Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Friends (Page 5 of 7)

Yeah, High School was EXACTLY like that

January 18, 2009 / / 3 Comments

Saturday we went to see High School Musical 3. By “We”, I mean me and the five kids. Noticeably absent was my husband, who for some reason does not enjoy the musical. His idea of a good movie was Valkyrie, which we went to see for our date on Friday night. It was WAY crowded, and we stood outside in the FREEZING cold for way too long waiting to get inside and buy tickets. We did end up with tickets, but by the time we got into the theater, it was almost full, and we ended up sitting on the second row. I’m glad it was kind of a slow moving movie, and I could look up Tom Cruise’s nostrils without getting totally dizzy and sick from the closeness of our seats. And although it was a good movie, and informative, and a great story, it’s not a “feel good” kind of movie, and you don’t walk out of the theater singing or anything like that. I mean, I don’t want to give away the ending, but their plan to kill Hitler didn’t work, and lots of people die.

So on Saturday, I decided to take the kids out to something fun (and cheap). Since we hadn’t see High School Musical 3, and Ryan’s nephew is totally in the movie, I figured it was about time. So, we went to our local sticky shoe dollar theater (actually, it’s one-fifty, but who’s complaining?) and set ourselves down, to prepare for the experience that is High School Musical.

And I was not disappointed. I felt like I needed to clap and cheer after every number! I wanted to get up and dance and sing in the isle! And I can NOT dance, so that would not have been pretty. I can sing, but since this was my first time seeing the movie, that mightn’t have been pretty, either. We loved watching for Italo, (the kids’ cousin), and the movie was a nice mix of fluff, fantasy, and cool songs. I didn’t get too wrapped up in the Troy/Gabriella angst about what are we going to do after high school/I have to make my own decisions stuff, but it was nice that they did address the fact that No, you can’t stay in high school forever.

Although I did have to point out to my kids that actual high school is a lot more homework and a lot less singing. I WISH High School had been like that. Although….. My senior year I had two music classes and a drama class, was in every available play or competition, sung or played bells in a ton of concerts….the only things missing were the dancing. If only I had taken dance, my high school years could have been JUST like High School Musical.

But a funny thing. My friend Melinda has been gently encouraging me (that sounds a lot better than hounding me, doesn’t it?) to join facebook. She’s been telling me about all these high school friends she’s reconnected with and how much fun it is and that I HAVE to sign up. So, this weekend, I signed up. And I must say, it IS fun. I’ve had people I haven’t seen in years, or at least since the last reunion, signing up to be my “friend”. Cool.

Maybe we can all get together and plan a musical. High School Reunion Musical! We can all dance and sing around the lunch tables and talk about how our kids are driving us crazy and our stock funds are in the toilet and how our church callings and our carpools seem to take up all our time. You’re right. Nobody would go to that one.

As we were walking out of the movie, it was VERY cold, and my kids were complaining about how cold it was, and so I started singing to them.

We’ll All be cold together
Once we know
That we are
We’re all stars
And we see that
We’re all be cold together
And it shows
as we walk
to the car
and we’ll start it up

Ericksons. sing along
Yeah, you got it goin’ on
Ericksons in the car
Everybody say it now!

We’ll all be cold together….

And my kids, true to form, said, “Stop it, Mom! You’re embarrassing us!”
Nope. Life is not quite like a musical.

Dear Applebee’s

December 31, 2008 / / 8 Comments

Congratulations to you. You must be doing something right if people are willing to put up with the lousy treatment, and to actually pay you for it. You have a really great marketing team, I guess.

On Monday, it was my birthday. We had a bunch of gift cards to chose from, and I let my kids decide where we should go out to eat. They chose Applebee’s. We have had fun and good food there in the past, so we went for it. It must have been “gift card Monday” –you know, that first Monday after Christmas when everyone goes out to eat to use up their giftcards– for when we arrived at 6:30, it was already very crowded and we were told we would have a 30 -35 minute wait. We weighed our options and decided that 30 minutes was manageable, and we squeeeezed into the already tight lobby area, to wait it out.

Now 30 minutes may not seem so long to you and me, or to my husband who started reading a book on his PDA, but to a small child (or even a big one) 30 minutes in a very confined space with nothing to do is like an eternity. I tried to cheer them up and make it a little more fun when they were whining and complaining. “Remember when we were at Disneyland and we waited all that time in line to ride the new Finding Nemo ride? That was a longer wait than this, and it was raining? Remember?”
Only grumbling from the masses.
“Or for Tower of Terror. That was kind of a long line, right?” I tried lamely to continue.
“That was a short line, mom.”
Tough crowd. Well, never mind, then.

About 40 minutes into our 30 minute wait, I searched my purse for some kind of food for the poor kids, who were REALLY hungry by this time. All I had were Altoids, which don’t do much for the hunger. I encouraged the kids to stretch their legs and go for a little walk to the bathroom. My five year old had really had it by this time, and he looked at me with all the menace he could muster and said, “WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?!” I tried to tell him that I had wanted to go to Olive Garden and YOU KIDS were the ones who voted on Applebees, but really, what’s the point. I sat on the floor and held him in my lap and tried to comfort him. “Do you want to hear a story?” I asked.
“No, I want some food!”

I lost track of how many “How much longer”s it was before they finally allowed us to sit, but by 7:30 we were squished into a too tight booth. We are a family of seven people, and the only thing they had for us was a four person booth. No WAY were they going to let us have a larger table, because it was still SO crowded. There was some arguing over where everyone was to sit, and some changing sides. Since there were no chairs and no hooks to hang our coats, and I wasn’t about to put my wool coat on the floor, I held my coat on my lap, hoping there was nothing gross or disgusting on the bottom of the table.

Soon our sweet but frazzled waitress was there to take our drink orders. The poor thing was so busy with so many tables to wait, I really did feel bad for her. It only took a few minutes for the kids’ root beers to arrive, but she didn’t have the chocolate milk for the other two. She said she’d be “right back” with it. We ordered our dinners and tried to have some fun while waiting. I mean, we were finally sitting down, right? But my youngest two kids still didn’t have drinks, and after 15 more minutes, we finally managed to stop our sprinting waitress and ask about the chocolate milks. She gave us a confused look and said, “I got those out, didn’t I? I’m so sorry! I’ll get you those in just a minute.” I again felt bad for her, and wondered if I could just walk over and get some drinks myself to save her the trouble. But soon someone else brought two kid size chocolate milk, which helped placate the hungry little ones for a little while, at least.

To kill some time, somehow we got on the subject of weird things you can do with your face. We had a fun contest to see who could wiggle their ears, roll their tongue, raise one eyebrow, flare their nostrils, etc. Soon we were all laughing and having fun, although still hungry and squished.

The people sitting in the booth behind us had had enough. I kept hearing remarks like, “This is ridiculous! We’ve been here TWO hours!” I think they were a couple with a two year old and another mom with a two or three year old. They had been pacing the restaurant, trying to keep the hungry kids happy. Finally they left in a huff. “We’ll go to McDonalds!” they said to the kids. I didn’t blame them for leaving, really. How long can you expect a hungry two year old to behave? I felt a little bad for the waitress when they brought out their food a few minutes after they had left. But I wondered what they had ordered and who was going to eat that food.

We had reached the point of EXTREME hunger by the time they brought our food. But imagine my little boy’s face when he was handed his plate of Kraft macaroni and cheese, but no fork. His sister was SO lucky–she had ordered a hamburger and could eat it without silverware, but here he was, without even so much as a french fry to scoop up his mac and cheese. I’m not joking when I say it took us 5 more minutes to track someone down who could give us the precious silverware. And they weren’t going to give us more than we REALLY needed, either. “Oh,” said the server, “how many of you need silverware?” Well, all of us, wouldn’t you think? But no, they only had enough silverware for the people who actually NEEDED their fork, and couldn’t just pick up their food. Forget napkins for everyone. I usually like to ask for extra napkins, since we do have a bunch of kids, and I’m a fan of napkins, myself. But I wasn’t going to mention that to the waitress or server–if I could even find one.

After we finally had food AND silverware and were all devouring it like hungry hyenas, the waitress came by to ask if the food was all right. She hadn’t wanted to stop by BEFORE. Probably because she was scared we might just eat her. I’m sure she’s seen her share of hungry people before, and she knows to avoid them, if possible. My husband reminded her that it was my birthday and asked if they did anything to celebrate birthdays. “Sure!” she said. I have to say that my trio platter was delicious and filling. The kids enjoyed their burgers, although my son’s “Frito chili burger” had chili but no fritos. Oh well, just eat it, we had told him. My husband’s steak was good, and the macaroni and cheese was…well, just like the macaroni and cheese that we make at home, but it only costs me 50 cents for the whole box, instead of $2.99 for a plate of it.

Then it arrived–the Birthday Freebie! The coveted brownie, ice cream covered creations that the whole family can take a bit of, and …what? What’s this? A shot glass filled with ice cream and hot fudge? And one spoon. “Usually we have the waiters come and sing for birthdays,” apologized our poor waitress, “but they are all too busy. So… Happy Birthday.”

Oh, the disappointment. It’s my birthday, for heaven’s sake. I’ve waited 365 days to be treated like someone special, and this is the free dessert you bring? We all took a bite (with the one spoon. One of the lucky ones who had a fork used their fork) and the “special dessert” was gone in seconds.

Check, please.

Now, Applebee’s–I know you can’t pack any more people into your restaurant. You’ve tried. I know it’s not your fault that everyone and their dog decided to “eat good in the neighborhood” that night. I understand.
But when a family goes out to eat, and is willing to part with over 50 of our hard earned dollars, they expect to be treated better than mere cattle. May I suggest you call in a few more waiters or maybe another cook so that people aren’t waiting over an hour for their food. Or maybe give the kids some crackers or a basket of bread to nosh on while they are waiting. A little bit goes a long way to assuage the hungry and the grumpy. And your birthday treatment? Well, let’s just say that when my precious one day a year, right after Christmas birthday comes around again, I won’t be spending it with you.

Christmas Highlights

December 26, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Snow, snow, and more snow.

The snow has been lots of fun to play in, if you enjoy freezing your extremities off, that is. The problem, however, lies in the fact that it takes about an hour to find everyone’s snow stuff, see if it’s dry from the last time they went outside, and get them into it. We’ve had cousins staying with us, and at one point had 10 kids to outfit into snow gear. And once we get them all outside (and lock the door–no, not really), they are only out there about 20 minutes before they are inside complaining of how cold they are. Then they leave all those wet, snowy clothes all over the place to “dry” out, and they demand hot chocolate.

And I’d like it stop snowing sometime, so I can go out and find my after Christmas bargains, thank you very much.

The Neighborhood Party.
We have some neighbors who host a party every year. There’s tons of food, and you get to talk to your neighbors without any kids pestering you. I haven’t been able to go for the past couple of years, but Ryan will go to this one by himself. This year, however, they did it late enough that I could attend, and it was super fun. And even better than a party? Leaving my brother and sister-in-law in charge of the masses at home. They had 10 kids to send to bed, but hopefully it wasn’t too bad. They let them watch movies and play games until bed time. The highlight of the party, of course, is the white elephant game. I thought my gift was cool but kind of weird, but apparently, it was just weird. Not the worst gift, though. I think the pre-flyed fly paper was the worst. Or the viagra. Thankfully we didn’t come home with that one.

The annual Christmas Nativity Puppet show.

The kids enjoy the Nativity puppet show each year. We read the story from Luke and they act out all the parts with puppets. It’s easier than coming up with costumes (or bathrobes, rather) for them to act it out, and they love it.

Screaming Monkeys.

The kids got Webkinz and flying slingshot Monkeys in their stockings. Who wouldn’t love a flying monkey? I think these might be good gifts for the neighborhood white elephant party next year.

Rock Band Surprise.

I was thrilled to give the kids an X-Box and Rock band. It’s doubly nice when I didn’t have to pay for it. Had I known I was going to be winning an X-Box, I might have bought less presents for them. But they were very surprised and pleased, since I would normally never buy such a thing. We finally got it set up today and are rocking out. And just so you know, Tina, I suck. But then, we all suck, so I’m in good company. I’m sure after the kids spend hours playing it and I still have only played it 5 times, they will totally smoke me, but right now we’re on a pretty even playing level. Except for Cole, who’s played guitar hero a lot more than me, and Megan, who actually plays the drums in the band at school. But since there are 5 kids and only three instruments, John is having a total melt down right now.

Chaos. And Mess.

I don’t know about your house, but our house is pretty much a mess after all the present opening. I wouldn’t say the mess is a highlight, really, just an unavoidable part of the eqasion.


Faster, Stronger, Better than it was before.

Ryan got me a new computer for my Christmas/Birthday present. The old one was the “free” computer he got back when he was fired from Intel many many years ago. It was old, slow, and frequently refused to do what I asked it to do. Now it has like eleventy times the memory and ram and all that computer language. So far, it’s working out nicely. Can you tell just by reading the blog how much faster it uploaded? Good job, new computer! And he secretly transferred all my old crap onto the new computer without me knowing what he was doing. He’s pretty sneaky that way. Ryan and I also both got new phones. Yes, you heard right. Ryan now has entered the 21st century and has a cell phone. Or, as he calls it, a leash. So I can call him. And you can call him, too, if you want! Everyone can call him! Hooray for phones. And yes, that does leave one extra phone for the kids to share. We haven’t worked out the details of that, but they haven’t seemed to care, yet.

Giving a Great Gift
We decided to give my sister and her family a gift that they really really needed this year. A van. Our van. They have three kids and can barely squish into their truck, plus my sister was left without a car most of the time when her husband went to work. We had been talking about it for a while and trying to figure out if we can survive with just the suburban and the little truck, and decided it was time to take the leap. We gave them the present a month early, and they have been enjoying it since. It really makes us happy to give something that is really going to be appreciated and used. And we hope it lasts for a long long time and they get many years and miles of use out of it.

Family Time.

We went up to my parent’s house on Christmas day and had the fun and folly of being with the whole family. Except for my sister’s family. Now that she’s got 10 kids we may never see her again. But even without her, we had something like 22 people there, and it was fun. It was actually the quietest Christmas celebration we’ve had in quite some time. Most of the kids stayed downstairs or watched a movie, and we’d call them up one family at a time to get their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. The picture above is my brother actually blowing out his birthday candle that is there in the birthday pie. Yes, his birthday is on Christmas. A fact that I try to remember when I’m feeling picked on by the unfortunate timing of my birthday.

Food, Goodies, Sweets, Temptations.
I think I’ve eaten my weight in cookies, candies, chex mix and goodies. Seriously, people, don’t bring any more yummy food to our house ever again. Or at least until my birthday.

Singing Silent Night
Ryan and I sang Silent Night for our talent portion of his family party, and it was fun to sing with him. He actually played the guitar (my guitar that I don’t play), and I sang, and it was nice to sing to a guitar. I think this year I really DO need to learn to play the guitar. We also sang Silent Night with our family on Christmas eve before the kids went to bed, and then in the morning before we opened presents, John said, “I want to sing the PEACE song”. So, we sang the peace song together and it was nice. It’s one of my favorite Christmas songs, and if he wants to sing it anytime, I’m game.

Since I hadn’t yet watched Rejoice and be Merry with the King’s Singers (last year’s concert), I made the kids watch it on Christmas eve with me. You would have thought I was torturing them with hot pokers or something, to hear them complain. I mean, come on, people! Who doesn’t love the Twelve days of Christmas? You can see the video from that song here. I think I might just watch it every day just to make them crazy. Right after Rock band.

Christmas letters.
I know I was late in getting my Christmas card and letters out this year, and I may have inadvertently forgotten some, and didn’t have addresses for others. I felt very disorganized in my card sending. But I do enjoy getting those letters from friends. For some, this is the only communication we receive all year, so it’s especially fun to see pictures of their families and read what they’ve been up to. And even if I have to hear all about their perfect kids, I still enjoy the cards. (I know that their kids can’t be perfect ALL the time, right?) My sister and brother-in-law actually send out the funniest letter, and I really look forward to reading about their mishaps and adventures.

That warm Christmas feeling.
I love everything about Christmas. And I love the feelings of love and peace that we have each December as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I almost didn’t want Christmas to come because I don’t want Christmas to be over. But, yes, it’s come, and now it’s over. It’s up to us to keep those feelings in our hearts even when we don’t have people telling us Merry Christmas, and we aren’t hearing beautiful Christmas music on the radio. It’s up to each of us to keep Christ in our hearts.

Warm and fuzzy

December 4, 2008 / / 2 Comments

I am almost through my mountain of refl***##**s papers, after calling all the parents who didn’t bother to include the d*** media release form. If I don’t have their form tomorrow when I turn the stack in to the council person, then….oh well. I guess that entry won’t move on. Nothing more I can do, right?

I’m trying to be more Zen like in my attitude. This morning I went to my favorite yoga teacher. Ryan took the day off because he has to take like one day a week off for the rest of the year. Tough, I know. This is what happens when you don’t take a vacation. Because whenever he plans to take the day off, it seems, he’s got a meeting or a conference call or something important that day and can’t take that day off. So, really, he was going to take Friday off, but there’s a conflict, so he took today off. Why am I telling you all this? Because that’s why I was able to go to yoga today. Because Ryan was home to keep an eye on the little boy, and I was free to go to yoga. This yoga teacher is AMAZING! I do things I never thought I could do, and then I watch other people do things I know I NEVER can do, but I don’t feel bad that I can’t do it. “Let it be ok!” She says. She also said, “The only way to take in a new breath is to let out the old one. How can you expect to take in new things if you can’t let go of the old.” Think about that one. And “The only way to be in the moment is to actually BE in the moment. You can’t think about being in the moment or want to be in the moment. Just BE.” Anyway, it was great, and my muscles were shaking when I left. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but in a good way.

I wanted to also let you know about a little friend of mine.

Parker is a little guy with a big smile. He also has big medical bills, and a family who has no possible way to pay all those bills. Insurance only covers so much, and there are a lot of things that it doesn’t cover at all. Well, some really nice people have set up a raffle for a beautiful quilt.
For a donation of $5, you will get a raffle ticket and a chance to win this amazing Christmas quilt. And even if you don’t win the quilt, there are some other fun prizes, as well. And even if you don’t win anything, you can still have a warm fuzzy feeling that you are helping out a family who could really use a little help. Well, they could use a Christmas miracle, but I don’t know if that’s something we can deliver. But we can help out in small ways.

If you would like to read more about Parker or make a donation, click here. Because we could all use some more warm and fuzzy in our lives, especially at Christmas.

Thankful–a list

November 26, 2008 / / 3 Comments

I am so thankful for my many many blessings. I would be remiss if I didn’t list some of them here.

~I’m thankful for my husband. Ryan is in many ways a better person than I am, and he’s a great husband and wonderful father. He’s handy, he’s smart, and he’s funny. He supports me, he encourages me, and he is my partner in all things. And I love him.

~Cole, who is our lawnmower in the summer, our babysitter when we go out, and our resident “know-it-all” teenager. He tries hard to be a good person, and he thinks about things a lot. He’s also a lot of fun.

~Megan, who is either spunky and full of energy and helps out around the house, or the worst grump you’ve ever encountered. We never know which one it’s going to be. But she’s growing up and entering that “fun” teenage time, and becoming more responsible. She’s making my practice my patience.

~Natalie, who even when she was little was always singing or talking. She’s fun to be around, unless she’s forced to clean her room. Then it’s best to just close the door. She likes to bake and wants to help me with our pies for Thanksgiving dinner.

~Jenna, who likes to be helpful, and likes to be nice. She leaves little notes and pictures for all of us around the house to cheer us up. She takes gifts to her teachers just because.

~John, who at 5 is finally a “big boy” and we are proud of him. He is an easy going child who loves to play pretend by himself. I lay on the couch watching him the other day and asked if I could play with him, but he said No, that it was only a game for boys and cars, and not for moms. Ok. I’m ok with that.

~My wonderful group of friends. I really have been blessed with the best friends in the world. I have this group of friends that I’ve known since my early years. We’ve been together to support and help each other for more than 30 years. We’ve celebrated together, we’ve laughed together, gossiped together, and we’ve mourned together. I don’t know why I’ve been so lucky to have them as friends, and why they have loved and stuck with me for all these years, but they have, and I’m so blessed.

~In addition to these long time friends, I have met and grown to love new friends through the years. I am so thankful to live in the neighborhood where I do. I have wonderful friends who are here for me, and help out. I made a comment to one of my friends (as we were arranging carpools and picking up each other’s kids from piano) that together, we make a great mom. I know I can call them in a pinch to help me out, to pick up a child, or loan me an egg or an onion. And they are so much fun! I really do love to hang out with them. It really does take a village to raise children, or at least a neighborhood.

~And my bell choir friends, I can’t forget them. Who would have thought four years ago that I would have a new group of people that I would grow to love so much. During the slow times, we meet once a week, and even though we are rehearsing, and sometimes it is hot and exhausting and frustrating, we love it. It’s so wonderful to get together with people you love, and learn and play beautiful music. We have been set apart as musical missionaries, and that really is our goal–to share the gospel and our love for our Savior through our music. So, even though we are having so much fun, we really try when we perform to “show our testimonies on our faces” and share our love with the people who attend. During the busy times, we are often together every night of the week, and I see these people more than I do my own family. And I love them. And I am so thankful for this calling that is such a blessing in my life.

~I’m thankful for Ryan’s job. He’s been the provider and protector of our family, and allowed me to stay home and raise the children. My job is to save money where I can, and to provide the most comfortable home for the family. I get to be the decorator, the homework monitor, the cook, the cleaning lady, and the mommy. I get to go on field trips and drive carpools. And even though I get tired of those things, I’m so glad I don’t have the added stress of having to “bring home the bacon” AND fry it up in the pan. I’m also the “entertainment budget”. I often drag my family to fun and interesting things because I won passes, and while it’s always unexpected, it is usually fun. I’m so thankful that we’re able to afford our house, take care of our bills and obligations, and that we have enough left over that we can give to others.

I could go on and on here, counting my blessings, but then I wouldn’t get anything done today. And I have a maple pecan pumpkin cheesecake to make, and have to decide on some kind of green bean dish. Maybe this one.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday, and that you don’t forget to take the time to count your blessings, too.

Dancing with those stars

September 26, 2008 / / 5 Comments

Are you a Dancing with the stars fan? I must say I’ve become a fan. It’s just so much fun to watch people improve and learn new dances! And the dancers are amazing, aren’t they? I wish I could be on that show. Only then it couldn’t be called Dancing with the stars, it would be more like “Dancing with the Average People” or “Dancing with the out of shape soccer moms”. I know, it could be a HUGE hit, right? We get all these average out of shape people and try to teach them to dance! We’d have the PTA president, the Releif Society President, and the car-pool organizer dancing it off and competing for your votes. I think I’ll pitch my idea to the people at Fox. Of course, the funniest part of the show would be trying to fit their overweight pudgy bodies into those sexy little costumes. On second thought, maybe I wouldn’t want to be on that show.

But I can always live vicariously through the television and IMAGINE that I’m on the show, right?

Well, we actually have a famous family member who was ON the results show on Wednesday night. Yes! Italo Elgueta, who is my nephew (ok, technically, he’s my husband’s sister’s husband’s son, so I guess he’s technically our “step-nephew” if you want to get picky on the specifics, but we claim him as family) is a professional dancer! He’s been in such movie blockbusters as High School Musical 2 and the upcoming High School Musical 3! He KNOWS Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. He “hung out” with all the cool kids from East High. And we are all very excited about the opening of the movie on October 24th.But did he get me some autographs like I asked? Not yet. ahem.

So back to Dancing with the Stars. On Wednesday’s show, Jesse McCartney sang, and Italo and Ashley Danced! I could explain the whole thing, or I could just let you see for yourself.

I know that the girls get to do all the flashy moves in these ballroom things, but he’s got some moves of his own, wouldn’t you say? Go ahead. Watch it again. How fabulous is that? Ryan’s sister Julene and her husband Italo flew down to LA to watch their son dance on National TV! She said it was so much fun, and they were in the “screaming fan” section, so we didn’t catch a glimpse of them on tv, but they sure did cheer!

So there you have it, folks. My teeny tiny six degrees of separation fame for the day.

Way to go Italo! You dance like a star!

Adventures in shopping

June 1, 2008 / / 3 Comments

I spent the entire day yesterday away from my family. The whole day.
I started out with a play rehearsal at 8:30.

I left there at noon, and met my sister so we could go to South Towne Mall so that one of us could hopefully win a new car. Unfortunately, this was not the car for either of us, and we didn’t win. I hope the lady who won really enjoys her new pink Ford Fusion. I would have loved driving around in a pink car. At least the contest was quick and didn’t drag on for hours like these things sometimes do.

After the car thing, my sister met up with a friend, so I was left alone. At the mall. I had to decide if I should go home, only to be there for two hours and then get in the car again to drive to Salt Lake to meet my dear friends for dinner, or just use the time to get some shopping done. I called home to make sure everything was moving along fine without me, and chose to stay and shop. Before you think I was just out shopping for the fun of it, it was shopping with a mission. You see, for this play I’m in, I am supposed to wear all yellow. Yellow, people. With my white skin and blonde hair, yellow is not a color that I wear. Ever. I do not own a single yellow thing. So, to tell me to find a yellow skirt and blouse and shoes is like….I don’t know. Mission impossible? I started at JC Penney, since they had big signs advertising a huge sale. And a sale it was. I found many cute items on sale. Many of them were even yellow. I ended up picking up a yellow and brown swirly print sweater thing that reminds me of something a “Who in Whoville” might wear. And I also bought a really cute shirt that is NOT yellow, but it was indeed on sale. But then to find a skirt to go with it? Not so easy. I went in EVERY store in the mall that I thought might remotely have my size (that means I didn’t go into the 5-7-9 store or the men’s clothing store). I was just zooming in on yellow, which is easy to spot, so that’s a good thing.

After an hour and a half of this, my energy was waning, and I realized I’d had an apple and a granola bar to eat all day, and was therefore getting very hungry. But I was meeting my friends later for dinner at the CHEESECAKE FACTORY, and didn’t want to eat something before that, so when I came to the “free samples” at the energy drink kiosk, I was game for a sample. She gave me a whole water bottle and mixed in the little packet. Of course I had to listen to her talk about the product and act like I might be interested in purchasing some of the product, but then said I’d think about it and walked away, thankful to have something to drink at least, and avoiding the food court.

Finally, at the end of the mall in a store called “urban” something, I spotted them: yellow skirts! And not just one ugly yellow skirt, three or four different patterned yellow skirts! Hooray! I walked into the store, picked up one of each of the skirts in an XL, glancing at the price ($19.99, which seems reasonable for a skirt) and went to try them on. Unfortunately for me, their XL is not quite extra large enough for me. This was, after all, a trendy junior’s store, and XL was probably meant for a 14-16 year old, not a 40 year old with 5 kids. I managed to get the skirt ON–kind of. But I had to hike it up so high that it was hitting me at above the knee, and would NOT look good. I wonder how much weight I can lose by July 11th? I think. Never a good thing to have to say to yourself when you are trying something on. I “tried on” (and I’m using that term a bit too liberally) each of the five yellow skirts I had found, but unfortunately, they were all the same brand, and therefore pretty much all the same size and cut. Darn. But while I was in there, I changed our of my pink shirt and into the cute new silvery shirt I had bought. The pink shirt was seriously stinky because I had been sweating at rehearsal. I felt much fresher and better able to face the shopping nightmare in a cute shirt.

With only one or two more stores that I hadn’t tried, I walked into the Mervyns. It looked like they were having a “big sale”, too. But really, when aren’t stores having sales? There’s always some sale going on. As I trudged around, I realized I should be ENJOYING my alone shopping time! After all, I didn’t have any kids trailing after me asking me for stuff! How long had it been since I shopped by myself? At a mall, no less! Years. Too bad I was on a yellow quest and couldn’t just look at anything. I picked up anything that looked remotely promising, and ended up with a couple of skirts (not yellow), and a couple of shirts (one yellow, and one on sale). At least I knew that Mervyn’s carried my size. I found a great linen/rayon skirt ON SALE for $15! No, it wasn’t yellow, but it was white, with black flowers embroidered on the bottom–which could be dyed, right? I considered buying two of them. One to keep white and one to dye yellow. But I decided on just the one. I think I might get in a couple of wearings before I try to dye it, just in case the dye job goes badly and I completely ruin the skirt. (By the way, the Mervyn’s web site is completely un-navigateable. I was trying to find a picture of the skirt and post it here, but no such luck. Same for the sweater from JC Penney, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.)

Finally satisfied that I had found something to work with, I trudged out of the store. On the way out I saw that there was a nail place right by the exit. Dang. I could have gotten a pedicure. Oh well. I was out of time. Off to meet my friends for dinner–Hooray!

It was a fabulous dinner with my oldest group of friends, and it was a wonderful evening of good food and laughter. Aside from the fact that Lisa’s dinner arrived and wasn’t at all what she ordered and she had to wait and wait for them to prepare the right thing, it was all good. I brought home half of my dinner and half of my cheesecake to share with Ryan.

Ryan, by the way, was no slacker at home. He and Cole found the leak in the sprinklers, which involved no small amount of digging and at least one trip to the plumbing supply store. They also spread the truckload of mulch around on the flower beds, and burried another length of sprinkler pipe that has been out and sitting on the grass for some time. Megan got her packing for girls camp done, and Natalie went to softball practice. Go, Ryan! He did forget about John and his lack of potty enthusiam, however. When I got John changed into his pajamas, he had a very full pull-up, and I don’t think he had used the potty all day. Gross, I know.

But they did manage without me for the whole day (well, 12 hours of it) and that’s encouraging.

Tracy Aviary Field Trip

May 27, 2008 / / 2 Comments

peacock
Hi, this is Natalie speaking, and on the something of May, Me and my mom went to the Tracy Aviary. We saw some very pretty birds, such as the peacock, toucan, parrot, parakeet, pelican, and lots more. We took like a thousand pictures! One of the most exciting things is that all the people in our group had a peacock walk like, two feet away from us! The aviary also has a bird show, but it wasn’t open when we were around that part.(The aviary is huge, trust me.) Anyway, in case you didn’t know, we were there for a third-grade field trip. After we were finished at the aviary, we played in the park and took a few pictures there too! Then we had lunch with all the other classes and then took the long, long, bus ride back to the elementary school.

(I think Natalie did a find job with her guest post. Maybe I’ll let the other kids have a turn sometime, too.)

5K? No way!

May 18, 2008 / / 10 Comments

I need about a week to recover from Saturday. I was so tired last night I didn’t even have the energy or will to blog!

Saturday I got up at about 6:00 to get ready for the Running with Angels Race. I met my friends at 7 and picked up our “group shirts”. DaNae had put the “Highland Road Runners” on some blue shirts from her husband’s company, so not only were we doing a little advertising for him, we all matched and looked cute. Well, not really cute. I mean how cute can you actually look when you are running? Not very. To avoid any hair in the face, I had my hair in pig tails and bobby pinned to the max. Because I hate it when I’m all sweaty and hair gets in my face, don’t you?

race

So, we drove down to Thanksgiving point and got our stuff. It was a beautiful day. We even got those little electronic shoe chips to tell your time. I kind of felt like prisoner on house arrest. If you step outside the marked path, this thing will zap you and send out enough wattage to curl your hair–forever. OK, not really, but that’s what I was thinking. I was surprised at how many people I knew at the race. And I was a little embarrassed. I mean, I’m not the kind of person you would expect to see at one of these things, and besides, we already discussed how great I looked. As we made our way over to the starting line and waited, I just kept thinking, ‘What in the world am I doing here with all these runners? Why am I even here? Whose idea was this?’ and of course I thought, ‘Now should I go to the bathroom before we start, or can I make it for a whole hour?’ One look at the line for the bathroom convinced me that no, I don’t need to go.

Then, all of a sudden, we were off. I was carried in a sea of runners–well, I wish I had been carried, that would have been more fun–I was running with some runners! I was actually running. I don’t know how far it was that I jogged before I started walking, but soon I was walking, having all kinds of people passing me. I should have just started at the back. I would walk for a while, then jog for a bit, then walk for a while… You get the picture. I really should get a digital watch so I can keep regular about the whole walking/jogging thing, but I just kind of jogged when I felt like I could, and walked the rest of the time. Several times I saw my friends running the other way, and I would wave. That must have made them feel good–“Oh, look how far ahead of Paige I am, Hooray!”

We started at the Children’s Garden at Thanksgiving Point, and then went through the gardens. Since it’s been so cold this spring, the tulips that would normally be spent were at their full blooming glory. It was a beautiful sight. Too bad I couldn’t really appreciate it because I was huffing and puffing along. I soon found my pace and found a few target people to try and stay close to. Id’ like to thank that one girl with the long brown ponytail wearing black shorts and a race t-shirt. I stayed as close to her as I could. Sometimes I was ahead of her, sometimes she was ahead of me. We really should have paired up and done the race together, because I was probably annoying her, always trying to pass when she was walking. There was also a little girl in a pink shirt who made me laugh. She was maybe 7 or 8, and cute as can be. I don’t know where her parents or group were, because it seemed like she was alone. When I came up and passed her, she looked at me, and I smiled at her. Then she picked up her speed and ran to pass me. Then I would slowly come up on her and pass her again, but she would run to pass me. She was probably thinking, “There is no WAY I’m letting that old fat lady beat me on this race!” I don’t remember if I beat her, or if she beat me.

I finally came to the finish, and my time was 45 minutes and 38 seconds. That’s faster than I normally go on the treadmill, so that’s a personal best time for me.

When I looked up my results, I can see that I came in #33 in my age group, (only 12 forty year old women behind my friend Lisa) and 529th out of 754. That means that 225 people were behind me. That makes me feel better. I can also look up my friend’s scores and see that….Wow, they rocked! This categorization system leaves out a little information. Maybe they should rank you by your age, weight, and fitness level. Then I could know, that in the category of out of shape, overweight 40 year old women, I came in..eleventh, or something like that. Or, Look at this, Walter, there were only 5 people older and fatter than me who came in before me! Right.

When the torture was finally over, I grabbed a water bottle and chugged that thing down. I also ate an orange slice or two and those were some REALLY sweet oranges. Hardly worth three miles, but still, yummy. Even though I did not enjoy the race, there is a certain sense of accomplishment in having finished. I am proud of myself, and I’m glad I did it. Do I want to do it again real soon? Oh, hell no.

I get by with a little help from my friends

April 10, 2008 / / 5 Comments

A friend called me today in a panic and asked, “Are you going anywhere in the next hour?” She sounded a little panicked, and I was able to tell her that, no, I didn’t have anywhere pressing to go in the next hour. She was really embarrassed, but explained how she had lost her keys and was supposed to be at the school right now, and…
“Do you need a car?” I asked her.
“Do you mind?” she asked.
“Go ahead,” I told her. Lending her my car would be no problem, really. She sounded relieved and said she’d be right over. When I looked at the state of my kitchen, I thought, ‘I should really clean up a bit–she’s coming right over!’ and started to clean off the breakfast mess from my counter, but then I thought, ‘she’s the one who can’t find her keys, do you think she’s going to judge you because you haven’t cleaned your kitchen yet?’ Good point.

A minute later, she called back. Keys found. Relief. But I would have loaned her my car, and I really would have been happy to do it. Because she’s my friend and she would do the same thing for me anytime, I’m sure.

When you think about it, doesn’t doing something nice for someone else make you happy? It could be a little thing, like holding open the door for someone who has their arms full, or a big thing like donating a kidney (OK, I admit, I’ve never actually donated a kidney, so that’s probably a little bit extreme, but you know what I mean), but hearing someone say “Thank you”, and then saying “You’re welcome” really is a joy. You’re Welcome. It literally means You Are Welcome. You are welcome to share what I have, and I welcome you. What a beautiful phrase. I think we should all use it more often.

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