Dream

I had a dream that I wanted to record and I didn't know where else to do it. I was driving the Subaru in Salt Lake. I think I had taken someone to the airport or something. I was alone and for some reason I was a little lost. I thought I knew about where I was and I got off an exit or turned on a street or something. I thought it would take me to I-215. It just took me to a street, not the freeway. For some reason I was on the West side of I-215, kind of close to where I lived when I was younger--by Becky Rabigers dads house or Janessas house in Kearns or Murray. I kept thinking I saw signs for I-80 or I-215 on the roads to the side of me, so I kept trying to look a little better while still driving and shifting and turning. I think one time one sign looked like it said I-7. I kept thinking I knew where I was and if I turned onto a street it would take me to the freeway. I was trying to look back to see a sign and I turned right at a green light and kind of gunned it (The Subaru has some pretty good power and speeds up really quick. I think I was just a bit frustrated and kind of driving it like a race car) right into the water. I had just a split second to wonder what the pretty blue sparkly ocean was doing in Salt Lake and why they would make a very short street that drove right into it with no chain or sign or anything. Like a boat ramp. It seemed like the ocean, like in Long Beach or Huntington Beach. It was sparkly blue like that. But there were buildings on the other side, so like the San Francisco Bay. The buildings were actually pretty close, but they seemed like they were pretty distant. So I drove straight into the water. I didn't have any time to put on the brakes or anything. I said "No Way!" as the water started pouring into the car. For a second I just sat there, cold and feeling like my clothes were really heavy because they were wet, and I thought for just a second about giving up and going down with the car. Then I wondered if it would be a struggle and really hard to open the door the further the car went down into the water and thought that I had better make a decision really quick just in case. I wanted to just sit there for a second all dejected and feeling like it wasn't fair and I thought about my purse and how I was going to lose everything in it and how my new phone that Brad got me for Christmas wouldn't work and how we'd lose our car and if it was worth even trying to get out. I thought about the kids and figured I'd better buck up and get out and then I woke up.

Josh turned into a real reader yesterday.

Well, it has happened, and it happened in a snap. Yesterday Josh went to the school library. They go each Tuesday and can pick out two new books. He picked out his first chapter book without pictures. It is book #45, A Crazy Day With Cobras, in The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. He started reading it when he got home and he couldn't put it down. He read it instead of playing video games, he read it instead of eating, he took it to Connors 4H presentation at school and read it there, and when we got home, he laid down on the couch and read, then he took it down to bed to read the last 16 pages. It has 110 pages. Brad loves to read, and I used to read 2 or 3 chapter books a day when I was 10 or 11. I never thought Josh would choose a book over video games. Crazy stuff! Such a huge change and milestone in one day. He never had a problem with doing his reading each day. We'd sit down with his books and he would read out loud, but he never LOVED it. Now I think he does! Time to go find the series......

Josh is turning 8!

My oldest baby will be 8 on Saturday! He is in 2nd grade in Mrs. Gardners class at Park Elementary. He is an amazing reader, he is the best one in his class at math, and is the second fastest runner in his class. He has lots of great friends from school. He loves playing video games. He likes sports. He plays basketball, soccer, and baseball, but soccer is his favorite. If there was track and field at school, I would sign him up. At recess he chases kids and they chase him. That's funny because that is what I did at recess in 2nd grade. He's a skinny little guy, probably because he's always been a super picky eater. He's probably only around 45 pounds. His willpower is strong, so I learned a long time ago that trying to force him to eat something he doesn't want to will just end up in wasted food and everybody crying. Here's what he will eat at this point: McDonalds hamburgers and chicken nuggets and fries, pepperoni pizza (his favorite is Papa Johns and we always have a supply in the fridge), apples, nacho cheese Doritos, bacon, fruit roll ups, rolls (they have to be warm), frosting and some candy (suckers, tootsie rolls, some chocolate, laffy taffy, swedish fish) Ummmm....I honestly can't think of anything else right now. He goes through phases and stuff that he ate every day 2 months ago, he won't even touch now. He LOVES to scare me. He probably sneaks up behind me or stands around the corner and jumps out and says "Boo!" about 20 times a day. And every time he asks "Did I scare you?" If I say yes, he asks "Really bad?" Jarom used to love to scare us. When a friend calls him and I give him the phone, he says "Yo! What's up?" When his friend Kelton calls he says "Hey Kelt! What's up, dude?" He is very rigid at sticking to the rules. Especially if it is school rules, teacher rules, or laws. He makes sure everybody else sticks to the rules, too. He is definitely the oldest child and he won't let the other two get away with things that I will let them get away with. He is so much like Brad. He's got the most amazing freckles. He looks kind of like the Mad comics kid, only not as goofy. He's lost 4 teeth so far and 2 are very wiggly. He was soooo excited when he got on level 10 in math. He is speedy at math and always asks me math questions. He is learning his times tables by asking me all the time "Mom, what's 6 by 6? What's 100 by 200? What's 7 by 8?" If he thinks he heard something from someone who knows, he will not back down, which is why he says "by" instead of "times" or "multiplied by". He wants to be a game tester when he grows up. He is really good at video games and is really rockin' the guitar in rock band. He's been doing the expert level--the highest one. He doesn't get great scores doing expert, but he's still crazy good. He has to always be on time or early. If Connor's not ready for school yet, Josh urges me to just take him to school and take Connor later. He loves money and toys. I think he may be so good at math because he is so interested in money. That's just the way he thinks. He gives awesome hugs and gets clingy with some people like Cami and Amy. He's a funny kid and he is definitely getting easier as he gets older. Happy Birthday Joshy! Love you, kiddo!

Haunted house

I was chatting with a friend--my old roommate's hubby--about this haunted house I lived in in Provo. I wrote a bunch of stories and sent them to him and decided to put a copy on my blog.



Go to sleep Cara! :)
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

I'll get fired, Tony!
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Hmm, OK, you can stay awake then
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Thanks

I went and saw that haunted house in Provo today.
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Oh yeah? Anything creepy happen?
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

You know, the one that Liz lived in for like, 2 days, and had little kittens running around?
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

The one with all the pig statues/figures? Yep
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

It's vacant. It's been winterized, and there is no trespassing by unauthorized persons
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Let's break in and stay there with the lights out!
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Totally forgot about the pig statues!!

Funny!
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

There was something weird about that place, I told Liz that when I visited
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

When Brad came to visit, he would stay there alone at night

while I was at work, and he was so totally freaked out

he said he would never step foot in that house again

and he doesn't believe in ghosts or anything
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Scottish people have an affinity for ghosts I think

Did he say what happened?
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

I think you're right!
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Maybe the pig figurine roomie came onto him? LOL
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

He just felt something that made him so scared. He slept up on the couch in the loft and kept the biggest knife in the house next to him
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

There's a dark male presence there, I wish I had more time to examine that
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

You are so right! This is fascinating to me!
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

I love this stuff. Liz tells me not to dabble in it, but I think it's fascinating
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Did you feel it by the stairs that came up from the garage the most?
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Yes!

That's the first place I felt it
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Brad too!

Goll, I always thought maybe somebody got pushed down those stairs or something

not a guy, but the guy did the pushing
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

The two places I felt it most were the stairs, a little in the downstairs garage, and in the loft/balcony area (?)
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Yes!

It wasn't in the master bedroom

not really in the front room

It was in Liz's room
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Liz and I went to a frind's house in Draper that they said was haunted and we got some EVPs on a voice recorder. It was a voice saying that they had died of old age.
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

and a little in the upstairs bedroom and in the bathroom

Crazy. That would creep me out.
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

The front room was OK, Liz's was a little creppy but I thought maybe it was just because it was small and we were afraid of peeping toms
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

She said she always got the feeling someone was watching her in that room. Could have been either! I guess they arrested a guy in the ward for peeping around the neighborhood
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

What a rush. I wish I had the equipment and the free time, I'd love to do ghost hunting
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

We'd definitely find something in that house

5 years ago when we were looking for houses, that house was on the market

It had been for a long time. I wonder if people would look at it and feel whatever is there and not buy it.
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

I wonder if we could convince the owner to let us go ghost hunting in it one night. I bet with how empty it is (unless it's furnished) you'd find a lot of noises and activity
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

I wonder if it's been vacant this whole time.

All the houses around it were full.
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Man, who knows
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

The original blinds were on the windows-the dark brown ones.
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

That place needs to be exorcised and renovated
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

The blinds were pulled most the way up and I could see up to the skylight in the loft
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Why did you go back?
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

couldn't tell if there was furniture, but got the feeling there wasn't

We were waiting for Franklin Covey to open at the mall and were going to go to Albertsons that used to be down there to buy cupcakes. Albertsons was gone and you can only turn right to get out og that shopping center, so we went past the street and I asked the kids if they wanted to see the old house that I used to live in

Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Awesome

Well if you ever decide you want to go back in let me know, I'm in!
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

I told them about it and they were fascinated

we should totally do it!
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

I'm game
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Brad wouldn't go. Would Liz?
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

We can bring Liz and Brad, we need Scooby and Shaggy on our hunt
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Maybe Brad would go, but he said he'll never stp foot in tat house again.
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

Hmm, I'd have to ask. She'd say no at first, but I think curiosity would get the best of her
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

that would be fun! and creepy!

have I ever told you my host stries from that house?

ghost stories

I'll email you. gotta go do a check
Tony Knight
3 hours ago
Tony Knight

OK, I'd better get to sleep but yes, tell me. And I'm serious - let's make this happen

Take care Cara! Give Brad a kiss for me
Cara Adair Bradley
3 hours ago
Cara Adair Bradley

Oh,my gosh. Brad will love a kiss from you.

Hahaha!

Goodnight, tell Liz hi, and let's do it! Do you have access to the stuff? Cause I have no idea where to get it. K, I'll write my stories for you--it'll keep me awake :)
Cara Adair Bradley
49 minutes ago
Cara Adair Bradley

K. I think my first real story from that house was when my roommate, Melissa, and I bought some wicker furniture from DI to put in the loft. We were making a "make out room". Scandalous, I know. We got some of that sparkly blue star and moon material and hung it from the ceiling to the floor on the fireplace side of the loft. Then we put that egg carton cushy stuff down on the floor and covered it with a navy flannel sheet and bought like 30 pillows and put them in the corner on the floor. We had a multiple metal black candle holder that we put on the brick fireplace and strung up some red lip lights that my sister bought. Then we put the furniture in there to kind of block the view from the banister. A wicker table and two wicker chairs on either side of the table. I ended up sleeping in there most nights and put my tv and vcr in there. I don't know why I just told you all about that, but it does have something to do with another one of my ghost stories. It was nice and cozy. Anyway.....we bought that furniture and brought it home in Melissa's truck. She parked the truck in the garage and we had something we had to do, so we just left the furniture in the truck. You know I'm a night person, so I was home later that night around 2 or 3 a.m. Melissa was sleeping and I was bored, so I decided to start making the make out room. I went down the garage stairs to get the furniture. I grabbed a chair and started heading up the stairs. You know how there were 2 corners in that stairwell. Well, I got to the second corner and I heard the stairs below me creaking. I figured someone was out and about and saw me because the garage door was open and was coming to say hi or hang out or something. So I threw the chair in the house and went back down the stairs to see who it was and there was nobody there. I figured whoever it was thought I had just gone in the house and turned around and left. So I got another chair and started up the stairs again, and heard someones creaky footsteps behind me on the stairs again. I figured they had turned around, started back home, then saw me come down again, so they came back and were coming back up the steps. It wasn't the normal creaking that came from me going up the steps. There was definitely somebody there--there was no doubt in my mind. So I threw the chair in the house and went down to see who it was and again there was nobody there. Then I got scared. That scary feeling just hit me. I knew it was a guy, not a girl, and I knew somebody was there. I wanted to just run into the house, but I thought that was stupid because I was already down there and I might as well grab the table, so I forced myself to be brave and grabbed the table as fast as I could and ran up the stairs and totally felt someone running up the stairs behind me. Someone not nice this time. I ran in and shut the door. I was really scared. When I got the stuff up in the loft and started working on the room, I felt better, but I was seriously freaked out!

The second thing was one night when I wasn't working I came home from WalMart around 1 a.m. and was hungry, so I went and got my leftovers out of the fridge and was heating them up in the microwave, so I was facing away from the hallway with the bedrooms. I heard one of the bedroom doors open and creaking in the hallway, so I turned around and was ready to apologize to whichever roommate I had woken up, and nobody was there. Again, there was no doubt in my mind that someone was there. I heard and felt it, but nobody was there. I heard the door open, but heard no door shut, so I went around the corner to see who was up, but both the doors were shut.
Cara Adair Bradley
34 minutes ago
Cara Adair Bradley

The third thing was one night my friend and I were in the make out room (A girl--we were just in there watching a movie.) My friend had fallen asleep and my roommate, Melissa, had gone to bed. I knew Melissa had to get up and leave early in the morning. Jen, another roommate, got home and came in and ran up the stairs and called for Melissa. I told her Melissa was asleep and Jen asked if she had to leave early in the morning and I told her yes. So Jen went back out to move her car from behind Melissa's truck so she wouldn't have to wake up and do it early in the morning when Melissa wanted to leave. I was in the make out room with that material hanging from the ceiling. Whenever someone walked by, the material would kind of move with the breeze that people made while walking past, and you could kind of see a shadow behind the material. Well, it did that breeze thing and I saw a shadow, so I figured Melissa had heard Jen call her name and came out of her room to see what was up. I called "Melissa?" to her, but she didn't respond, so I got up to tell her why Jen was calling her, and nobody was there.

One other thing that happened.....this sounds stupid, but the light in the upstairs bathroom by the loft would flicker on and off. And I swear to you that when I was on the toilet, that light would flicker and go off. When I was in the shower that light would flicker on. There was another light in the bathroom by the mirror that was fine.
Cara Adair Bradley
8 minutes ago
Cara Adair Bradley

So Brad doesn't believe in the after life or ghosts or anything, but when he came to visit, I would go to work at night and all my roommates were gone, so he would be alone in the house. A few days after he got there, some neighbors were over and we were talking about the haunted house situation. His ears perked up and he asked what and I said "Oh, yeah. This house is haunted." I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but he was mad at me! He told me that he felt something there and he actually slept with the biggest knife he could find in the house (which was pretty big because Sarah was a chef and had an impressive set of knives) next to him. He asked me why I didn't tell him it was haunted. I never knew how scared he really was until years later. He says he will never step foot in that house again. I thought he was okay because he told me that he and the ghost came to an understanding. He told the ghost that he could watch tv with him as long as he didn't hurt him.

Liz said she always felt like she was being watched in her room. She said she always thought it was a peeping tom, but the ghost thing actually made sense. But who knows, since they arrested that peeping tom in the neighborhood. It could have been either or. Or both.

Okay, now that I wrote all this, I am going to copy it to my blog. Let me know when you want to go back there! I am going to try to find out more about the house now with a little online research :) I'll let you know if I find anything out.

Write a reply...

"I'm not your sister anymore!"

For quite a while Kaytlynn was calling her friends and others her sisters. When she would get mad at them, she would say "I'm not your sister anymore, HMF!" She also did this to me when I would not give her something she wanted. She got different replies from different people. Lola would come back with "Well, you're not my sister either, HMF!" Olivia would be sad and say "I can't be your sister anymore?" I would just kind of laugh. I haven't heard her say this for awhile, so I thought it was pretty much over. Well, she had some candy corn that I bought for her and she wasn't sharing the pumpkin one that I wanted, even though she had bunches of them. I thought it would be funny to say "Well, I'm not your sister anymore, HMF!" She asked what and I said "I'm not your sister anymore." Her little face crumpled up and I thought she was just faking it, but lo and behold, big tears came and she hid her face behind her hands. She was so sad and really, really crying. I could not get her to stop for 5 minutes. I finally just left her alone after she ran in her room and slammed the door and a minute later she came out with a candy corn pumpkin and said "Is this the one you want?" "Yes, thank you." I said.

Brad's new job at Clearlink

Brad switched jobs a few weeks ago. Now he works at Clearlink instead of SEO.com. He is a SEO technician (I think that's what he's called now). He was a SEO Senior at SEO.com. For those of you that don't know what SEO is (I know I didn't), basically they do all they can to get company websites on the first page of Google and other search engines. It stands for Search Engine Optimization. There is an amazingly huge amount to learn and do for this job. I actually got a contract job there once and went in for a few hours to learn just a small amount of what they do and my brain was pretty fried. Brad worked at SEO.com for about 2 1/2 years. He went in knowing nothing and became a Senior there where he had a team that he gave tasks to, and made sure they got them all done and done right. He ended up learning how to build websites and made his own website called MMAshortsandgloves.com. He loves that MMA stuff (Mixed Martial Arts) I don't care for it, but lots of people are really into it. He had links on his website to places that sold MMA stuff, and was making some money off of that. He spent a lot of time optimizing that and it was on the first page of google for a few different search terms. He ended up selling that website, and now has a company that sponsors different MMA fighters called Gladiator Fight Wear. He's made their walkout shirts and tshirts, hoodies, beanies, and hats. His website is gladiatorfightwear.com If you go to MMA gear, you can see some stuff that he's had designed and made and is selling now. They've been vendors at some different fights which has taken them to Las Vegas a few times. I have dreams of Gladiator Fight Wear being the next Tapout. Look around next time you're out and I'll bet you see a bunch of Tapout shirts, stickers, and hats. But it's a lot of work, time, and energy for Brad. And money.
So Brad felt like he wasn't going to really go anywhere with SEO.com, so he started looking around for other places. He had a couple interviews with Clearlink before our cruise, and then got the job offer while we were in Florida on vacation. The one big downfall to this job is that it is out by the SLC airport--further than his SEO.com job in Bluffdale. It takes 1 or 2 hours to get there and to get back, depending on traffic, weather, and construction (Stupid never ending construction in Utah!) The commute really stresses him out. There are a whole bunch of good things, though. This company seems to have more money than they know what to do with. What they do is kind of confusing, but basically Brad is doing the SEO work for the local Verizon Wireless part of Clearlink. He optimizes the site and gets traffic to it. He's excited to have been assigned Verizon Wireless and he can basically do what he wants and what he thinks needs to be done.
Perks of the job: There are 2 company trips each year. One to Las Vegas and one to Mexico. All expense paid for the entire company and they look like fun! Somebody just got back from a trip that he won. The guy who won it got to choose his dream vacation--anywhere in the world that he wanted to go for a week. So he and his wife went to the Galapagos Islands for a week. Nice! I think we'd have to go to New Zealand. After Brad has worked there for a year, they pay 100% of our insurance premiums. Every day for the entire ski season (Which started 2 days ago!!) they will pick one person and give them a paid day off and 5 lift passes to any resort they want to go to and can take whoever they want--up to 5 people for free. This one got me really excited!! They bring in good food for lunch a lot like Cafe Rio (this one got Brad really excited!) and they take people out to lunch all the time. They have 2 company cars. One is a Cadillac Escalade that is way nice, which they took Brad out to lunch to Squatters in last week. I guess it has steps that automatically unfold when you open the door and automatically fold back up. The other car is a Porsche and that is for the employee of the month to drive. They seem very laid back. Like as long as Brad gets all his work done, they don't care if he does 40 hours a week, and he can go into the office any time during the day. Too bad my work schedule leaves him less flexible or he could go at random, odd hours and miss rush hour traffic. They do lots of different fun things at work. They are doing Movember and handing out prizes at the end of the month. Good ones. They just had a trip where they took a private jet to Vegas and stayed at some nice new hotel on the strip. They also just had an Ipad bingo game. And Cafe Rio and Happy Hour. Yes, Happy Hour. Anyway....I kind of wish I could work there for all the perks!

I am very proud of Brad and how he's done professionally. He was in college in Scotland for one year for computers and then in the Royal Navy for 4 years, so there was not much he could do in Utah with that. When we first moved here, he did the pre-concrete work, which my friend Dave calls the "job appreciation job" It makes you appreciate any other job you've ever had, no matter how bad. Then he was a used car salesman, and then worked at the call center for myfamily.com. Then Seo.com, and now ClearLink. He's probably making more than I could ever make getting a job with my Bachelors of Science degree that took me 6 years to get. That's how long we've lived here. Way to go, Brad!!

Halloween Dreams

I took the kids to the dollar store and let them pick out some Halloween decorations for the house. They very carefully put up spiderwebs and hung a little skeleton out in the tree. I put up all the stuff they couldn't reach. They were so excited and thought the house was so scary. They were comparing our house to the other houses in the neighborhood and are pretty sure our house is the scariest. They wanted to call their friends to come see. Josh told me the next day that he had a dream that our house won for the scariest house. It's fun to get little insights into their brains and their thoughts. Funny what is on their minds.

My crazy (not in a good way) and lonely childhood

Yikes. I was not a happy camper growing up. This post will probably not give you any joy, aside from knowing that you or somebody you knew was not the only one that had a rough time.

Josh is very cautious and timid and shy in a new situation. It used to take him at least 30 minutes in every situation to warm up and join in. Each and every pre-school class, birthday parties, play groups, family get-togethers. You name it, and it took him time. If something lasted less than 30 minutes then he would never get into it. He would stand aside and take everything in and eventually join in after he got a VERY good look at what was going on exactly. Taking him to kindergarten on his first day was ROUGH. I wanted to walk with him, but I knew I would never be able to get a screaming, wriggling, running, scratching 5 year old 5 blocks to his classroom. So I struggled to put him in the car. After having to force him into his car seat (He would arch his back and stick his stomach out making it impossible to buckle him in, and then after pushing his stomach in and getting it buckled, he would pull his arms out of the straps all while screaming and crying. We were late to everything. So once I got him into his seat we drove to the school and on the way he took his shoes off and threw them. So when we parked, I left him in his car seat to get his shoes on knowing that it would be absolutely impossible to get them on if he wasn't stuck in one place. Getting his shoes on was hard. He was kicking his feet around and grabbing his shoes as I tried to put them on. Getting him out of the car was harder. The kid has strength. He was hanging onto the car seats and wriggling his body around and screaming. I had to pull his hand off of my seat and he would grab it with his other hand. I'd have to get his grasp off and he'd grab with the other hand. Once I finally got him out of the van, I did not think that I would make it with Josh to the door of the school. He reminded me of the time we accidentally slammed the cats tail in the car door. That cat went crazy, using it's muscles to make it go up and down and around--totally stuck by it's tail and just crazy. This was Josh. I was the car door and his wrist was the tail. He was crazy, climbing up my leg with his little legs, jumping around, screaming. It was all I could do to keep ahold of his little wrist and drag/carry him to his class. I was seriously afraid his wrist would be bruised. We alternated from me carrying him when I could get him in my grasp, holding both his kicking legs in one arm and the top part of his body in my other arm, trying to avoid headbutts and flailing legs. Oh, and I didn't want to drop him on the cement either. That would be bad. So I'd have to put him down and grab onto his wrist as quick as I could. We eventually made it to the door and lucky for us and everybody else at school, his classroom was the first one in the door. I drug him in and held onto him while he kicked and screamed and asked his teacher what I should do. I tested the waters and loosened up my grasp on him and he bolted for the door. I'd run and grab him crying and screaming and go back to the teacher, who was trying to talk to him and say hi, but yeah right! That was not happening. I asked if she had runners before and she said yes, but usually at lunchtime or recess. She had one that made it to the street and she had to chase after him and grab him right before he ran into the street. I felt bad because while she's running after these kids, what are the other kids doing? Not learning in a quiet environment, that's for sure. So the brave woman took ahold of Josh and tried to talk to him and calm him down (yeah, right!) and I made a run for the door. I waited outside the door where Josh couldn't see me for 30 minutes so I could grab him if he tried to run out the door. He was crying the entire time. There were a few other ladies in the hallway talking and one said "Oh, he's having a hard time." Then another lady said "I bet his mom is having an even harder time." I said "I'm the mom." I never would have thought that kid would be my kid. After a half hour of him not getting out the door, I decided it would be safe for me to leave. I did leave my phone number with his teacher to call if I had to come get him and he was just too much to handle. When I came to pick him up 2 and a half hours later, he was all smiles. He loved it! I knew he would. It's always just getting him there. A sweet, sweet mother sat with him in the corner and tried to calm him down and told him to pretend that nobody else was there, then she walked him around the halls after I had left. She asked her son to be his special friend. Josh's favorite part was when they did the gingerbread man story. "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man." I guess they do this every year on the first day of kindergarten. They have the speech therapist dress up in a foam gingerbread man costume and he runs around and the kids chase him and try to catch him. Ingenious for getting the kids back to school the next day. We were so, so lucky that there were so many awesome boys in Josh's kindergarten class. He made some great friends. Every day after school (if it was nice weather) Josh would play outside the school with his friends chasing them around, while the moms talked.

Josh had soccer and t-ball before kindergarten ever started and it was exactly like going to the first day of kindergarten. Impossible. But without the threat of having the kids taken away from us or going to jail or whatever, I just let him quit those after some infuriating and frustrating tries to get him to play. So soccer was back on and it looked like we were going to have some bad problems getting him there again (He's the one who said he wanted to play.) We drove over to the practice and one of his best friends, Cade, was there. Cades dad was coaching the team. Josh jumped out and ran to the field and we had no problems. So Cade has been a great friend for Josh. Cade has older brothers and I thought he seemed pretty confident. When 1st grade was starting for Josh I was afraid we'd have a rerun of the first day of kindergarten, but Cade was in his class. Yay! The teacher told me at a parent teacher conference that it was actually Cade who had a really tough time and Josh totally helped him. Once she sat the two of them by eachother, Cade did so much better. Josh's teacher said he would actually say stuff in front of the class and make them laugh. She said he was a ham and kind of the class clown and he was funny.

I was really happy when we found out Cade and Josh would be in the same 2nd grade class. On the first day of school Josh wrote a paper of favorites. He said his best friend was Cade (and the person he most admired was me, by the way :) ) We went to soccer and I saw Cade and his dad while Josh was playing and went over and told Cades dad that Josh wrote that Cade was his best friend. Cade came over and I asked him if he knew that and he said "Yeah, Josh follows me all around at recess." Ouch. Cades dad immediately said "that's okay" to Cade. I thought they were mutual friends and I did not think that Josh was that annoying kid that follows another kid around. (I was that annoying kid many times growing up.) So I was thinking about how to handle this when I was out on the route the next day. Do I talk to Josh and tell him not to do that? Was Cade just being a kid, saying something that he's undoubtably heard from his older brothers? I decided that I would first talk to Josh's teacher and ask what her take was on it and maybe talk to Cades mom and then to Josh. I really don't want him to bug and annoy other kids. That isn't good for anyone. I want him to play with good friends that enjoy his company as much as he enjoys theirs. Right as I was thinking about this, Cades mom called and said that Cade has been bugging her all day to play with Josh. So Cade went over and played at our house for over 2 hours. Josh thought it was only 30 minutes and Cade said he did not want to go home. So I think they are okay.....I am not looking forward to the times when the kids come home crying because other kids are mean to them or don't want to play with them. I think it actually hurts parents more than the kids. That sort of thing must have caused my parents all sorts of emotional pain. I will write about that more on my next post.

"Somehow I turned my ear off."

We were at Seven Peaks Water Park on the lazy river when Josh said "Somehow I turned my ear off." He didn't seem worried or anything. Maybe a little curious about how to turn it back on. I'm so horrible. I just laugh and sit in the joy of how they think and look at the world. Sometimes I will explain what is going on, but most the time I don't.

"You somehow turned your ear off, huh? How did you do that? Can you get it back on? Is it out of batteries?"

"Yeah. I don't know. I think so. No, I don't think ears have batteries."

I wish we could have a video camera going on all the time because they say and do the cutest things day and night!

Her finger is the size of a small performance tip.

The kids are loving the BeyBlades right now. It is basically a glorified top. You can buy different tips for them and there's a stadium they can "battle" in. Some are better than others at battling. Autumn and her girls came over. Connor and I were just sitting there adoring the baby, listening to her talk and goo, and looking at her tiny fingers and toes. Connor looked at and touched her little fingers, turned and looked at me, and said "Her finger is the size of a small performance tip."

Rodeo

Well, I'm torn. We went to the rodeo Thursday night. Connor did the mutton bustin'. I enjoyed most of it. I don't like how they rope calves and I never have. Yeah, I really don't like it. Those poor lil babies. But I found out what they do to make the broncos buck, which I never knew before, and it's mean! So yesterday while I was delivering the mail and had all day to think, I started feeling really guilty for going and supporting this and for letting my kids watch the animal cruelty. At the same time, I have always enjoyed going to the rodeo minus the roping. I was trying to figure out why and I think it's the atmosphere that I like. Just like the demolition derby or a baseball game. I was pondering why so many people like to go. The Fiesta Days rodeo goes for 4 days each year and every year it is sold out. There are rodeos all over the country and all over the world. People just like to go. I don't know if they all like it for the atmosphere. I think a lot of guys like it because of the man versus beast factor. There seems to be a lot of testosterone there. There is all the stuff in between the mean that is fun to watch. I don't think mutton bustin' is bad. Kids riding a sheep. I mean, it probably scares the sheep, but I think the kids get more beat up than the sheep does. Why do we like to watch the bucking bronco and the bucking bulls? My gosh, the chiropractors that must be needed for the riders.....I just don't know. Is it animal cruelty to have a fat man riding a horse? To have anybody ride a horse? I don't think they like giving us rides. I think about all the people that love the fights, too--boxing, MMA, wrestling. I don't like watching people beat the snot out of eachother, but it is sooo popular! Why? But at least it's two people who decide to do that to eachother. The animals don't have a choice. And then I think about a friend that says we are all raising a bunch of wussies. I think it is true. We leave no corner uncovered and have so much stuff to protect these kids. I'm surprised we don't make baby clothes out of bubble wrap. But then, what is wrong with protecting our kids? When I was a baby, my mom would put me on the floor of the car in the back. No 5 point safety, dual harness car seat. I rode in the front without a booster seat before the age of 11. I played with a hammer and nails trying to build a fort when I was 5. I wandered around the neighborhood before kindergarten all by myself looking for someone that could come out and play. And I survived relatively unscarred. Some kids aren't so lucky, but then a lot of overprotected kids get hurt and die, too. I just don't know. We can put our bodies through a lot and we survive. Should we test our limits, or is that just ruining our bodies for ego? Or should we make the most out of our lives--do as much as we can--or should we sit home and protect our bodies so we can live to be a ripe old age? Should we eat well or should we enjoy junk food? Anyway, back to the rodeo. I also think it is a part of my heritage. I have gone to the rodeo almost every year of my life. My grandparents owned a ranch and the men were very manly. It is a part of me. We used to go to Colorado to my grandparents ranch every Thanksgiving to brand the cows. Now that was horribly mean. Should we teach our boys to be manly, rough and tumble BOYS, or should we teach them to be sensitive and good husbands and dads that take part in their kids lives and cook and clean? Anyway, I know that if we don't go, the rodeos will still be sold out and they will still be mean to the animals, but I think I have decided that this year I'm just going to go and enjoy since we already have tickets and this will probably be the last year to save myself some guilt. Should I feel guilty? Augh, torn!

Kids Growing Up

The other day I got done at the post office at 2:30 and went to pick up the kids. We went to the sno-cone place and got sno cones and sat at a table and talked. I had such a great time. I love the kids growing up. I love babies--I love their smells (some of them, at least.) and I love their sighs and yawns and cuddles and little baby bodies and just how they are, but I did have a really hard time enjoying all that stuff in between taking care of them. I can really enjoy babies now that I can give them back to their parents. I get to have a quick hold and cuddle, sniff them and enjoy their little baby sounds with none of the worry. It's great. I wish I could have enjoyed that with my kids more--but, let's face it--that would have only happened if we had a nanny. Now that my kids know how to feed themselves and not run into the road, and talk, and are potty trained, it is so much fun! Josh noticed that they had put new stuff at the sno cone place. There are new table and chairs and palm trees and fans with misters and he noticed it all. Then I got regular size sno cones. I used to have them take the tops off because my kids would dig in and spill it EVERYWHERE. Now they can pretty much eat it without spilling. They can take their own sno cones to the table without spilling or dropping them. Then they all made sure as a group effort that we all had seats. There was no fighting, just noticing that Connor had the most shade. The boys got red yellow and blue flavoring which made a pretty rainbow and Kaytlynn got pink, purple, and red. They dug tunnels in their sno cones with their spoon straws and talked about who had the best beyblades and why. It was so enjoyable for me, I just had to sit there eating my sno cone and smile.

Connor and Ellie

Connor just loves Ellie. She is his best friend. I told this to Ellies mom when they had kindergarten graduation, so she left her phone number with their teacher to give to us later. Somehow the number got lost, so I text his teacher who went to great lengths to get me the number. Thank you Mrs. Moosman! So Connor called:




Then Ellie called him back:



Ellie came over to play the next day and Connor just dotes on her and is so protective of her! I don't know how he learned this. I asked if he wanted to put on his T-ball clothes so that he could be all ready for T-ball and he said "No, I want to look nice for Ellie." Then he chose his own clothes. Kaytlynn really liked Ellie, too, and both Connor and Kaytlynn were taking food and drinks to her, asking if she wanted anything. Then Connor had to get ready for T-ball and I guess Brad said that maybe Ellie would like him in his T-ball gear, so he came out, stopped right in front of her, and said "Hi Ellie" all proud. She looked at him like he was a little strange, but then I think she realized he was trying to impress her and she smiled a little smile. We all got in the van and Connor just had to sit right next to her. We couldn't find the van keys, so we switched to the car and Connor unbuckled Ellies seat belt for her and opened the car door. She kind of played with her seatbelt and Connor was all worried that if we got in a wreck that she would get hurt. I dropped Connor off at T-ball and before he would shut the door, he had to be reassured that nothing of Ellies was sticking out that could get shut in the door. She went to close the door and he was like, "No, no, no. I want to shut the door for you." and after making sure one more time nothing was sticking out, he shut the door. This boy is enamored at 5 years old! It could either be really endearing or really annoying how he's treating her. It would be so darn cute if they got married and we had all this on video!

Kids conversations

In the car after Chuck E. Cheeses:

Me: They tore the 7-11 down where we used to get Slurpees.
Kaytlynn: I love Slurpees. I like the red ones. The red ones are dog juice.
Me: Dog juice?
Kaytlynn: Yep, dog juice. It's good.
Josh: How long until we get home?
Me: 20 minutes.
Josh: Okay, if anyone is still awake when we get there, can you please wake me up?
Me: I'm pretty sure I'll be awake, because I'm driving.
Connor: That root beer will probably keep Josh up.
Me: No, it shouldn't keep him up because it doesn't have any caffeine.
Josh: Connor is right. I'm still awake. (He was out 20 seconds later.)
Connor: If I'm still asleep when we get home can somebody just tap me and wake me up?

Kaytlynn was the only one sleeping by the time we got home.

There was a spider on the patio steps and I had no shoes on, so I asked Josh to get it. He wouldn't, so I asked the kids friend to get it, but he didn't have any shoes on, so out came Kaytlynn to the rescue. She brought a knife out and squished it. It had a juicy body that popped, so Kaytlynn said: "Oh, that was a grape spider." She's done her share of grape popping.

Josh always says "If you don't get me some pizza right now, I'm gonna spank you." "If you don't play video games with me right now, I'm gonna spank you." Makes me laugh.

Camping

I love camping. We went camping these last two weekends. The last time I went before that was before Brad and I were married, so it's been 8 years! I used to have all my camping gear in my trunk and almost every night that I had off of work, I would head up to "my" spot up Squaw Peak road in Provo Canyon. Lots of times I'd get up there at 2 or 3 in the morning, make a fire, have some marshmallows, and go to sleep in my sleeping bag under the stars, then wake up with the sun, the birds chirping and the sound of the weeds and trees in the wind. I think my favorite childhood memories are of camping for a week every summer at Lake Shasta with my moms side of the family. I loved being with my family and boating out on the lake. It was just so fun. I think that's why I want a boat so bad, too. Just good memories.
Camping is a bit different when you are the parent. Still a lot of fun, just different. We went to Mona last weekend with Katie and Micah and their 2 nieces and 2 nephews. It was a blast. Katie brought glo sticks for the kids at night and the lifesavers that spark when you crunch them in the dark. They brought a bag of treats for each of the kids. The front of their truck was the designated crying and whining spot. If you wanted to cry or whine, you did it in there, then you could come out. Brilliant idea. They brought their catamaran. I took each of the kids out one at a time. I took Josh first. He steered while I paddled. He LOVED it. He said "This is so fun, this is just so much fun" about 10 times and he said "I want to do this every day." Connor and I had fun paddling out by the ducks and guessing where they would resurface after they dove into the water. Kaytlynn didn't like it at first, but ended up loving it after successfully maneuvering the boat under the bridge. We had fabulous pulled pork sandwiches made by Micah. The kids had a little trouble getting to sleep. There were cows mooing that sounded like they were dying all night. Josh said he couldn't get to sleep because the fire was too loud, so could I please just go and put it out?
We played soccer and baseball. Brad and I also went out on the boat. It was so nice. I laid down and steered and looked at the snow covered mountains and the clouds while Brad paddled. :) We took a couple of rides in the back of Micahs truck through muddy puddles of water and off the road. The kids absolutely loved that, too. They kept begging for another truck ride. They brought their two dogs, which the kids loved, of course. They found snakes, a mouse type thing, and a crawdad. Good times.
Thursday was Josh's last day of 1st grade, so we headed down to Moab to meet the Brusiks. Brad couldn't come because of work, so it was just me and the kids. We made it in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad! We made it back in 2 hours and 38 minutes. Even better! All the campsites were full because it was Memorial Day weekend, so we were just an extra car at Greg and Malas RV site. We stayed at the Moab Valley RV Resort. They had a bunch of activities: A swimming pool and hot tub, mini golf, life size checkers, chess, and chinese checkers, horseshoes, a playground, and tetherball (yes!) Mala absolutely killed me in tetherball. Back in the 5th grade maybe things would have been different, but we'll never know. Caden and Lola are some of the kids favorite friends, so they had a lot of fun playing together. So me and the kids slept in the van (I wrote can there at first. The van is better than the can.) It was funny because the boys totally wrestled around laughing in the back. It made me smile. Kaytlynn was being a total B R A T. She refused to close the door. I left the van keys in Mala and Gregs camper because I just knew I would lock myself out of the van. I closed Kaytlynns door and locked it, so she unlocked it and opened the door and set off our alarm around 11 p.m. I ran to the RV and knocked on their locked door to get the keys and turn the alarm off. I swear that child is going to kill me off. Soon, too. How can such a cute little girl be so conniving? She can also be extremely sweet. We ended that trip with a bumpy car ride and short hike to a beautiful waterfall. My computer is all messed up, so I haven't got pictures on here yet, but I will try to add them later. Thanks Petersons and Brusiks for the camping fun!!

A Day in the Life of Me

Here was my day on Saturday:

Midnight-7 Work

7-7:30 Pick up Bountiful Basket. We got a cantelope, 3 artichokes, lots of onions, lots of apples, lettuce, 3 mangos, blackberries, 5 pieces of corn, a pineapple, and lots more. We love Bountiful Baskets!



7:30-3:30 Worked at the post office. It was the food drive today. I hardly picked up anything compared to last year.

On the route:



I delivered this:



And picked up this:



3:30-4 Planted the garden:



4-5 Took a nap

5-5:30 Got ready

5:30-10:30 Went to the Real Salt Lake game with friends. So fun!



11-midnight Back to work.

Mother's Day 2011

Here are my Mother's Day presents:

A dozen red roses from Brad. They are a week old in this picture-oops!



From Josh. I don't know how to feel about this. Josh has turned into such a little joker. He's hardly ever serious.



Nice pointy teeth I have, and a lot of them!



My moms name is Cara. She is special because she lets me play games. I like it when my mom sbacing (spanking) me. My mom can do many things! I think she's best at doing lonjry. (laundry) My mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by lafing. My mom is as pretty as a...flowr. My mom is smart! She even knows her abc. I'd like to tell my mom...to sbac (spank) me.

From Connor:






"Happy Mother's Day 2011"
My mom is the most wonderful mom in the world! Her name is Kau (Connors spelling). She's pretty as a table cloth. She is 25 years old. She has brown eyes and greyish brownish hair. She weighs 70 pounds and is 7 1/2 feet tall. Her favorite food is lasagna. In the good old days when she was little, she used to go to the park. I think mom is funny when she laughs. But I know she's really angry when I hit my sister. I wouldn't trade my mom for seven dollars. I love my mom because she gives me treats.

From Kaytlynn:



What a treasure!

Lucky

I have been feeling very lucky again lately. I am so lucky to have such great family and friends, healthy kids, and just everything. My friend Sharon was visiting from Tahiti and she totally uplifted me. She's one of those natural therapists and natural mothers. She was giving my kids kisses and telling them she loved them and helping out random crying children who couldn't find their moms at Chuck E Cheeses (where she met us even though she didn't have her kids with her! Now that's a true friend!) She made me feel so good, telling me I was such a good mom and just talking with me about everything so deep. I felt so good for a couple days after wards, and then I felt good for awhile after she called me from the airport in Los Angeles to say bye and tell me what a good friend and mom I was again. I wish she still lived here. Everybody needs a friend like Sharon.

Josh!

Josh and Brad went to Scotland for 9 days and when they got home on a Wednesday night and didn't get in bed until after 11 with 26 hours of travel behind them, I didn't know if Josh would be able to stay awake in school. He woke up at 4 a.m., but he said he was fine when school was starting, so I took him to class and left his teacher with my phone number to call in case he started falling asleep. It just warmed my heart and made me want to cry happy tears when we got to his class and his teacher saw him and was excited and said "Hi Josh!" Then all of the other kids in his class, boys and girls, said "Jossssh!!!" They all started talking at once "Where were you? We didn't know if you were coming back. Where did you go?" A boy said "He went on vacation" and the kids asked where and the boy said "He went on vacation to Scotland." Josh just stood there in one spot, with a blank face like he does. Not a bit of emotion on his face, but I know he was happy that he was greeted back with such enthusiasm. He is such a silly kid. I'm so glad all the kids in his class like him and missed him. His teacher said he's a total ham at the last parent teacher conference. She said he will say funny things in front of the class and make all the kids laugh. A good group of friends and classmates for your child is priceless.

My Mom

Wow. First of all, she came to our house every evening while Brad and Josh were gone to take care of the kids so I could sleep and go to work. All except Friday and Saturday when Dad and mostly Julie watched (and spoiled!) Connor and Kaytlynn. 8 nights she came, would fix dinner, take the kids out on their scooters, or do projects or teach them to cook. Then she'd give them baths and put them to bed, and get up with them in the night, then help me with them in the morning when I got home, then she would go to work and come back that night to help me again. She picked up stuff at the grocery store and cleaned. Basically she was my replacement Brad, and we appreciate her so much! So Wednesday night I went to pick Brad and Josh up from the airport and as we were walking from the baggage claim to the escalator, I suddenly realized my engagement ring was not on my finger. I went to twist it so the diamond was in the right spot, which I do all the time out of habit. I gasped when I realized it was gone and stopped. I looked back and didn't see it on the floor, so I called mom to see if I had left it on the bathroom counter. I always take it off and put it on the counter when I take a shower. I usually put it right back on. She didn't answer and Brad and Josh were tired, and I didn't see it on the floor anywhere, so we went home. I was worried the whole way home. When we got back, I went straight to the bathroom and my ring was not there. I called the airport lost and found and it wasn't there, then I called again to see if they would just scan the area quickly and see if they could find it. They didn't find it. Brad got me my engagement ring in Greece on his way home from minesweeping in Iraq. It is one of a kind and we definitely wouldn't be able to just go get another one that is the same. I had to work at 3 a.m. and it was about 11 p.m. It had been a long day and I was tired, but I knew if I didn't go back to the airport I would always regret not going back to look for it. I thought I could find someone to work my 3-7 shift, go and look, then come back and sleep. Then my mom called and said that she could go look. I took her up on her offer because I was so tired. I went to bed and my mom called at 2:45 a.m., just after my alarm went off. She had just gotten back from the airport. She had talked to security and the cleaning people and found out the police were doing a practice using rubber bullets at the airport at 2 a.m. and they would be doing a big cleanup after that. She had everyone on the lookout for my ring and had other people at the baggage claim helping her look. I felt so bad that she lost so much sleep and I felt so indebted to her. I couldn't believe she would do that for me, because this is a woman who needs her sleep! It made me want to cry that she would do this for me. In the morning when Kaytlynn woke up, I thought I'd just ask, not thinking that anything would come of it. I asked Kaytlynn if she took a ring off the bathroom counter and she didn't say anything, just turned around and went straight to her room. Brad and I followed her as she walked straight to her little doll crib, opened up the cabinet underneath it, and took out a little ziplock bag that had a spare button in it earlier. She looked so proud of herself as she brought it to me, with my ring in it. What a relief!! I felt so bad my mom spent so much time and energy looking for my ring that was at home the entire time. But overall I felt good and happy because I knew my mom would be so happy that I had it. My mom and I did not get along too well when I was growing up. We both hope we will never have to live together again. We have different religious, political, and parenting views, but I love her and I know she loves me, too. Thank you, mom!! This means so much to me!

Now a similar story:
When Josh was just little-1 year old-he would throw things in the garbage all the time and put stuff "away". It was smart to always check the garbage before we took it out to the dumpster because we usually found something in there that didn't belong. One time I was feeding Connor and Josh came to me with a ziplock bag with my engagement ring in it, and he wanted me to close the bag, so I did. When I was done feeding Connor, I went to find Josh so I could get my ring back, and he didn't have the bag. For the next 3 days, I was looking everywhere--in the garbage, in shoes, in drawers--anywhere Josh could get to. I looked through the disgusting garbage and asked Brad not to take it out until I found my ring. I was dreading that I might have to go through the dumpster. Josh couldn't tell me where it was. I finally had an idea, so I put a toe ring in a ziplock bag and sat on my bed (where I was feeding Connor) I called to Josh and he came in sucking on his little pacifier (He was so addicted to pacifiers!) I gave him the bag and was sure to stay where I was so I wouldn't spook him. He walked out to the kitchen and I snuck to the hallway to see where he went. He went and opened up the drawer where we kept the ziplock bags and stuck the bag in the box. So I went out and got the box, and stuffed at the bottom under all the other bags was the bag with my ring. Relief!

One more ring story:
We went to a swimming pool for my work party. I didn't want my ring to fall off in the water, so I put it at the bottom of our pool bag under all the towels. When we were done playing, Brad got the towels out and shook them out, then put them on the kids. We left and I asked Brad if he saw my ring in the pool bag. He looked and didn't see it. We looked everywhere it could be and didn't find it, so I went back to the pool to look while they were having a private party. I looked in the grass around the area we were in for 15 or 20 minutes and couldn't find it. That night I went back with a flashlight to find it. I was going to jump the fence and look if nobody was there to let me in, but then I saw a no trespassing sign and that it was under camera surveillance, so I went home. In the morning I went back to look before the park was open and spent a long time looking with no luck. It was such a big area that the ring could have been flung into and the grass was wet, so it was shiny and sparkly everywhere. I wanted to cry. I thought I'd have to rent a metal detector and go back. I saw something shine in the grass, so I went to look and it was just a hair elastic with that little metal piece on it. I was really ready to go and I was late to something and I thought that I could go check out shiny wet grass all day long, so I tried to talk myself out of looking for a split second, but then I decided I'd just look at that one place, and it was my ring! I couldn't believe it. This is why I do not like having real, expensive jewelry, and if I do, I don't wear it, because I am so afraid of losing it. For good reason! I should probably go get a fake ring to wear around and put mine in the the safe or something. Seriously.

Is it a Big Deal or a Big Squeal?

Connors teacher says this, apparently. Connor says it almost any time Josh comes to tell on Kaytlynn for doing something. "Is it a big deal, or is it a big squeal?" Most of the time he comes to the conclusion that it is a big squeal and he really takes the time to think about it and not come to me with big squeals. Monday Connor and I went snowboarding. When we went to pick up Kaytlynn at my stepmoms house, she had been spoiled as usual, and Connor said he wanted a toy, too. He kept whining over and over "I want a toy." Then he stopped and said "I am going to say this one more time. Then if I am going to say it again, I will do this." He clapped his hand over his mouth. I thought that deserved a toy! He did not say it again, and he fell asleep on the way home, so I didn't stop at the store. He woke up when we got home, and looked at me with dissapointed eyes, clapped his hand over his mouth, and looked at me with puppy dog eyes. My mom graciously took him to the dollar store for a toy so I could go to bed. Kaytlynn said that while she was at grandma and grandpas, they all had a tea party. What good grandparents. Imagining the 3 of them having a tea party together on my dads break between jobs makes me smile :)

I Gave up Today

Today was supposed to be a great fun day. The plans were for me to get home from work at 7:15, read Josh and Connors school books and help them with their homework, get Josh ready for school and take him to school, come home and try to catch a quick nap, then take a shower, get Kaytlynn and Connor ready and go to the Mom and Me fiedtrip at Jumpin' Jacks for Kaytlynns pre-school. I had plans to really go jump and play with her and Connor, not just sit and watch them like I usually do because I'm just too tired. That's why I wanted to catch a quick nap, so I wouldn't be too tired. I also wanted to get a shower so I wouldn't be stinky and possibly embarrass my kids. I was supposed to take a shower last night before work, but apparently my body wasn't happy with 6 hours of sleep and wanted to take that extra 35 minutes. I can't blame it because Sunday I got 4 hours of sleep in the morning after working all night, then went to my moms for dinner and to celebrate her and Brads birthdays, then came home and only managed to get an hour more of sleep before I went and worked all night from 11 to 7, then went straight to the post office and worked until 4:45. Then I went and picked up the kids, got them some dinner, ran to the grocery store, and went home and got 4 hours of sleep, once again my body deciding I needed a little more sleep rather then a shower. So then I went to work at 11 to 7 and got a call in the morning that the post office needed me to come in. I called around to see who could take the kids, went home, got the kids all ready, took Josh to school, took the kids to Wendys, went to do the auxillary route. I was starving, but just wanted to get it done. I got that done around 1:45, then went to pick up Kaytlynn. I had a nice chat with Wendy until 2:40--our chats always make me laugh. Then I went to pick up the boys from school at 2:45. Went and grabbed some McDonalds, went to the grocery store, went home and found the boys shin guards, found out I was supposed to call everyone on Connors team to remind them of the game, so I made whirlwind calls to 10 people. Then my wonderful step sister called so we could figure out my dad and Julies birthday party coming up. Brad went and picked up treats for soccer while I did that. Then we were trying to get both boys ready for soccer and Kaytlynn ready to go. They both played at 6:15 on different fields. Thank goodness they aren't playing at different parks this year, that was rough. Kaytlynn was being a little punk. She is such a hot blooded girl and is always hot. She will go into a frenzy because when she's hot, it also smells bad to her. I think breathing in the warmer, fuller air makes her think it stinks. She also decided she was hungry and the only thing she would take is mac and cheese. So I started making her mac and cheese 25 minutes before the game started. I thought I could quickly make it and take it with us, but Brad took the pot off the stove (and left the stove on!), so that didn't work. We finally got all the kids into the car and Kaytlynn started having a fit because she was starving but she would only eat mac and cheese. So I dropped Brad, Josh, and Connor off at 6:13. Brad ran Josh to his game, then ran with Connor to his game (which Brad is co-coaching) I took the starving, whining girl to Wendys. She did not want anything there, so I just got some chicken nuggets and some fries hoping she would stop being so stubborn and picky and be so starving that she would try something. When we dropped the boys off earlier, the entire parking lot was packed. There was not one spot left and the parking lot is pretty big. When we got back from Wendys, there were some spaces pretty close, so that was a positive. Also, the Wendys line was not that long, so another positive. So we got a spot, then sat in the car and luckily Kaytlynn tried the chicken and thought it was so good. Yay! Then it was a struggle trying to get her shoes on. She always puts her shoes on, whines "It feels funny." and then screeches and tries to kick them off in a rage. The shoe ordeal with her always takes a good 5 minutes with lots of whining, screaming, and crying. She usually ends up wearing no socks (which is why her shoes and then her feet stink!) and has the shoes on the wrong feet, but whatever. That is fine with me. So we got the shoes on and went to watch Josh's team play, since Brad was over helping coach Connors team. It was cold, so Kaytlynn huddled under the blanket. There was a cute little girl that came over and was staring at Kaytlynn. Kaytlynn put a scowl on her face and said "Why is that little girl staring at me? She just keeps staring at me!" scowling the whole time. I smiled at the girl, and she smiled back this cute, cute smile. I looked back at Kaytlynn who was still scowling at her. I told Kaytlynn to say "Hi, I'm Kaytlynn, what's your name?" or ask "How old are you?" or say "I like your jacket." But no, she just kept scowling. Poor little girl. Josh's game ended around 7:30. One of the apple juice boxes had leaked all over the other juices and snacks in the plastic bag, so I was dealing with that mess while Brad took Connor to the bathroom because he had to go so bad. I had to pick up Joshs soccer schedule, then figure out how to get all the garbage, treats, soccer balls, and cones, jackets, and kids to the car. I ended up putting all the soggy stuff in the grocery bag and taking all the soggy but still good stuff and folding it up in the blanket and hoisting the soccer and cone bag over one shoulder. Kaytlynn whined that she was cold and she wanted me to carry her, but that wasn't happening. So we made our way slowly to the car, freezing and whining. The boys slid down the slide a couple times and we made it to the car. Oh, yeah. I started feeling bad before the game--headache, sore throat, fever. Ug. So I went to spend time in the cold weather, blah! I just wanted to sleep. So we made it home and I slept for 6 1/2 hours. Did not get up in time for a shower, so still stinky from working at the post office. Got up and went to work at 3a.m. until 7, went home and started the daily struggle of trying to convince kids to do everything--homework, eat, get ready, brush teeth, go to the bathroom (None of my kids use the bathroom at school. They just hold it, yikes!) One of them usually ends up having to poo right as we are rushing out the door because we are going to be late. Bring on the lateness....you can't exactly not let them do that. So we are back to the plans I had for the day. Come home from work, do homework and reading, eat, get all ready, take Josh to school, take a short nap, take a shower, go refreshed to play with my kids at Jumpin' Jacks, take Connor to school, go back and have some mother/daughter time at Jumpin' Jacks, and pick the boys up at 2 (early out day) Then I was going to try to catch another little nap, get the kids fed, homework and reading done, go to a work meeting for an hour, eat dinner, then go to a Flash game at 7. We got the Utah County Pass of All Passes which gives us unlimited mini golf, laser tag, slick track racing, batting cages, Seven Peaks water park passes, roller coaster and other games, and tickets to every home game of Flash basketball and the Orem Owlz baseball. We have not gotten around to going to a Flash game and tonight was the last one. Since we weren't able to go to the Jazz game for Brads birthday, I thought we could all go to the Flash game and have a good time. I even got someone to cover my 11 to 3 shift. So here's how the day actually went. I got home at 7:15 and was talking to the kids. I looked out the window and saw the guy who carpools with Brad and realized I hadn't heard him up. So I went in and woke him up and he was mad at me for not waking him up earlier or setting the alarm for him. He got up and out the door. Then the kids ate and we were going to do homework and reading and get all ready for school, when all the whining and crying and fighting started. They all wanted me to do stuff for them, but I was trying to make Josh's lunch. The only lunch bag we had was a Dora lunch bag and Josh did not want that, so I was trying to turn it inside out and it was ripping. I didn't have any clean good knifes to cut up his apples, so I used a butter knife and Josh did not like the way they looked. We had to go through a pile of laundry to find clean socks. I think Josh's new soccer cleats kind of rubbed the back of his heel and it was a little red and hurt a little. No blisters or anything. I told him he needed to wear his other shoes, not his high top ones that were hurting him. He refused, because he likes those shoes and he said he will not wear his other shoes to school. Whenever he tried to stand up and walk, though, he was crying. I tried to bargain with him, and look at the problem intellectually, and have him come up with a solution to the problem. He was being so stubborn, and then he said, well, now I'm so late already, I'm not going to school. The whole time, Kaytlynn and Connor were whining and crying for stuff and fighting with eachother. I got very overwhelmed. My kids are so stubborn. I also remember going to school every morning with a red splotchy face because I had been crying because my mom wouldn't let me leave the house until I ate my oatmeal. I have Crohns disease and if I eat early in the morning, especially something scratchy like oatmeal, my stomach will hurt the rest of the day. Other bad things happen, too, but that's too gross to write, so we will leave it at it hurts. I don't want to have a struggle with my kids every single day they have to go school. I want everyone to be happy and with non splotchy crying faces when they go somewhere. So we were 20 minutes late by now, so I called the school and said that he was late. They said they'd just excuse him for the day and if he came he could go to the office and check in. Then Kaytlynn started whining and being a brat. First she didn't want to go to Jumpin Jacks with the kids in her class. Then she didn't want the teachers to be there, and then she didn't want me to go. Well, by this time I was already feeling pretty broken down, so why make it a stuggle to go and do something so fun? They were making me crazy and I put myself on a time out. I came in and layed in bed--depressed. The kids of course did not leave me alone. They kept coming in wanting stuff. We didn't go to Jumpin Jacks, I didn't even take Connor to school. I had them all home all day making messes everywhere. I lay in bed--got a little sleep and a little thinking done. Lots of whining, crying kids in and out all day. Josh missed school, Kaytlynn and I missed her jumpin jacks field trip, Connor missed school, I missed a meeting I had at 4, and we are currently missing the Flash game. Brad came home and was SO MAD at me because the house was a total mess and the kids didn't go to school.
I have ideas that I'm all excited about and when other people don't share my enthusiasm, it just crushes my idea and I don't have the desire or drive to make it happen. Just too tired. Well, tomorrow will be another day, so hopefully it goes more how I'd it like. Good night! for 2 hours til I have to go to work. Sorry for the rotten post!

Med Truck

Here is an idea that I have wanted to make into a video for a long time now. If anybody has the desire to make my dream come true, please do!

Focus in on an elderly couple sitting at their dining room table. You can hear faint music. The old man turns up his hearing aid and his face lights up. It is an ice cream truck tune. They look at eachother and get up as fast as their old legs will let them. Next we see old people flocking out of their houses, very excited. They are walking just as fast as they can. Some with walkers, some with canes. They are all headed for the ice cream truck playing the music. But it turns out that it's not an ice cream truck. They wouldn't like that any way because of their sensitive teeth. They are after the Med Truck. They all want to be first in line to get the best meds before they sell out. One man with a walker throws a rope or bedsheet or something that catches the truck, and the man hangs on to the sheet and bounces along behind the truck, hanging on to his walker, which also bounces along. K. I can't finish the rest right now, but I thought it would be hilarious!

Dance Monkey, Dance!

I dread working Wednesday and Thursday nights with Lana. She makes me tap dance on the table for her to keep her awake. She makes me bring microwave popcorn so she can eat it while she watches me dance. We work 2 nights a week together and Wednesday night she spends the whole night coming up with complicated dance routines and expects me to have them memorized perfectly for Thursday night. Sometimes Melvina stays and watches, too. Lana made me buy her a taser off the internet and if I try to take a break, she tases me and says "Dance monkey, dance!" Then she makes me do all the checks and she tases me to make me jump up and go when I'm too emotionally and physically exhausted to get up on my own. Melvina is thinking about getting a taser of her own off the internet, so she doesn't have to drive all the way to Lanas house to borrow hers every time we work together. Melvina wants tasing capabilities because she also does not want to do any checks. Help me! What should I do? Oh no, now Wendy is telling me that she might make me dance for her, too!

It's the President!

Connor, Connor, Connor. The kid is so darn loveable. Since his birthday is in the summer, they are celebrating it today at school. He wanted to take cupcakes, circle graham crackers (Ritz crackers) and water. I helped him take it all into his class. The principal was outside his classroom and Connor says to me "Look! It's the president!" Then says "Hi Mr. President!" as he passed him to go into his class. Everywhere we go--and I'm not kidding--everywhere, kids and adults say hi to Connor. Kids of all ages know him and all seem excited to see him. The other day he got some bubbles with his "Moose Bucks". His teachers name is Mrs. Moosman and she hands out moose bucks when kids are good and they can buy stuff with them. As we walked out of the school, kids and adults were saying hi to Connor and he showed everybody his bubbles and said "Look! 10 moose bucks! Look! 10 moose bucks!" left and right. The computer teacher came out the door and Connor says "Hi computer teacher! Look! 10 moose bucks!" Connor was just born very loveable. He was a pretty baby. He very rarely cried. Only if he was absolutely starving. I would put him in the bassinette and he'd just look up at me and smile. I would go get stuff done, come back, and he'd be asleep. Not a peep out of him. In the morning I would wake up and go to see if he was still sleeping, and he would be laying in his bassinette smiling. He has the sweetest little face and his laugh is one that makes you crack up and want to keep doing whatever it is that is making him laugh. He reminds me of Feivel the mouse. This sweet little face and these big ears sticking out. :) Little girls love to take care of him. He holds girls hands all the time. When he played soccer last year, there was a kid on his team who seriously probably weighed twice as much as Connor. He was tall and big. We would run over to the field and his teammates would all say hi and this kid would pick Connor up and swing him around. Connor would laugh his laugh and smile. So funny. We went to a work party at the water park and one of my friends kids was named Connor and the same age. I told Connor and he asked where he was. I pointed him out and Connor went straight over to him like they were old friends, put his hands on his face and smiled and asked "You're 4?" The other Connor was a little scared, but it reminded me of my grandma. If there is another older woman around, my grandma is instant friends. She will go over and put her hand on her shoulder, smiling and nodding, and help her with anything and make her feel very welcome, no matter where we are. They have a common bond because of their age. I went to parent teacher conference and Mrs. Moosman started telling me who his friends were, then stopped and said "Well, he's just friends with everyone. He's very friendly." I dropped him off to school and I don't think he really thought about it and did it on purpose, but he opened the door for a girl and let her walk in. He's going to be such a heartbreaker. I went to help with a class party and another mom told me that she asked her daughter who was the cutest boy in the class and she said Connor and Micah. I went to the Dads and Donuts day (pals and donuts, really). I had to bring Kaytlynn with me and Connor went over and got 2 donuts. I gave mine to Kaytlynn and Connor ran back over and asked for another one for his mom. Then he went to get us all water. He walked back very carefully with 3 cups of water, then he took our napkins and threw them away. He told me this morning that he was the shortest one in his class. I asked if he was shorter than all the boys and he said "Yeah, I'm shorter than all the boys--and all the girls!" Sorry about the genes there, kiddo! One downfall is the kid does not know how to hurry. He is a professional lollygagger. It is almost impossible to get him anywhere on time. He has to run around making tracks in the snow instead of getting straight in the car. When I drop him off at school, he can't just walk down the stairs and go in the door, he has to run a few circles on the grass and then jump down from the top stair to the bottom stair, then look back at me to see if I saw him and see if I was impressed. One time he ran down the snow and slipped and fell, then jumped up, looked back at me and gave me a smile and a thumbs up. He also cannot find things that are right in front of him. He'll ask where something is and we'll spot it right there and he cannot find it. He'll look around the whole room and not see something right in front of him. I think that kind of comes along with a very laid back personality. Okay, Kaytlynn is claiming the computer now. She plays on pbskids.org and paint. She's growing up!

Augh!!!

Kaytlynn was THE WORST child today. Just when I thought she had come up with every possible way to annoy us all, she would find something else to do even more annoying. Most people are in voluntary compliance 99% of the time, meaning that we are doing what we should and not wreaking havoc and following the public unspoken guidelines. Kaytlynn was probably at 50% today. We went to WalMart and she was grabbing anything she could get her hands on, pulling stuff off the shelf, trying to jump in and out of the shopping cart, crying and whining and wandering off, then running when I told her to come. She was in an all out run and I had to leave the cart with my purse and chase her down. She's a pretty fast kid. I caught her and picked her up and she was screaming and crying and hitting and kicking me. She decided she wanted a new shirt and that's all I heard over and over for the rest of our shopping trip (which was cut short because of her behavior) Crying and whining "I want a new shi-irt. I want a new shi-irt." She tried to press all the buttons on the credit card swiper thingy and grabbed the electonic pen and would not let it go. I had to pry each finger off of it. Then she was whining for candy. She ended up in lots of time outs and no candy for the day. At home she was bugging us all. She would stand right between the boys and the TV so they couldn't see it. She kept wrecking Connors car ramps he was making because she "wanted to stand there." She would lunge for the computer and slam all the keys with her hands and when I would block her hands, she used her feet to hit all the keys. I would be cleaning up one mess and she would be making another. She took Connors chapstick and mushed it all over our bedroom furniture because "I HATE your bedroom furniture!" Poor Connor was all "My lipstick!" As I was cleaning that up she was pouring my makeup down the drain. She took off the cap of the shampoo and was pumping hand soap into it and squirting the Visine out. She'd grab something, I would get it away from her and she was grabbing something else. On her time outs in her room she pulled all her clothes out of the drawers. She was hitting and kicking the boys, turning off the TV, unplugging the computer...I don't know how she comes up with so many things she can do to bug us simultaneously. Honestly, I wish I had a padded room I could have locked her in today. I found myself stuffing chocolate in my mouth, like that would somehow make it better. She did have some sweet moments where she was giving me sweet hugs and kisses. Then she'd say "Am I being so good?" and I'd say "Yes! You are being so sweet and nice! This is just how we like you!" Then she'd ask for candy so sweetly with a nice please at the end. When I would tell her that she did not get any candy for the rest of the day because she was being so naughty she would yell at me "BUT I WAS BEING NICE!!!" If we closed a door, she wanted it open. If we put something away, she wanted it out. Anything the boys were playing with, she wanted it and would try and grab it away. I was so glad when Brad got home and I handed her over to him. What a sucky day in Mommy land. As all this was going on, I was thinking that I'm glad she didn't do what she used to do, which was smear her own poop all over the carpet or pee on the carpet on purpose. I tried to give her positive attention. I tried to read with her and cook with her, but she was just on one today. Ug!