Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

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Meeting an Icon

August 5, 2007 / / 10 Comments

Saturday was the Highland Fling, which is our big city celebration. We went to the breakfast, events in the park, watched the parade, the kids entered the art show, and we attended the big concert and fireworks in the park. It’s our favorite fireworks show, and such a fun time here in Highland.

At the pancake breakfast, we sat at an empty space at one of the tables; next to two little Asian women. One of them reached out her hand to Ryan and said, “I’m new in town. My name’s Mary Kawakami.” Ryan’s jaw must have dropped, I’m sure.

Flashback 15 or so years to when we were engaged or newly married, and there was a beauty school in Provo right on Center Street. It was called the Mary Kawakami College of Beauty. I had a friend, Lisa, who went to school there. She was in my carpool for the Mormon Youth Choir. So sometimes we would even pick her up there. I think I even went there to have my hair cut once. But Ryan always laughed at the name. He would say it jokingly, “Mary Kawakami College of Beauty? Do you go to the Mary kawakami College of Beauty?” Just because it was such a long and unusual name.

So, yesterday, when he actually MET Mary Kawakami–THE Mary Kawakami, it was quite an event. When I sat down after saying hello to a friend, he introduced me. “Paige, this is Mary Kawakami.” “Of the school of beuty?” I asked. “The only one. She had to close the school,” he told me, as if he was in the know, now that he and Mary were good friends. It was nice to meet her and talk a bit, and tell her about the fun things going on that day. After she left, we joked about it and I teased him that he was no longer able to make fun of that school name, and really, what are the odds of meeting her at the Highland Fling breakfast.

Have I totally bored you, yet? Because there’s more. The concert main event was Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. Cole is arguably their biggest fan. The only two CDs he has are of Ryan Shupe, and that’s the music that is filling his MP3 player. He even emails them jokes from time to time. He’s a bit of a stalker. We were worried that he wouldn’t be back from his scout camp-out in time to go to the concert, but he was home in time. He loved it and was singing along to all the songs (well, we all were). When they did “Oh how I miss you” and asked for people who really knew the “Ba-ba-ba” part to come up on the stage and sing, Cole was all over it. He went up and stood right next to Craig Minor (the banjo player) on the stage!

After the concert, we bought another CD and he stood in line to get it autographed, and he got to meet the band and get all of their autographs. What a thrill!

I have my own chance to meet my favorite…Donny Osmond. I’m trying to win “Donny’s biggest fan” for concert tickets and the opportunity to meet Donny himself. I won’t go on about my love for Donny, but I will ask you to help me. If you wouldn’t mind going to this website, and clicking on the “vote” section. I am contestant number 4 (you can see my picture on the other side, if you want. I think each vote has to come from a separate email address, so I can’t just vote over and over for myself. So, if you could tell your friends, your husbands, your kids, your dogs, your bloggy buddies, anyone with an email address, to vote for me, I would REALLY appreciate it. I’ve dreamed of meeting Donny for a long time, (ever since I cut my head open on the fireplace hearth running downstairs to see the Donny and Marie show) and this would be the greatest!  (I mean, if Ryan can meet Mary Kawakami and Cole can meet Ryan Shupe, I really should have a chance to meet Donny, don’t you think?)

Help! Let me out!

August 3, 2007 / / 6 Comments

Two days ago I go the wild stupid idea in my head to clean my office.  My office/sewing room/kids’ computer/craft room/ cesspool of a room where we put everything we don’t know what to do with.  I’ve gotten rid of my old office chair, some crummy shelves, and bags and bags of stuff.  But I’m still here, and I’m still not done.  Where are the clean sweep people when I need them?  I’m tired of doing this room, I’m discouraged, and I’ve made the rest of the house a mess by taking things out of my office and leaving them somewhere else.  Help!  Let me out!

Another use for a flyswatter

August 2, 2007 / / 5 Comments

A couple of weeks ago we had our dishwasher repaired. You remember that day, don’t you? (Shudder at the thought.) Well, when the repair guy was here, he took off the front panel of the dishwasher, and OH THE HORROR! You should have seen the crap that was there under the dishwasher. I wouldn’t let him put the panel back on until I at least attempted to clean it, so I got out the vacuum and did the best I could to at least clean up all the loose crumbs and things. The repairman kind of laughed at my silliness and said he’d seen much worse. EWW.

Well, that got me thinking about what kind of crap must be under my fridge. I know they sell those dryer lint long brushy things that you can also use to clean out under your fridge (why yes, I do occasionally watch infomercials on tv. Why do you ask?), but I don’t currently have one of those. So, I used my brain and came up with the next best thing. The flyswatter! If you take the flyswatter and reach it under the fridge, you can bring out weeks and weeks worth of crud that somehow makes it’s way under there. I was amazed at all the stuff I got out with only that little old flyswatter! Then you can vacuum or sweep it away. How handy is that?

And on another note, Robin has a very insightful and thoughtful post up (shock, I know!) that you should really go and read.

Here’s where you all tell me just get over it and bite my tongue

August 1, 2007 / / 9 Comments

I’ve got something brewing around in my head, and I think if I just post about it here and do my grumblings, I can let it go and get over it. I hope. So, if you aren’t interested in my petty griping, just click away.

We have some relatively new neighbors. I loved the previous neighbors and we’re having a hard time getting to know the new neighbors. I thought it would a great thing to have them there, because they have a couple of girls at just the right ages. They could be best friends with our girls and we would all be happy. But so far, the girls aren’t really friends. Not because they aren’t nice. They don’t throw things at us when we try to talk to them or go over offering muffins or cookies or anything like that; they are just extremely busy. And they don’t seem all that interested in being our friends. Which shouldn’t bother me, should it? I mean, I’m an adult. Not everyone has to like me, do they?

YES! They do, in fact. I’m a good person. We’re a nice family. Why wouldn’t they like us? I think I still have that middle school complex going on somewhere in my head where I just want people to like me.

Well, they’ve recently been doing a LOT of work on their house and yard. And I mean a LOT! They are relandscaping the entire yard, putting in a fabulous new playset, moving the inground trampoline from one side of the yard to the other, building a monster deck, pouring concrete pads, putting in a fence…..yada yada yada. Which means that there are trucks out there. All day every day. Lots and lots of trucks, with large equipment, lots of dirt and lots of noise. Trucks that for some reason don’t confine themselves to parking in front of their house, but they have to park in front of my house, too. In front of my driveway, in front of my mailbox. Which I can kind of understand. I guess they have to park somewhere. Over there would be nice, but I do not own the street, so I can deal with a little blockage of my driveway every once in a while. But when they started driving their large bobcat-like things with huge drills attached to them across my grass, I started to lose my patience. Why are they parking that big honkin thing on my grass? Can’t they drive across their own dirt to drill those large poles for their fence? Their fence that will in essence exclude us from enjoying the beauty that is their new yard? Must they gouge up my lawn?

I have been tempted to adjust my sprinklers so they just happen to go off on them while they are working, and leave them on for a very long time. Maybe turn them on while I drive off. Waving goodbye.

But I don’t like feeling bitter towards my neighbors. I don’t want to be that irritated next door neighbor who only finds fault. I really do want to be their friends (and not just so they’ll like me). So I’m admitting my petty irritations here in blogland, so that you can all understand how shallow and irritable I am, and tell me to get over it and move on.

Take a deep breath and let it go.

Then maybe I should go make some brownies and take them over there and share them with all their workmen.

All right, I’m not quite there yet, but I’ll try.

Thanks for listening.

Alone again, Naturally

July 30, 2007 / / 7 Comments

Whew! We’ve had such a fun time with our guests here to constantly keep us busy. With friends and family visiting, you try to do as much fun stuff as you possibly can. Since they drove all this way (from Arizona) to visit, and this is their vacation, we don’t want them to be bored, so we do as much as we can to keep them (and us) going. Some of the things we’ve done in the last 3 weeks include: camping, the dino museum and the children’s garden at Thanksgiving point, a couple of family parties, a neighborhood party, swimming, waterslides, Boondocks, lots of perler beads and lots of legos, eating out, eating in, and lots more fun stuff. Robin and I even went to the mall and had a mini makeover! That’s Julene’s step son Elias working on my face (oh, and that’s my new haircut, by the way)

I’m a little exhausted.

(Here’s the kids at Harry Potter day at the library. Can you guess who Cole’s dressed up as?)

But now, everyone is gone, and we have a mere 3 weeks until school starts. And I think I’m done entertaining my kids. They can sit around and read, play with friends, and generally be bored if they chose to! They need that lazy summer time of just laying around the house with NOTHING to do for just a little while before the rush of back to school. And I need to get my house cleaned up again. So, if you need us, we’ll be here. (Well, not exactly all the time–we do have the Highland Fling this week, and Cole’s going camping, and John and Jenna are starting up a little craft class. So, maybe it won’t be quite so boring, but at least I won’t be trying so hard.)

Strange Dream

July 28, 2007 / / 3 Comments

I’ve been having really disturbing dreams lately. The kind where I wake up with my jaw clenched and my eyes squoze shut and my hands in fists. Not really restful, I tell you.

Most of you know I play handbells in a bell choir. In my dream we were at a sort of “hand bell retreat” or something up in the mountains. There were cabins, and a bunch of bell choirs came together to learn, practice, and perform together and for each other. But it wasn’t the choir I’m with now, it was more of a high school level choir. And we weren’t the cool choir up there. There was another choir who was more of a “show choir” only with handbells. They did skits, musical numbers, singing, handbell ringing, and had flashy costumes. Everybody thought they were the coolest and wanted to be like them.

There was a fire threatening the canyon where we were, but not having radios and phones left us kind of out of the loop. People kept talking about an evacuation, but then it didn’t really happen. There were some tractors up there, and they were doing some work (on what I don’t know), and broke into a water pipe that threatened much of the large meeting cabin area, but we got out the food and things that seemed to be at risk, and then went back to our group’s area.

Eventually, it was time to get out, and get out fast. I had my car up there, only it wasn’t my high school car or my current car, it was my Mazda GLC from college. (Too bad I hadn’t driven my suburban that I currently own, as I could have fit a lot more into it.) We were gathering up as many bells as we could. I even took them out of their cases and put them in bags to try to save as many as I could. I figured they would be better scratched or damaged then totally melted, right? Teresa and Courtney, two members of my current bell choir, were pushing a huge wheeled case up a hill, trying to save as many bells as possible. I’m not sure where they were going to put all those bells or if they just planned on pushing the case all the way home, but they were determined to save as much as they could. I remember thinking “Where is Alex (our very capable stage manager) when we need him,” come to think of it, where was Mr. W? Where were any ‘adult’ authority figures? Well, remember, friends, it was, after all, a dream. My friend Liz and I (both a high school friend and a friend in my current bell choir, so it stands to reason she would be in my dream) loaded up as much as we could get in my car, and drove as quickly as we could to safety.

That’s when I woke up.

There are so many reasons why this is illogical (bells in the mountains? Why?) and irrational, and I can piece together where certain fears are coming from if I wanted to analyze it, but I guess I just wanted to get it all down so I won’t forget it. And to let you in on just how psychotic I really am.

What the heck is going on around here?

July 27, 2007 / / 2 Comments

This morning, John lovingly carried the jar of peanut butter to the counter, and gave it a kiss. Yes, the boy loves his pb.

I had to bribe Megan with candy to do her piano practicing, and even that wasn’t fun. That girl just doesn’t enjoy practicing. Too bad for you, kiddo, since you are not allowed to quit piano until you are 16! (evil laugh ha ha ha)

Robin took off with her kids to go see some sights in Salt Lake. Her son Jacob whined and complained that she was dragging him away. Away from what? I ask you? Jobs and piano practicing? Nothing exciting going on here, I tell you, but still, he’d rather be here. Thanks for the complement!

I haven’t seen Cole since I told him to stop reading that Harry Potter book and get dressed. I suspect he took the Harry Potter book with him to go and get dressed, and he’s still reading it. Probably still not dressed. Today is Harry Potter’s birthday party at our library. We go every year, and it’s usually a fun event, but with WAY too many kids there. This year you had to sign up for a time slot, so maybe it won’t be so absolutely crowded. Maybe.

And me? I just wasted too much time watching phone guy.

And the winners are….

July 27, 2007 / / 7 Comments

Thanks to all of you for playing along with the little contest. My kids had fun drawing out the winners. They wondered what the contest was and could they win. No, kids–bloggers only! In fact they would have picked them all out of the bowl, if it were up to them. The winners they picked are:

Shannon at Gabi’s world (pink beanie baby)
Loni at My little blogging home (Book)
Jen at Prayer Warriors (purple beanie baby)
Jen at Joyful Notes (Millie CD)

I will be visiting those blogs to let you know you’ve won, and if you could please email me your mailing address, I’ll get those off in the mail. The only requirement is that you become faithful readers of my blog from this moment on! (Just joking about that last part)

A few things

July 26, 2007 / / 5 Comments

Just a few things for you today.

First, I had no idea we would get so many comments to enter the little contest.  If you came by just to sign up, I hope you’ll stop by again and see what we’re up to.  I will have to cut off comments at 8 am Friday morning, and then we’ll randomly draw for winners.

Second, I can’t wait until John is 4.  I’m hoping this 3 year old attitude problem will go away when he’s 4.  Today we had a screaming kicking fit that ended in him screaming “Go Away!” over and over and over again from his bed while I sat and calmly started reading the 7th Harry Potter book that was sitting on the floor until he gave up the fight to be grumpy and fell asleep for a MUCH needed nap.  And I’m not even sure what the whole fit was about.

Thirdly, I got my hair cut yesterday, and if I do say so myself, it looks so cute!  But then my beloved hairstylist, who has cut my hair for about 12 years now (off and on) told me that she’s getting out of the hair styling business.  Her husband is no longer a struggling teacher or a starving student, he’s a lawyer, and she doesn’t need to have a job anymore.  She’d rather spend more time with her kids.  I’m going to try to convince her that I only come 4 times a year, and if needed I’ll cut it back to twice a year if she’ll just please continue to do my highlights.  But if that doesn’t work, I’ll have to go out and find someone I trust to cut my hair.  Humph.

And lastly, Robin took her kids and two of my kids camping last night, and they had such fun.  They got to sleep in her newest Vanagan, and how much fun is that?  Cool!  Maybe the little kids can sleep out there tonight.

Summer’s screaming by, and there’s less than a month until the kids go back to school.  I hope I can think of enough fun things to do to fill that time, and that we all enjoy the last month of summer together.  (There’s also less than 5 months until Christmas, too!)

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