Today I'll be as Happy as a Bird with a French Fry: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Now THAT'S a Milestone (Thanks Rees for the title)

One day she will seek revenge, but for now it's game on.

Emma got her braces today. She will have them on for approximately two and a half years. This is the last time we will ever see this mouth.

And that is a good thing. She had several pretty serious problems going on but hopefully we can get everything straightened out. (Pun intended)

Once she was settled in I left to run some errands. When I got back to the office this is what I found.

I'm so mean!!! (I asked if I was allowed to take pictures and the doctor said "Allowed? You're required!" I loved that response!

She played games on her Ipod the whole time.

She got neon pink and green rubber-bands. I think she looks adorable but I still can't believe that she is old enough for braces.

Tonight she was hungry and her mouth was very sore. I was making her potato soup (she requested it because it would be soft and easy to eat) but it wasn't ready yet. She wouldn't take Advil because she was afraid it would get stuck in her palate expander. She couldn't eat because she was in so much pain. She was having an emotional breakdown.

You almost want to feel sorry for her don't you? What you don't know is that she had just slugged her brother and screamed at us. I told her she didn't have the right to hurt us just because she was in pain, especially when she could do something to help it. Finally she gagged down an Advil, got some soup in her and was back to her happy, sweet self. Thank goodness.

I have a new recipe to blog and two basketball games but I don't think I am going to get to them tonight. I'm off to watch the Bachelor LOL!

We love you Grandma Fern

(This picture was drawn in Mazatlan, Mexico)

This past Saturday Paul's grandma passed away. We are sad to think of our time here on earth without her but we know that she is happy, out of pain and with her husband. She lived 94 years and had a wonderful, full life with many many grandkids and great grandkids that loved her dearly.

I am thankful for the opportunity I have had to get to know her over the last 15 years and I am grateful that my kids had her in their lives for so long. We will have many memories of Halloween and other holiday parties at her retirement home.

I am putting together a slideshow that will run during the funeral. I am having so much fun looking through the pictures that are being emailed. In 1990 grandma took her four boys and their entire families to Mazatlan. I have always heard stories about that trip from Paul and now I get to see pictures!

On honor of grandma here are some of those pictures.

Grandma getting ready to parasail

Yep that's grandma up there. Emma just said "I can't imagine her doing that!"

Can you believe that is Paul on the left?

Here is one of my favorite pictures I have of grandma. This was this past September and the kids were showing her Photo-booth. It was a really neat moment.

Grandma, you will be in our thoughts and we will miss you.

Did you know that I loved trains?

I do.

Growing up it seemed like we always lived semi-close to train tracks. You could often hear the trains in the distance and for whatever reason I grew to love the sound. When the kids and I went back to Chico, Ca. several years ago my mom and I took them to the tracks and let them lay down coins to smoosh on the tracks. We had a great time. For some reason this is the only picture I have from that day. We had just gotten out of grandma and grandpas pool. I would love to go and do this again.

Anyway we have these tracks that run right along a major street in my town. I can hear the train every once in a while but hardly ever see it. I've lived here almost eight years and probably have only seen a train half dozen times. Most the time they aren't even running.

The other day I was coming out of the grocery store and there it was! I was so excited. It was rolling slowly down the tracks. I hurried out of the lot, got my camera out and took these pictures. Most were taken while I was sitting at a light but I'll be honest, at least one was taken while I was driving. Naughty! But I was so excited.

I know that this post probably seems so random but for me this was a momentous occasion.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kyler & Andrew

Kyler is by far the cutest neighbor we have. He lives across the street from us and we adore him! I will never forget getting a knock on the door one evening this past fall. I threw on my robe (Can you tell how much I hate wearing clothes in my house?) answered the door and found a little tin man on my porch. Kyler had just gotten his Halloween costume and I got to be one of the first to see it on him. He was sooo cute.

After Emma's basketball game Andrew wanted to go out and skateboard. It just so happens that Kyler was outside with his brand new Woody skateboard.

I had already changed back into pajamas (See? I can't stand wearing my real clothes in the house. I immediately put on "soft clothes") but I didn't care. I grabbed my camera and ran outside in my head to toe red plaid flannel!

These boys are too cute for words. Look at them together, ADORABLE. Too bad it started drizzling. My photo shoot was cut short.

Look at that smile. I think he likes being like Andrew. What do you think?

Seriously, they were darling together.

Basketball

There is only one weekend of basketball left. We are really going to miss it.

I am begging Emma to run on the track team (She really wanted to until she found out that the practices are four times a week. She doesn't like to be over-scheduled LOL!) but I'm not going to force the issue. If I understand it correctly they can go to a few practices before deciding if they are going to be on the team or not. She agreed to give it a try. I plan to find out more details tonight at the school. I just love watching the kids play and perform. I really think you learn a lot about your kids watching them interact with others and watching them play sports.

Anyway, back to basketball. Last weekend's game was a blowout! At the beginning of the second half the girls were told to slow down, pass the ball to girls who don't always get to take a shot and to take it easy on the other team. They were great sports but still beat the other team by a lot. I think it felt good for them to get a win like this after two weeks of losses.

Anyway here are some pictures from the game.

I updated my 365 blog (Finally)

If anyone is interested here is the link. Click Here

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Boring, Boring, Boring

Here's a little sampling of what we've been up to.

Andrew was named Student of the Week. His teacher said he's working really hard and doing really well on his assignments. He got 100% on his last spelling test.

Emma was asked to be an after school math tutor. They only asked 10-12 kids out of the 7th and 8th graders and she was one of them! We are hoping that she can switch her day so that she can be on the track team.

Paul and I have been doing Couch to 5K in the evenings. We just started week two. He loves it. I feel like I'm being tortured. I do think that my calf muscles are coming back to life.

Last night I did my second photography class with the 16&17 years old boy scouts. It was interesting. They wanted to learn more about shutter speed. It was totally dark, extremely windy and then it started to rain and snow. I had sparklers for the guys to play with but the winds made them almost impossible to light. We didn't get much done but I think we had some fun and I do like getting to know the boys better. They seem like great young men.

Yesterday morning I went to the BYU museum of art with Maggie and some of the ladies from church. We saw an exhibit by Carl Bloch. I'm very glad I went. His work is beautiful and I feel lucky to have seen so much of it in person.

I went to a job interview today. I feel like it went well. I will find out toward the end of next week if I'm hired or not. There is a lot more to this story but I'm going to wait until I know if I have the job or not before I go into details.

Paul and I had a meeting with Emma's orthodontist. He just wanted us to come in so we could discuss options for treatment. Wow. We were impressed. He is so nice!

The kids have had piano, basketball practice, homework and Emma has her first baby sitting job Saturday afternoon after her game. They keep busy. We all seem busy. Unfortunately it isn't very fun stuff that we are busy with. I need a vacation!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

I woke up yesterday knowing that I had a very busy day ahead of me. It was okay. I was up for it! Everything went off without a hitch. We had another wonderful, traditional Valentine's Day.

Phase 1

I got the table started. This way if nothing else got done before the kids got home they would know we were still having our traditional dinner. We can't disappoint the kids now can we?

Phase 2

Drive all over the county picking up balloons, heart shaped pizza, caramel apples and any other goodies I could get my hands on. I hit three different towns yesterday.

Phase 3