Month: October 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

“The world is in need of your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save. The blessings of eternity await you. ”
—President Thomas S. Monson

Let’s all try to help someone today.

The kids like to help cook around here sometimes. But more than helping, the fun is all about the aprons. And the hats. If you can find these little food service hats, any job is more fun. Like making a pb&j sandwich!

John and his little friend Lelea also like to play with the pretend food.

And for some reason, nobody can resist the stirring job. It doesn’t matter what it is, but they love to stir. This one is having a great time with the Crystal Light.

Let me start by saying I have nothing against Tupperware. I’ve gone to parties, heck, I’ve even hosted a party or two in my time. But I’ve got a lady in my neighborhood who just came to the door to see if I was going to attend her Tupperware party on Thursday (no, I have a previous engagement), and would I like to order anything? I recieved the invite last week, but since I knew I couldn’t go, I kind of forgot to RSVP or even think about it again. She gave me a catalog (which she wants returned to her today, if I can) and asked to let her know what I would like to order.

Don’t you think that is a little bit pushy? So, I looked through the catalog, and I honestly don’t see anything in there that is worth the money to me. Although I would like to be supportive in her party, I don’t want to order things I don’t want or need (for more than I want to pay). Should I just return the catalog and say there’s nothing in there that I need? Should I pass it along to a neighbor and maybe they will find something they need? Should I order something just to be nice? Should I lose the catalog in my piles of stuff and forget to give it back to her? What would you do?

Last weekend was UEA. For those of you not living in Utah, that’s the Utah Education Association “holiday” where the kids get Thursday-Monday off of school. And roughly half of the population of Utah goes south to the Happiest place on earth. We, ourselves have done Disney over UEA before, but hopefully we won’t be that stupid in the future. So, we enjoyed our vacation here at home. And we had a good time.

We:
–Went to the Zoo, which by looking at the parking lot, you would think that everyone who didn’t go to Disneyland went to the zoo, but once you are inside it wasn’t that crowded.
–Went to a movie. Barnyard. Take my advice and don’t waste your time or money on it, unless you are 5 years old.
–Went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to fix Grandpa’s computer.
–Cole went up to his friend’s cabin for the weekend.
–The kids played with cousins while Mom and Dad went out to dinner with some neighborhood friends.
–Went to church (nothing new there, but I just thought I’d include it on our list. It was 3 hours of exhausting work for me, however. Ryan didn’t go because of an allergy attack, so it was me and 4 kids (no Cole) squished in not enough bench space with John on my lap for the entire sacrament meeting–ugh! Then I go sucked into the nursery because there were only 2 adults and 18 kids.)
–Went to the mall to have the kids’ pictures taken. Don’t ask me why that experience takes four hours, but it does. But they turned out cute. Here’s proof.
–Went to Boondocks, where we drove bumper boats, soaking each other in the process (great for a chilly day, wouldn’t you say?), rode go-carts, played miniature golf, played laser tag (Cole did that one 6 times, I think) and did lots of arcade things. The best part was that I didn’t pay a dime for the 7 of us because I had won some free passes and gift certificates!
–Oh, and we got a new pet. A turtle that Cole thinks he’s calling Rachael. Rachael? For a turtle? I’m trying to convince him that Rachael is not the proper name for a turtle, and I keep calling it other things when I walk by and say hi to it, but it might actually stick.

So, how was your weekend?

You know I love birds, right? I’ve had some type of birds off and on throughout my life, and yes, Tina, there was that unfortunate incident with a parakeet when I was younger, but I honestly believed that he would be cold at night and therefore put him by the heat vent that night. But let’s not drag up old sad stories about unintentional pet torture. In college I had some finches that were repeatedly threatened by Larry and Robin (“let’s make some “finch fries, shall we?”) but they survived and were fun to have around. Now we have cockatiels. We’ve actually had Sundance longer than we’ve had our oldest child, if you can believe that. He’s been through a lot at our house, photographed numerous times, , and even been the subject of a few art projects.
We also have ZuZu, who we’ve had for about 8 years, if my math is correct.

This Summer we got our third bird, a baby we named Popcorn. Since he’s young and energetic, he’s quite a climber.

He discovered that it’s really fun to hop over to the curtains and sit there and look out the window. It’s kind of fun. He sings, looks outside, and is quite pleasant. Well, soon he taught the other birds to come and sit on the curtain. So, the three of them now like to sit on the curtain and look out the window. I don’t mind the birds being on the curtain, what I do mind is the three of them sittin on the curtain (their new favorite place to be) all day and pooping.

The poop gets on the window sill, on the curtain, and mostly on the floor. Ick. One bird pooping on the floor is a little mess, but three of them? It turns into a big mess. More mess than I want to deal with some days. So, I let it get worse until I’m grossed out and can’t stand to look at my floor, and I lock the poor birdies in their cage while I clean the floor, then feel sorry for them and let them out, so they can poop all over my window sill and floor yet again.

What I need around here is some kind of bird potty training. Any ideas?

It’s UEA, the kids are out of school. We aren’t going anywhere on vacation like the other 50% of Utahns, so we’re going to try to enjoy our time here at home. Field trips, play with friend, weed the flowers–you know, stuff like that. My goal for the day is to not yell at the kids AT ALL today. No matter how annoying they are. It’s their vacation (not mine), and I’d like for it to be fun and not a big long weekend of grumpy mom (even though my period just started in full force and I’d like nothing better than for all these loud kids to go and play with friends so I could take my shower in peace). I’ll have to let you know how I do on the no yelling thing. Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

I just found this picture. It’s me, if you can’t tell, and I’m about 14, I think. We took a family trip to California and went to Universal Studios. This was me and my good friend, Frank.

My Freezer looks like it has OCD. Or I do. Or someone just loves to organize their freezer. I should have taken a picture of it before the big clean out, but why would I have a picture like that around–yuck!

We did the freezer clean out and defrost yesterday (Sunday, I know!) because our friend came up to us in church and said, “are you going to be home tomorow around 4 or 4:30?” When we said yes, he said he would be bringing our side of beef over, and just wanted to make sure we’d be home. Well, sure I can be home, but will I have any place to put said side of beef? Not likely. Actually we’re splitting the side of beef with some friends (that makes us “beef brothers” as Ryan puts it), so I won’t have to fit the whole thing in the freezer, but 1/2 a side of beef will still take up a large amount of space, right? So, we had to empty everything out into coolers (two of which I had to borrow from the neighbor), then turn off the freezer and thaw out of the inch of ice that had crept in there. I did the unloading, and Ryan did the thawing, then I loaded back up again. I also threw a bunch of stuff away, brought a lot into the inside fridge and freezer, and generally organized. It’s probably something that should be done once a year, if you are Martha Stewartish. For me, I only do it when it’s an absolute neccessity. It looked like this all nice and organized

And after the meat arrived, it looked like this:
So we are pleased that everything fits. Maybe I can take some of the things I stuffed into the fridge back into the freezer, now. And if you need hamburger, I’m the one to call.

Happy Birthday to Ryan!

If you’d like to send him a birthday note, please email him at: birthdayboy@ericksonfamily.com

I have never…broken a bone in my body.
I have never smoked a cigarette.
I have never had a bloody nose.
I have never been to Oregon.
I have never rollerbladed (what a chicken, I know.)
I have never had surgury (in fact, I’ve only stayed in the hospital for childbirth.)
I have never drank beer (unless you count apple beer.)
I have never had a turtle for a pet, although we may soon get one if my son gets his wish.
I have never been to Alaska.
I have never had wild unprotected sex with anyone other than my husband.
I have never been scuba diving, sky diving or practically any other kind of diving.
I have never worn acrylic nails.
I have never gotten a tatoo.
I have never had tequilla.
I have never sung the national anthem solo at a baseball game.
I have never run out of gas.
I have never pulled out any of my kids’ teeth.
I have never taken a drain apart.
I have never used a chainsaw.
I have never been a circus clown (or circus perfomer of any type).
I have never (and hopefully never will) put contacts into my eyes.
I have never eaten squid.
I have never been to Japan.
I have never met Donny Osmond.
I have never been in the Relief Society Presidency or the Primary Presidency(knock on wood.)

Pretty boring, aren’t I?

I was going to stop there, but then I figured I should throw in some things that I HAVE done, so as not to look like such a boring person who never does anything. So, here are some things I have done that may (or may not–probably not) surprise you:
I have had 5 children.
I have had at least one child in diapers for the past 12 1/2 years.
I have been to the David Letterman show.
I have been to Germany.
I have been on two Disney Cruises.
I have gotten the Norwalk virus.
I have been on National news (see above.)
I have been a clown.
I have gone river rafting.
I have won a $1000 gift card to Toys R Us from a local radio station (I still have $300 on that card.)
I have done dishes today.
I have been to Niagra Falls.
I have been on Music and the Spoken word more than once.
I have sliced my finger on an orange juice can.
I have known some of my friends for over 30 years.
I have sung singing telegrams to all the teachers in my kids’ elementary school.

Yes, it’s quite an exhaustive list. If you know of other things I have or have not done (my memory’s not what it once was, you know), go ahead and add them. And what have you done or not done that’s unique?