Favorite Photo Friday

Cole and Cagney, Summer 2006.
Making good use of space.

Enough already!

*Disclaimer* I know that the subject of politics tends to get people all riled up. I apologize in advance if anyone is offended by this post. I was complaining to Trevor last night and he said, "Hey, why don't you blog about this". I think that is code for "Stop talking to me about this."

I can't wait until November. I'm so so so tired of all of this election talk I could just scream! Haven't we been hearing about it daily for oh about two years now??? Enough already! I am so tired of the candidates bashing each other. I get so confused by it all and bored by the whole thing that my eyes glaze over and I feel like saying, "Wake me up when it is over."

Honestly I know very little about politics, except I know that I hate it. I have no idea at this point who I am going to vote for and frankly at this point (gasp) I.don't.care. I couldn't tell you who feels what way about foreign policy, or the energy crisis, or the huge amount of debt that our nation is in. Which brings me to my next point...

Last night I was at work, working the evening shift. That means helping people with dinner, bed baths and getting "tucked in" for the night. So I was in and out of patient rooms all night long. The Democratic Convention (probably not even the right name for it) was on EVERY channel. So I couldn't help seeing it. And all I could think was....how much MONEY is being spent on this?? And (correct me if I'm wrong) wasn't the whole point of it to officially declare Obama the candidate for the Democratic party? What?? Seriously. Do they really need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on that? On telling us something we already know?? Am I missing something here? The amount of money that is being spent on this election absolutely sickens me.
Our nation has HUGE debt, there are people living in poverty, there are working class families who can barely feed their children...and millions of dollars have been spent on this election. What a waste. And dare I use a strong word like unethical??

Only two more months. Wake me up when it is over.

Stepping off of my soapbox now. Next week I will climb right back on and tell you how I feel about vending machines in schools. Stay tuned.

Thankful Thursday

Is it really Thursday again already?? A couple things I am thankful for this week...

1. A dad with a green thumb
My dad has a beautiful yard. He loves yard work. I hate yard work. But he is always so helpful and willing to answer questions when I have them.

2. Scouts
Jared loves scouts. They took the month of July off and he couldn't wait to start again. I am so grateful for all the work that his leaders put in. I was an assistant leader in scouts not long ago and believe me, I KNOW how much work it is. Thanks Cheryl.


3. Painted toenails
I can't remember if I have already mentioned this on Thankful Thursday but I'm doing it now! I LOVE to have my toenails painted. The rest of me can look and feel tired and frumpy but if I have painted piggies I feel at least a little bit cute. I especially love getting pedicures. I don't do that too often though, usually just paint them myself.

4. Fall
I love fall, it is my favorite season. I keep hearing people say that fall is in the air, or fall is coming. Now I'm not totally ready for it yet...but I'm getting there. I love that we get to experience all of the seasons where we live.

5. The on-call Doctor
Yesterday we were at Pack Meeting for scouts, out in the parking lot doing a "Rain Gutter Regatta". The siblings of the scouts were all running around and playing. Gabe came wobbling over to me crying and his toe was quite bloody. Cole had gone in the church and Gabe was going over to the door to get him out and Cole opened the door on Gabes foot. Nearly took off his entire toenail on his big toe. I felt pretty confident that I needed to just wash and bandage it, but I wasn't sure. I would hate for him to have issues later because I didn't take care of it the right way. The Pediatricians office was closed so I called the on-call doctor. He was so nice. Said it was a "traumatic toenail avulsion". Ouch. That sounds so much worse than "ripped off toenail". Wait, maybe not. He said to just wash it out good and bandage it. We managed okay. Why is it I can see horribly traumatic things at work like bodily organs on the outside of bodies and be fine. But a little blood on my kids toe makes me nervous! He is fine now though. He was pretty sad when I told him his toenail was going to fall off.

Jared has such a tender heart. As I was trying to comfort Gabe, Jared saw what was going on and starting sobbing and saying, "I wish it was me!" So Trevor was trying to comfort Jared. Yes, we tend to make quite a spectacle of ourselves sometimes!

The Biggest Loser

Cyberspace edition! This cool chick is hosting the biggest loser 5 on her website. It is $25 to enter, goes for 12 weeks, and the winner gets the pot! (Last time is was about $1300!!) Go to her blog for further rules and instructions on how to join if you are interested.

$$$$$

Am I the only parent wondering right about now, what happened to free public education??
Sending these kids to school is expensive!!

Free Cookies

Anybody want some free cookies?? Go to this site and click on webisodes. Watch the webisode (don't worry, it is short) and this coupon (expires 8/26) comes up for free cookies at Maceys (or any Associated Foods store). My brother works for Associated Foods and he put together these webisodes. Hmm...I wonder what free food they will have next week?? Hey, I have to go grocery shopping, I might as well get free food while I am there!

Tar...yummy

Here is a little excerpt of a conversation that I had with Jared last week. I was picking him up from school and he walked up to the van with a big wad of tar in his hands.
Me: Jared don't bring the tar in the van.
Jared: What should I do with it?
Me: Throw it in the street.
Jared: Ok. Hey mom, that tar is really cool and squishy.
Me: Uh huh
Jared: I squished it in my hands and then decided to squish it in my teeth.
Me: WHAT?!?! Why would you do that?
Jared: I just wanted to see how squishy it was.
Me: That is gross and disgusting and terribly bad for you. Don't do that again.
Jared: I didn't eat it mom, I just bit it!

Boys are gross.

Cheap Jeans

Do your kids go through jeans as quickly as mine do? I got an email from "Screaming Penny" tonight and there is a big sale on jeans at Old Navy on Saturday 8/23. Just in time for school! The sale is supposed to be tomorrow, but it just worked for me. I got two pair of jeans for Trev, Jared, Gabe, Cole, Cagney and one pair for Miquelle. All for the low low price of $100.39 (including shipping). Adult jeans $12, kids jeans $7. I just love a good bargain. (I'm not sure if this is available in stores too or just online.)

Favorite Photo Friday

Phew, I'm getting this one in just in time.
This is Coco, summer 2008.

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for...
1. Trevors job
Trevor has a job that he really likes. I think anyplace that will allow him to truly explore his computer geekiness is good for him. We went to their summer party last week. They are a very family friendly company. One of the things that I love most about his job.
2. The olympics
Yes I said this last week. It has been so much fun to watch...but I'm getting so tired because I keep staying up late! I love it though.
3. Young Womens leaders
In our church the girls enter the young womens program at age 12. Miquelle is so excited to finally start going. They have been so good to include her already. She is so happy to be there.
4. This book

I love the Anne of Green Gables series so I was intrigued when I saw this book at the library. Generally I don't like it when people take liberties with other authors characters and write about them. But I really like this book. It is a very sweet, well written story.
5. Diet Coke
I have really been trying hard to not drink much soda. But I do really love a diet coke every now and then.

twelve

Twelve things about Miquelle on her 12th birthday.
1. She loves to read. She doesn't just read books, she devours them. We share a love for libraries.
2. She is so cute and helpful with Cole and Cagney. Some days she will go in to get them up in the morning and she will have them up and dressed before I even get in there.
3. She loves music. She always has her ipod, and like her dad, goes to sleep many nights listening to music.
4. She is a great clogger. She made the senior competition team a few years ago and has had a lot of fun.
5. She is very creative and very artistic.
6. She has glasses but hardly ever wears them.
7. She is so fun to shop with. She likes shopping for clothes, shoes and bags.
8. She loves her stuffed animals and has a ton of them.
9. She plays the piano. She enjoys playing and going to her lessons, but doesn't like to practice. But she has done a lot better with this recently.
10. She loves to have fun.
11. She loves her brothers, but gets annoyed by them fairly often.
12. She loves to talk to people. Ever since she was a tiny girl she was not afraid to talk to people. Everyone was just a friend that she hadn't met yet.

It's what fun is!

Miquelle turned twelve on Tuesday and we spent the day at Lagoon! It had been a couple of years and it was great to be back. Trevor and I love to talk about our memories from working there as teenagers. Our kids are even getting so they remember some of the stories.
Miquelle invited her friend Kylie to join us. They decided on the way there that they were going to ride WICKED 12 times since it was her 12th birthday. They didn't quite make it. They only went four times. (It was a great ride by the way.)
Jared was up for anything. He said as long as he wasn't going to die he would ride anything. Cagney was also up for anything and without those pesky height limits, I think she would have gone on any ride there. Gabe and Cole are our more hesitant kids. I made Gabe go on a couple of rides with me that I knew he would love, and he did. After that I think he trusted me a little bit more when I told him he would like it. Cole even warmed up to things a little bit more by the end of the day and was willing to try a lot more.

Good thing there were two steering wheels, or we might have had some bloodshed.


Brothers

Sisters plus Kylie

We spent a lot of the day split up, Trevor with the older kids and me with the younger and then we would switch. I had the little kids with me and Cagney really wanted to go on the Dino Drop. I couldn't take her because I knew Cole would never go. Gabe said he thought he was brave enough to take her. They ended up going six or seven times in a row.

Stuck in the middle

Miquelle starts middle school tomorrow, it is an orientation day just for the 7th graders to come and go to all of their classes and find their lockers and such. We decided to go today and just look through her schedule, put her cute locker stuff in her locker and practice opening it. We weren't alone, there were a lot of first timers there today (most with their moms) doing the same thing. I'm glad we went. I think she feels a lot more comfortable. It sure brought back memories for me.
A few things I remember about 7th grade.

*It was the first time I could wear make up. I heard that blonds should wear blue eye shadow...I took that advice and ran with it. I was blue from my eyelashes to my eyebrows. And the hair?? I always had a perm, and used lots and lots of hairspray.
*I wore big baggy shirts with stirrup pants. And usually two or three pairs of socks at once.
*I had a scrunchie to match every outfit.
*I had a denim mini skirt that I wore spandex biker pants underneath. (Oh gosh, will you still be my friend after reading this??)
*I took a music appreciation class. Once we had to do oral reports. One girl did hers on these brand new things called CD's. Wow. We all thought that was so cool.
*My locker combination was 47-27-7. I do not know why I still remember that.
*I had a mint green ESPRIT bag.
*I got contacts.
*We had to do posters for a history class. My brother John (a great artist) helped me. My poster made it onto the "wall of fame". Still feel a tiny bit guilty about that one.
*I went to Centerville Jr. High and I still remember the fight song. Hail to the gold and blue...

Favorite Photo Friday

Miquelle turns 12 next week. (That means in one more year we will have a teenager! This ride is too scary, I want to get off.)
This weeks favorite photo was taken when she was just minutes old.

Thankful Thursday

I have been so exhausted this week, but I don't want to miss out on thankful thursday.

1. Cold Cereal
I love cold cereal, it is one of the greatest food groups out there. Makes for a great breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack.

2. Family
We were with a lot of family for a funeral yesterday. I just love my family, and love when everyone comes together at such a difficult time for the purpose of supporting one another and celebrating a great life.

3. Miquelle
She is a great babysitter. She had Cole and Cagney for quite awhile yesterday so Trevor and I could go to the funeral. They did great.

4. Great Nurses
I work with some awesome people. Some nurses are just so great at explaining things and so encouraging. Two great nurses left recently to move on to other things, and I was so sad the last time I worked with them. But excited for their new adventures.

5. The Zoo
Gabe had a field trip today to the zoo. He was so happy while he was getting ready for school today. Finally, no complaining while he was getting ready for school.

Just to clarify

When a dad is home with his children and the mom is not there, he is not baby sitting his children.
He is parenting.
Thank you, that is all.

Stop the madness!

I have been hearing something constantly the last week that has made me want to rip my own ears off because I just can't listen to it anymore. What is the horrible sound that would make me resort to that? A jackhammer outside my window? The neighbors dog that wont stop barking? Loud music? Nope. It's Gabe. More specifically Gabe whining. Gabe doesn't like first grade. Simply put, just doesn't want to be there. At. All. This is new for me. My other kids loved school from day one. Not Gabe. Is this just the way it will be for him? Will he be the teenager that we pray we can just get through high school?

He has friends at school. He is a great little reader. He is very capable of doing everything that they do at school. He just doesn't want to. He would rather stay home and play. Let me see if I can just give you a little taste of what we have been hearing this last week.

"It's too looooooooooong!"
"Why do I have to gooooooooooo?"
"It's booooooooring!"
"It takes foooooooooooorevvvvvvvvver!"

The first couple of days he pulled at my heartstrings and I felt awful for making him do something he didn't want to do. the next couple of days I tried reasoning with him. Explaining why school is important....blah, blah, blah. This morning I just agreed with everything he said. Sigh. How many more years of this???

Favorite Photo Friday

Cole and Cagney reading "No David" books. I think they are doing research. "Splash water all over the bathroom floor during bathtime?" Brilliant. "Run down the street naked?" Sounds fun to me. "Picking your nose?" I see no problem with that. "Climb on the counter to reach the cookies?" Great idea, you go get the stool.

Thankful Thursday

1. The olympics

I'm so excited that the olympics start this weekend. I love to watch swimming, track and field, gymnastics, diving. All of it.

2. So You Think You Can Dance
Yes, I know that I put this on my thankful thursday a couple months ago. But I just love this show! The final performance show was last night and it was amazing. I can't wait to see the results show tonight. And really, I love all four of them. I will be happy with whoever wins.

3. No more kindergarten
So Gabe is in first grade now, which means I don't have to stop what I am doing in the middle of the afternoon to take him to school or plan my errands around getting him to school. It has been so nice. But he is struggling with all day school. He complains that it is so long. And he is my little homebody too. If anyone has any ideas for making this transition easier I would love to hear them!

4. Cousins
My brother and his wife are on vacation (just the two of them, doesn't that sound heavenly?) and their two daughters are staying with my parents just up the street. Miquelle has loved having them here. They have spent nearly all day, every day, this week together. She has loved it.

5. Craisins

I bought a huge bag of these at Sam's this week and they are my new favorite snack. The perfect mix of sweet and tart. YUM. And there is a recipe on the back of the bag for Oatmeal Craisin White Chocolate Chunk cookies. Put the word "chunk" in any other food and I want to stay far away from that food. Put the word "chunk" in a cookie. Yes please.

Ahoy!

Saturday was our quarterly "Girls Day Out" with the women in my family. I always look forward to this time with my sister, sisters in law, nieces and mom, it is a great time to reconnect and talk and laugh and not worry about all of the "mom" things. This time we went sailing on the Great Salt Lake. I, like many people in our state, had never actually been to the Great Salt Lake. I always thought it would just be gross and dirty. And some parts were. But once we were out on the lake it was so beautiful! The weather was perfect. It was so relaxing, I just wanted to stay out there forever!

From left to right, my mom, niece Theresa, niece Stacy, sister Liz, and me. Where were you when we took this Kristine??

This is me and my darling little...great nephew (is that right? My nieces little boy would be my great nephew right?) He was the only kid that got to come, lucky little boy.

One of my favorite parts was sitting on the back of the boat and dragging our feet in the water as we went.

We even got in the water. I swam in the Dead Sea years ago and it was fun to swim in salt water again. Our boat driver had buckets of fresh warm water for us to rinse off with when we were done so we didn't feel too icky.

And one more picture, just because I thought it was cool.
It was a very fun day, I sure love these girls! I'm already looking forward to Girls Day in November!

Breaking Dawn Part 2

I wrote these comments on a friends blog so I'm just going to put them here to say what I thought about the book. There are big spoilers here so don't read any further if you don't want things ruined. I'm sorry if you loved this book. Let me just say I didn't hate it but I was VERY disappointed.

I didn't love the book. I may be in the minority. And if you haven't read it and don't want it spoiled don't read any further. (Or if you did love it my comments might make you mad.)

Here is what I didn't like
1. I didn't feel like she was true to the characters at all. I felt like she had characters doing and saying things that they wouldn't do or say...
A couple examples, Bella being totally fine with the fact that she was pregnant. This is the girl that was so against getting married but didn't so much as blink when she finds out she is 18 and pregnant. I just thought that was out of character.
Then with Carlisle, he is a brilliant doctor and we are supposed to believe that he isn't going to even think of the tiny possibility that she might get pregnant. Especially when once he finds out he remembers these "legends" and says it is a possibility. I just have a hard time believing that he wouldn't think of that before.
Then Edward, I thought it was completely ridiculous when he suggested to Jacob that he sleep with Bella so she can have a child. I know people will say that is just because he loves her and wants to give her everything that she wants. Silly. I don't think Edward would ever resort to letting Jacob sleep with Bella.
Then Alice, she can't be around Bella because the baby gives her a headache. No way. Alice loves Bella. I don't believe she would stay away for such a silly reason when Bella is teetering between life and death.
I just felt like she took these characters that we have grown to love and made them so shallow. The stories are about the characters and there was so little about the characters in this book. She never even mentioned Carlisle at the wedding. It felt like in the first three books it was all about the characters and she wrote the story around them. This time it felt like she made the characters fit the story.

2. I hated the fact that everything was all wrapped up neatly. There was no conflict. She totally contradicted herself. Bella can never get pregnant but it is a sacrifice she is willing to go through because she wants to be forever with Edward. Oh wait. She can have a baby. Never mind about that. Bella will be a crazed newborn for a couple of years and may never see her family again. Oh never mind she is fine and her dad doesn't seem to have any problem with any of it.

3. Jacob imprinting on Nessie. Yuck. Hey I used to be in love with your mom and imagine what she looked like naked, but since I can't have her I guess you will do.

4. I'm going to sound like a total prude here with this one but I feel like SM had such an opportunity to reach a lot of young girls. And what message does she give them? That everything will turn out fine and there won't be any conflict. Having a handsome husband and a beautiful baby, nice cars and a closet full of clothes is what will make you happy. I just think she had such a great chance to really send a message about sacrifice and working through things to WORK to get what you really want but then the main character of the story just gets everything handed to her. I also had a problem with the adult content of the book. Well not the actual content but the fact that it is supposed to be for young adults. She can write whatever she wants to but I didn't feel like some of those things needed to be in this series considering the age group that it is marketed to. My almost 12 year old has read the other books and is not happy that I don't want her to read this one.

4. I thought that it was WAY over the top. Yes it is fantasy but I found the first three books so "believable". But with this one I feel like she just went way over the top when she didn't need to. I found myself just rolling my eyes a lot of the time. The magic was lost for me. That is what I liked about her other books but I didn't feel that with this one.

I loved the first three books and was just so disappointed in this one. I feel like she sacrificed the characters that we all love for a very rushed, not thought out, weird, and very weak story. Sorry, go ahead and throw rotten tomatoes at me.

Breaking Dawn

Who is ready? I'm so excited to get this book tomorrow! Although I do feel a bit sad that it is the last book and once I'm done reading it the series is over. But I can't wait to find out what happens!

I remember when the last Harry Potter book came out that I wanted to read it really slowly so it lasted longer but I was so worried that I would hear people talking about it and didn't want anything spoiled. I feel the same way about this book. Happy reading!

Favorite Photo Friday

Nauvoo Illinois Summer 2004