Am I the Grinch in Disguise?

The Christmas frenzy is in full force, and I think Santa and his elves threw up all over our house. Decorations are everywhere, and have been since I lost my mind on December 1st and let the kids help me decorate. Usually, I am more likely to wait till the week before, and then take it all down by noon on Christmas day. I was doing ok until tonight when I realized that my house has been taken over. My bedroom has been turned into gift-wrapping central, the living room has toy ads (with the desired toys circled in black marker) scattered in stragegic places, the dining room table has the remainders of the Christmas card marathon on it, the kitchen, oh, my poor kitchen, has been the scene of cookie baking episodes, ornament creations, and tonight it was Ri, Trey, and Liam's gingerbread house construction site. I don't know when it will ever be back to normal. Actually, I do know. 12:00pm December 25th!!

Whoo! Hoo! Clean Closets and Random Stuff!

Here are some more pictures of baby Colby. Isn't he just sweet?

Yesterday, I went crazy and cleaned some closets. I was tired of dodging whenever I went into them, and I wanted to take a bunch of stuff to the DI. I wish I had thought to take "before" pictures but I did take some "after" pictures, and though they may not look like they are organized, for me, they really are. And besides, the one on the right is only my side of the closet, which is always a mess, while Dee's side is never a mess.

Today has been a frenzy of cleaning and baking. My parents and my sister, Hillary and her family are coming for dinner tomorrow. The house smells great, and the kids are getting really excited! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

New Addition!

We have a new addition to our family! Zachary's son was born this morning at 5:43, weighing in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and he has lots of dark hair. He has a fever, so they are keeping him in the hospital for a few days. Needless to say the kids are very excited about this and can't wait to see him. Dee and I went to see him tonight, and he is so sweet! We are so in love with him already, that we can't stand it.

Just another freaking day in paradise!

Ok, honestly, I got the title from a sign that I have in my kitchen, but it reflects my daily life. And sometimes I don't even mean it in a sarcastic way! I know, that is hard to believe. Thursday was a good example. I exercised at 5:30 am, then got the kids off to school, went to work, then had to hurry home to make a cake for Devin's 17th (that's right, the kid turned 17!) birthday, and the soup he requested for dinner. In my head, I had envisioned a lovely family dinner, followed by cake and some fun conversation. Well, that isn't exactly how it worked out. We had the nice dinner, and the cake, then Devin took his loot and headed to the basement. I think Zac was wondering why he bothered to drive out to the house for it, except that free food, is free food and he is all for that. So it was a good day. My kid survived another year, and we did have good food, but as usual it wasn't quite the what I had planned. Just like the rest of my life.

We are looking forward to the coming week which will include some big events. Number one, Liam turns 9 on Wednesday. Number two, election day is Tuesday (get out and vote you people!) and thus ends the irritating political commercials. Three, Rianne goes in to get her arm X-rayed to see if she can take off her cast. Four, Dee and I are going to Cheyennne for the weekend, if Dad gets out of the hospital. We'll see if life this week goes according to plan. Keep your fingers crossed!

Too Much to Remember?

Today I have decided that I just simply have too much to remember, and that is why I forget so many things. On an average day I have to remember my name, my address, my birthday (even though I'd rather forget that), my phone numbers, my children's names, which teachers they have, the date, and whether I have anything in the kitchen to make for dinner, if I have to go to work and how to explain subject/verb agreement when I get there. Then there are the doctor, dentist, vet, and hair appointments. That list doesn't even include PIN numbers, passwords, and social security numbers for heaven's sake. My brain doesn't have any room for such trivial things like did Rianne leave the house with her hair done, or is Devin really still wearing his church socks on Thursday?

But why does my brain hold on to strange things, but not other more normal things? Why can I remember one of my best buddies' parents' phone number from 20 years ago, but not whether my kids are up-to-date on their tetnus shots? Why can I remember the name of the jerk who sat behind me in health class (Jack), but not my neighbor's? What is up with that? Shouldn't there be an expiration date on some things, so they can just dissappear when no longer needed, making room for new things? So, for instance, when you get new liscence plates for your car, the old number would be deleted and the new one would take its place. My kids would just like it if I could look at them and say their name with out running through all their syblings' names first. I must admit, that would be an improvement. But at least I don't call them what's-your-name. Yet. One more password to remember, and their names might be next to go!

Ranting and Raving!

Oh, my heck! What a life. A couple of weeks ago, we got a computer virus that wiped everything out. We have to reload all the programs and we are missing several discs, including the one that puts the pictures from the digital camera onto the computer. We also lost all the pictures we had on the computer. This is really annoying, because I would love to post pictures of our weekend.

This weekend we went camping near Palisades Resevoir with some friends. They brought their ATVs and motorcycles, which thrilled Dee and the kids. I, not being a fan of riding on ATVs and motorcycles, was not so thrilled as I could see at least one owie in our future. This little prophetic vision didn't take long to fulfill, but not with the kid ( Liam) that I thought it would be. Rianne, getting instructions from Treyven, jumped on a Honda 70 and tried to ride. She wasn't clear on the where the breaks were, and instead of breaking kept shifting up. All I heard from inside the trailer was Rianne screaming, and then all the rest of the kids screaming. Rianne had driven off an embankment into the stream. She wasn't wearing a helmet (of course), and so her face is a mass of road rash, she broke her right arm, and got a concussion too. Poor kid. She was a good sport, and spent the rest of the weekend just playing, and hanging out and freezing in the rain with everyone else!

Getting out!

Today was a fun day! I went with Trey and Rianne on their sixth grade field trip to Craters of the Moon National park. I have driven past this place often, but have never thought to actually stop there before. We spent the day hiking aroung on the trails to check out lava cones, and volcanoes, and climbing through caves. There was a couple of times that I was sure that we were crazy for trying to get through some of the spaces that we were in, but we made it. It was really beautiful weather. Nice and warm outside the caves, and down right chilly in the caves. It was so neat, that Ri, Trey and I all agree that we will have to camp their sometime.

Speaking of camping, we are going this weekend. Just saw the forecast, and it looks like I had better pack our rain gear. Dee had better make sure that the heater in the trailer works! Snow in October again! This is just wrong. Despite the weather, I am looking forward to getting in one more trip this year. I'll let you know if we freeze!

The Summer is over

Well, with the Top of Utah marathon over, it really feels like summer is over too. I spent so much time running this summer, that the kids told everyone that's where I was even when I was home and out of sight! Oh, well it was worth it. I didn't do as well as I had hoped as I fell in the first mile, rolled my ankle, and wrenched my knee and then it was pretty painful to run on it. It was better after I got it taped up at the first aid sation, but it still took me an hour longer to finish the race than I had planned. My finishing time was 5 hours and 39 minutes. But at least I finished, and I am so happy about it. I am also determined to run it again, without the fall. The course is beautiful, and if I hadn't fallen, I think I would have really enjoyed it.

The kids have started school, and I have gone back to work at ISU in the writing center, and so life is getting back on a schedule. However, we are going camping one more time before leaving summer truly behind. I just hope that we don't get snow as early as we did last year, or this will be one very chilly campout!