

Then it was time to grab some dinner to go, and start the drive home. Megan and I had picked up Letters to Juliet on Redbox, so we put that in and it made the drive seem a little faster. By the time we got home, our legs were stiff, but we had had a wonderful time.

Now–friends who couldn’t pick up and go at a moment’s notice, next year I will find out way in advance when the Bard Bus is going, and WE ARE GOING! It’s such a bargain. Granted, this trip was free for me, but if it hadn’t been free, it would have been SO worth the $149 they charged for the trip. You pretty much pay for the play tickets, and the bus and the hotel are free. Think about it!

A good time was had by all.

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.

Why I love living in Highland

August 12, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Last weekend was our town celebration, the Highland Fling. It’s one of our favorite activities as a family. Last year, however, we missed it because we were taking a family trip to Yellowstone, and several family members complained about missing the fling. Seriously? It was a vacation, guys. You are not allowed to complain about what you missed while on vacation.

On Friday night, we went to a “so you think you can dance” type competition. It was a blast to see so much good and great dancing. After the competition, one of the judges, Gev Manoukian, came up and did his own performance. It was amazing!

And then they had a “Moms and Dads’ dance off”. They invited all the parents to come up and compete. I am not a dancer, nor do I pretend to be one, so I didn’t go up, but our good friend Sherry was not afraid to get up there and shake her stuff. That’s her there in the jeans, white dress and green jacket.

She danced her heart out and even did “the worm” up there. She ended up winning a Cricut from Provo craft. It was a fun activity!

Saturday morning we got the gang up and out of the house for the wonderful pancake breakfast. Our Chinese girls must think that we have a big outdoor pancake breakfast EVERY week, since two out of three Saturdays that they were here, we had our only two big breakfasts of the year. We even sat by and talked to the mayor! (he’s in our ward, so it’s not so rare to see or talk to him.)

After breakfast, the kids went exploring before the parade started. Megan came and told me that they were giving away free Webkinzes for the first 200 people in line. So we got the kids together, and went to stand in line. We had to wait about 40 minutes, and were hoping that they really were giving away Webkins animals, but we had nothing better to do, really, so it wasn’t a bad wait.

They were indeed giving them away, and we were in the right place at the right time. Every one of the kids, even the Chinese girls and the boys, got a free little animal.

Then we settled in to watch our favorite small town parade.

We went back to the park later to check out the shops and booths set up, and also for Cole and Megan to compete in the burrito eating contest. When I signed them both up for the eating contest, the guys at Barbacoa didn’t actually laugh at us, but they kind of smirked in a “really?” kind of way. But when we got to the contest, there were only 5 people total at the table. I thought their odds were looking up.

I mean, they should be able to beat out a little girl and her grandma, right? There were a few last minute recruits, so the eating pool looked more like this when they started.

They gave it their best. Trying to hork down those three pound burritos.

But this guy had them beat from the start.

In about three minutes, this guy finished his. Cole made it about 1/2 way through his burrito, and Megan ate maybe 1/4 of hers. We took their leftovers home and Ryan and I split Megan’s burrito and ate them for lunch the next day. They had fun, and got free food out of it. I’m proud of them for actually entering the contest, and giving it their best shot.

We also introduced our Chinese girls to cotton candy. I didn’t think they would like it, but they did. They each bought a bag of cotton candy.

Later that night we went back to the park for our favorite fireworks program. It’s not a long show, but we sit with friends, it close to our house, and we love it. We could actually watch the fireworks from home if we didn’t feel like going to the park, but we love actually being there.

It might even make doing the laundry more enjoyable!

August 1, 2010 / / 5 Comments

About 6 weeks ago, I mentioned to my husband that the agitator on the washing machine wasn’t working and I guess it was time to call the repairman. Again. He shocked me by saying that since that machine was well over 10 year old (did we have it in the old house and move it here, or did we buy it when we moved? Old house, that’s right) maybe it would do us well to NOT repair it and get a new one. What? Buy a new one? Oh, that would be heavenly!! I was so excited, especially since our current washing machine is really just a “soaker”. It fills up, it swishes the water slightly, it does spin and drain, but it’s not really doing the BEST job at getting our clothes clean. And with a family like ours (seven people who against my instructions keep getting dirty) and frequent guests, I estimate that I do about 14 loads of laundry per week. Plus or minus 2 or 3.

I started asking friends what kind of washing machines they had, and if they loved their front loaders, etc, etc. I wanted to go out right away and pick one out.

NOT SO FAST. Ryan, ever the consumer reports investigator, had to do some “research”. Fine. But do it quickly. What with frequent trips out of town, (out of the country, even), Ryan didn’t get around to doing his research. I kept saying things like, “Just tell me which ones NOT to buy, and I’ll go and get one myself.” For some strange reason, he didn’t like the idea of me picking one out myself. What, I might do it wrong? So, I continued to grumble and wash clothes in the old washer as it limped along. Admittedly, the grumbling got louder as the weeks went on. I thought I might need a new dryer, too. For a few days, that stupid dryer was taking FOREVER to dry clothes. Oops, it looks like someone had just put it on delicate and I hadn’t noticed. So no matching set. We will keep the old (it’s only 9 years old) dryer until it dies.

It was decided that on Saturday we would “go and look” for a new washer. There was no play rehearsal, no holiday, no big exciting outing with the Chinese girls planned, and we had a few unscheduled hours in the afternoon.

So, after we took the girls to Farm Country and the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, and lunch at Wingers, and BEFORE we took the whole family down to Springville for the Folk Dancing Festival, Ryan and I left all the kids at home to rest or watch a movie and we headed out to appliance shop. Home Depot is having a sale, so we went there first. We checked the high end models, ignored the ones that Ryan had read bad things about, and came out of there with a favorite in mind.

Then we went to Lowe’s to check their prices. They had a different brand, different model comparably priced. We left there prepared to head back to the Home Depot and buy that one, and we ran into an old friend who was also leaving the store. We mentioned that we were looking for a washer, and her husband said, “Oh, what kind?” Turns out he does REPAIRS for RC Willey appliances, and he told us all about the multiple repairs he does on all the different washers, including the one we wanted to buy. Ugh. I thought we would be forever stymied by this new information. But after some discussion, we decided that no appliance was foolproof, and the best thing to do was buy the one we thought would be best AND to buy the extended warranty, just in case this model turns out to be less than ideal.

So, we went back to Home Depot, talked to a different guy, and actually BOUGHT ourselves a washing machine. Because if we didn’t, it could be another 6 weeks before we found the time to go out together and shop for one. I was SO THRILLED!! Getting Ryan to shop is not painful, per se, but he’s not the most willing shopper around, and I was delighted that we actually came to a decision. With how picky he was, you’d think that HE was the one who is actually DOING the laundry (hey–a girl can dream, can’t she?).

We decided to forgo the pedestal (Hello?!! Two hundred dollars for a BOX?! That’s totally insane!), but did get the warranty, and I’m proud to welcome our new washing machine into our family!!! Not the fancy red one, by the way, because they charge $200 more for red. Not as much as they charge for the stainless… What?

Well, we’ll welcome the new washing machine into our family on Thursday. Thursday is soon enough for me. I’ve limped through with this one for so long, I can wait a few more days. And they will bring it, haul it up the stairs, install it, take the old one away and down the stairs and haul it away! Woot! I’ve got to seriously clean up my laundry room. I can’t have people coming with a bunch of lint and clothes all over the floor! And then I can get back to being the domestic goddess I’m meant to be.

Stop laughing.

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