Yes it's another BYU football post, just suck it up and deal with it, K. You know how much you look forward to these.

Okie dokie, peeps. It's time for yet another of my famous football posts. I know you have all been waiting with baited breath. And don't worry this post full of pictures will not disappoint. Let's just say that it was a heck of day for football.

I was not going to attend the game, but a very kind person in my ward offered me her tickets. She wasn't going and it was a very happy coincidence indeed. I invited my brother, but he had to work, and so I knew that T was up from down south and wanted to go. Thanks to facebook messaging, I invited her and she was thrilled. Who says blogging doesn't pay off?

I arrived at the game a little bit late because of not getting to Provo sooner. But better late than never. I made sure that I was properly attired in all my BYU gear. Here I took a shot of myself as I was entering the stadium.

And here I made the security guard take my picture. She might have muttered something about my craziness under her breath. I'm not quite sure.
Here is the sign they put up just for me. How did they know it would be necessary? Hmmmm.

T was slightly behind me in the drive up, so I watched from the entrance until she got there. After purchasing kettle corn, we made our way up to our seats.

I had not been to these seats and so asked another kind orange coated young man. He gave directions, and we proceeded to where we thought the seats were. Of course they were in the middle of the row and so we made about twelve people stand up as we made our way to the seats. Now mind you, I had a large coat, sweat shirt, and bag overflowing in my arms. And T of course had her cozy. No offense Kristina, but the cozy is uber soft. People were kind and pretended they were not annoyed at us as we trampled on their toes.

Funny thing someone else was sitting in our seats. Not so funny, we were in the wrong section. And so we made our way back over all the people we had just annoyed. All the time saying "So sorry, pardon me, excuse me." We were not pop-u-lar at all. Not even a little.

At this point there was only 3 minutes until half time. So I suggested we sit in the aisle. And then we noticed two empty seats right on the aisle. We sat there, instead of treading all the way to the middle of another row.

It just so happens that four blog souls sisters met up at half time. It was so cool. Here are T, me, April, and Barbaloot. Are we just the cutest thing you have ever seen? Yeah, I thought so too. I totally loved Barb's cute white coat. Very stylish and color coordinated.

T took this picture of me as we made our way closer to high five the team.
And she was also kind enough to snap this shot of me in the process of the high five.
After the game, T had to go home with her husband, but I went and hung out with April. She taught me the stalker skill of hanging out by the locker room entrance so you can see the players when they leave. And who did we bump into, but Queen's mom, who also happens to be Max Hall's grandmother. Of course we needed a picture with her.
Here I am with a pile of stadium chairs. Don't ask why I got this picture, but it was covered with BYU and so I needed my picture with them.
And here I am with Brian Karia. And who is that popping into the picture aka the Sound of Music, cuckoo song. So funny April. Love ya, girl.
And guess who was next, to play the "Get your picture with the nuttiest fan ever" game. Yes that's right. Coleby Clawson. The very player who put the hit on Sam Bradford and took him out of the game when we played Oklahoma. Look at me, I am not the least bit happy and excited about that, now am I.
And here was April's turn to get her picture with Coleby. His wife was a good sport about sharing him with us.
The next contestant, Manase Tonga. Yes people, how cute is he. And he can run also.
Dennis Pitta and Max Hall showed up next. I didn't make them get their picture with me because I got my picture with them last year. I did snap this shot of Dennis chatting it up with some kids.
Now Jan Jorgensen. He is a big guy. Such a good sport also.


And last, but surely not least, ME AND HARVEY UNGA!!! I can't believe it. You just have to pick these people out of the crowd as they leave the stadium. Harvey likes to sneak out and try to avoid some of the crazies like me. But it was not to be. I had to wait behind several small boys, but finally it was my turn.

All in all, it was amazing. I loved it all, but feel like I didn't really see the game. Maybe I will have to re-watch it. And I think I am coming closer to being a topic of discussion in the locker room. Wouldn't that be cool to end up on a poster warning the players to watch out for this "uber fan".

My toilet runneth over!

Once upon a time, (well ok, it was Friday morning, if you must know) there was a grumpy, exhausted maiden who was wont to linger longer in bed.

Alas, her daughter exclaimed, "Arise from thy bedchamber and drive me in the carriage to the house of education. Hasten, for we have languished in bed too long and the time is nigh at hand for the bell of tardiness to ring."

And so the grumpy maiden arose post haste and descended her stairs, whilst rubbing her eyes, longing for a short drive in the carriage, where upon she would return to her bedchamber for a long, lingering, nap, whilst all her children were attending school.

But alas her dream was in vain. Because upon entering her chamber for TV watching, her eyes beheld that an evil wizard had cast a spell turning the laminate floor into a swamp. Yea, verily even the guinea pig hangeth ten as her cage floated across the floor.

In great hast, the grumpy maiden gathereth all the towels of the house and hastened to rescue items of value that were beginning to succumb to the flood. There was much scurrying and bailing. And running to and fro to empty the contents of the room.

And woe, some of the books were soaked to destruction. But by some twisted turn of fate, none of them belongeth to the library, and so no fines of torture were inflicted upon the maiden.

And then the maiden's fair daughter cried out "Woe is me, today is the day scheduled for physical exertion and my running shoes are wet like unto a soggy sponge."

And the grumpy maiden looked and saw that it was true. And verily, the maiden exhorted the fair daughter to wear her slip on footwear and promised to dry the running shoes with the aid of the fire breathing dragon that lives inside the dryer.

Indeed, the grumpy maiden exclaimed for the fair daughter to make haste, for the time was short and the bell ringing was nigh at hand. And so they hastened to the carriage and managed to arrive at the house of education just as the bell ringing started and with out peril to any pedestrians or crossing guards.

The now soggy, grouchy, grumpy maiden returned home to continue her flood fighting efforts. Wielding a broom she did gird up her loins and proceed to sweep as much of the water as possible out of the back door onto the porch.

And hark she heard a rapping at the door. And behold it was her friend with her two small children arriving to harvest her pomegranates, because the grumpy, grouchy maiden hath no time for jelly making. The soggy, grouchy, grumpy maiden exhorted the children to watch out for the slippery floor. And whilst her friend tarried in the pomegranate vineyard, the maiden returned to sopping and mopping.

Whilst sopping and mopping, the telephone rangeth, and the maiden ran to and fro looking for a phone that was fully charged. The phone call informed her of the impending arrival of her new stove from the place of home warranties. This was fortuitous as the maiden could enter a plea to the home warranty place for help in the plumbing department at the very same time. And yea, her plea was of the 911 nature. The soggy, grouchy, grumpy maiden was assured that the plumber would make haste to her rescue.

The maiden was receiving a new stove, because her old stove was old like unto Methuselah and was no longer performing the purpose for which it was intended. Yea, the pilot light did stick whenever the stove was used, and continued clicking for the entire cooking time, whether it be 20 minutes or 2 hours. And the ticking thereof grateth on the grumpy maiden's nerves. And behold the stove repairman declared the old stove to be unfixable, and so a new stove was sent for.

Upon hearing of the new stove's arrival, the maiden redirected her efforts from the sopping and mopping to the pushing and shoving of the furniture to prepare a path for the new stove.

For verily the way from the front door to her kitchen was very narrow and fraught with obstacles.

The maiden searched high and low through out her house for every available towel to be used in the sopping and mopping. Yea even, she began using the magical clothes washing machine, in order to obtain more dry towels.

Shortly thereafter the bell of the door rangeth. And the soggy, grouchy, grumpy maiden hastened to the door and inquired "Are you here for the stove or the plumbing?" And verily it was for the stove.

And whilst the soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden continued the process of sopping and mopping, the workman removed the old stove. And they did bestow pity upon the maiden, for they did have great empathy for her woeful state of dampness.

And whence the ancient stove was removed, the maiden looked and saw years of crumbs collected beneath the old stove. And the maiden put her shoulder to the wheel in removing the scourge of filth found there upon. And yea verily the crumbs were hard like unto cement. After some wailing and gnashing of teeth, the grime was removed.
And behold, the grumpy, grouchy maiden began receiving pleas from her son in the tenth grade. Yea, he did text and call her exceedingly often, saying that he felt light in the head and needed to come home. And verily, the grumpy maiden did exhort her son to sucketh it up and stay at school. Yea, and she was not amused at his persistence in exclaiming his impending death if she did not rescue him. But the grouchy maiden was firm and immovable in her resolve that he would complete the day of his education. And his pleas did fall upon deaf ears. For truly she was otherwise occupied.

The new stove was installed, and the maiden saw that it was good. For it was beautiful to behold, in that it was black like unto the fridge and dishwasher, unlike the old beige stove.

The workmen finally retired to their carriage, and the soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden looked and saw that the time for the daughters physical exertion was nigh at hand, yea even 5 minutes away.

And the maiden took great haste in finding socks and taking the running shoes to the office of the house of education and bestowed the partially dried running shoes upon the fair daughter.

The fair daughter pled with the grumpy maiden saying "Today is the designated day for families to feast with their children during lunch time. Yea, please bringeth me a BIG Mac from the House of McDonalds as a token of your love and devotion." And the silly, soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden replied that she would do her best.

And so she returned to the task of sopping and mopping.

Verily all of her efforts seemed to be in vain, for every time she looked, more water was seeping up through the laminate flooring.

And behold, the phone did ringeth again. And the grumpy maiden received the news of the plumbers longed for arrival. But woe unto the fair daughter because it was at the same time as the hour of lunch.

Yea and verily the fair daughter did call and plead with great vigor for the grouchy maiden to come hither with her BIG Mac. And the maiden had to deny the pleas of her daughter, yea even though they were many, and the daughter did wail and gnash her teeth at the news that she would have to eat hot lunch that day.

And behold, the doorbell ringeth again, and lo it was the plumber. And the soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden did invite him into her abode of sogginess.

And verily, the plumber did search low and high for the source of the flooding, but to no avail. He discovereth not the source of the water. And the grumpy maiden did follow him around and give many suggestions. But alas they could not discover from whence the water was flowing.

Finally, as a last resort, the plumber suggested cutting a whole in the ceiling of the TV watching chamber roon

. Yea, even though the home warranty would not cover repairing the damage done by the hole cutting. And the grumpy maiden did giver her consent for what else could she do?

And the plumber did say unto the distraught soggy maiden, let me run and get a waiver for thee to sign away all thy liabilities. And the maiden did despair, for it is never a good thing when someone says "Let me get a waiver."

And verily, not one hole but two were caused to be cut in the ceiling. But alas, that was not the source of the leaking either. And the soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden began to despair.

For she had mopped up buckets and buckets of water, and still there was no end in sight.

And behold there was a plate of brownies sitting on the kitchen counter which were left over from the enriching event of the previous evening. And the starving, soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden did fall upon the brownies devouring many, yea even until the plate was clean.

And behold the plumber did continue his search for the cause of the problem. Yea, even unto the opening of cupboard doors, whereupon items crammed inside did fall out upon his head.

Yea and he did discover that the water had entered the closet of containment, which was piled high with items without other storage solutions. And it became necessary for the soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden to empty the closet, which was mountainous to behold. And this at great peril to her life.

And the maiden beheld that the carpet on the floor of the closet was soaking and must be disposed of in the waste receptacle. Yea, even it was dripping with excess water.
And the carpet pad was also soaketh, and caused to be removed. But behold it was glued to the floor and was most difficult to remove. And verily, the grouchy maiden thinketh her back would break from the efforts of removing the carpet pad.

And behold next the plumber discovered the water had entered the cavity that we had caused to be cut under the stairs for the purpose of storage.

And much of the contents of the storage chamber were removed, in order to see the damage that had been done.

Yea, even some of the food that the maiden had stored up for the day of famine as foretold by the prophets, yea some of that was touched by the water flowing into the house.
But behold, much of the food was spared.

And it came to pass that the plumber finally after several hours of searching, yea he did discover the problem. There was a clog in the pipe that goeth from the house out into the sewer. And so when the children had showered that morning, the water was unable to get to the sewer and instead did flow out of the downstairs toilet.

Upon hearing this news, the soppy, soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden felt faint of heart. For this news did concern her greatly. But yea, while the plumber did snake out the pipe, the maiden did continue in her efforts to clean up the mess.

And behold the grouchy maiden did look at the clock, and verily it was the time of dismissal for the fair daughter. And the maiden did hasten to fetch the fair daughter and the fair daughter's friend, who was promised to come for a visit that afternoon.

And verily, the fair daughter and her friend did take the large box from the new stove to make a fort. And they requireth sticky Velcro and fabric for the making of their fort. And the making of it did involve a great mess, but verily it did keep them occupied, whilst the maiden took a moment to sit upon her couch.

And verily, the soggy, grumpy, grouchy maiden did make a call to her home owners insurance, and hence then did inform her of her $1000 dollar deductible. And it seemeth a harsh thing. Yea verily, her husband did say that he could repair the damage for much less, and so the claim will be withdrawn.

At the end of the day, the grumpy, grouchy maiden did lay upon her bed in a state of sheer and utter exhaustion. And behold she slept, but her dreams were troubled by visions of waves and toilets and Guinea pigs hanging ten. And verily she did rise the next day and commence in the cleaning process. And yea it will be many fortnights before all is returned to normal in her home.

But behold, all is not in vain, for the events did make for a very entertaining post for her blog.

Sending out a SOS!

OK, peeps. Calling out to all fellow blogging sisters of the ya ya sisterhood. Our good friend Queen is in need of our good thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. Her son had surgery again last night. They are still having trouble getting his bleeding to stop. She is living at the hospital during the day. They are still not positive what will happen or when it will happen. So if you could add her in with T, T's family, and Denae, well that would be great.

Yesterday, I stopped by and visited for a little while. Who says hospitals are a bad place for first time face to face meetings with blog soul sistas? Well, for the record, it is a great place. We shared hospital stories, children woe's stories, and for sure our shared grief over the BYU football game last weekend. Sometimes group grieving therapy is a good thing. It was great. The best thing about blog friends is that you can tell them what's new, because they already know about the old stuff.

I am sure she would not mind another kind word in her comment box either. The future is uncertain, and that is terribly unsettling, for sure. Don't ya just love how blogging expands our circle of friends? I know I do.

Rise and Shout

If you do not like BYU Football, just move along and don't bother with this post. You can go do a sudoku puzzle or something.

My wildest dreams came true on Saturday when my beloved Cougars beat the #3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners. It was a heck of a day for football. Much screaming and jumping were required. In fact at the end of the game, I pulled out my lucky bone for added power in that final drive.

I am sure I will never forget the amazing event. My only sadness was that I was not with a larger group to celebrate.

Since the game ended I have been reading articles, re watching, or listening to the live call over again. I can't get enough of it.

I found these You-Tube videos that came from 1280 the Zone website.

The first is an interview with Colby Clawson, who laid the HIT on Sam Bradford that took hi out of the game. I think I may need to put him on my players to stalk at the fireside list.

And then I thought this interview was heelarious and shows just how big our lineman are. Obviously they did a great job protecting Max on Saturday. O-line always seem to be the unsung heroes of most games.

All in all I couldn't be happier and prouder of my team. Hopefully this means they are only coming to Vegas once this year. I will have to take full advantage of it.

There is something so heartening about watching the underdog win. About a group of guys that no one in the country gave any chance of winning, come out and believe in the unbelievable. I have been waiting and waiting for the football season to begin. So glad it is finally here. Keep it up guys. I hope my potential stalking is not a distraction.

New Look

One of the advantages of my working for RAZ, was the opportunity to spend my paycheck on the samples that they moved out to make room for the new stuff. They sold off the samples at 75% off of wholesale. This was ridiculously irresistible. And so now my house has had a total make over.

Here is my new front porch. I am so in love with the bicycle. When I worked there last January, I saw it but it was not for sale. Imagine my glee when it was for sale this time. Originally, it was $108 so that meant I paid $27 dollars for it. Are you kidding me? It was really beyond ridiculous, how much stuff I brought home.


Here is a close up of the cheery wreath that now graces my front door.

And here is a close up of the bicycle. I already had the milk can, but it has been empty for the past four years. Now it is overflowing with color. And the sweet little frogs. How adorable are they? The only sad thing is I park in the garage and so I don't get to see this every time I come home. Still I do go out and admire it when I get the mail.

Next my entry at the bottom of my stairs. I already had the table, but all of the rest is new.

I love the wreath stand and all the bird nests. It makes me smile every time I walk down my stairs.

And how much do I love this birdhouse? Too much. And the suitcase it is sitting on, now holds the Nintendo 64, which is very old, but somehow we can not live with out it. Now it is no longer an eyesore next to my TV.

Next we move to the top of my entertainment system in my family room. The best thing about this, is that my friend, neighbor and co worker helped me put this all together. One night after work, we started tying different things. I was able to see how it looked and take things out and put things in, until I got it just right. I love the yellow watering can. My husband does not really like the rooster, but he said he will live with it. I still need to go to Michaels or JoAnns with a coupon to get some candles for my candlesticks. I looked at Target, but the candles were $6 each. How could I get six dollar candles for my three dollar candle sticks. Seriously.

I love this little shelf which is holding my new bird collection.

And I love this bird house also. And another suitcase to hide videos or a game system. I think all the PSP paraphernalia might go nicely in here.

And so of course all of this bee-ut-iful stuff is going to require painting the room. And sadly the rooms in my house are all kind of connected so that means we have to paint the family room, kitchen, living room, hallways, and so on. I really don't know where it will end. Wasn't there a Brady Bunch episode where Carol wanted to paint her bedroom, but then it was going to require new drapes, and the hall, and furniture, and on and on.

I have not managed to choose a paint color yet. Although I have managed to spend a lot of money on paint samples. There is even more that I didn't take pictures of, for some strange reason.

All in all, it is amazing how new things in your house can improve your disposition.

Oh and a shout out to my Cougars. Here's hoping you surprise the nation. I am so ready for some football. And I am making everyone at my house wear a BYU tshirt today.

School Updates

I didn't post yesterday, because we overslept and Jared missed seminary for the first time this year. Good news more sleep for me, bad news no computer time. I have found the quiet house and unoccupied computer to be a very big silver lining to the whole getting up at 5 am thing.

So last night I came home from work and decided that clean underwear is not highly over rated, so I gave in and did some laundry. I did not get to watch Top Chef yet, but some day. Thank goodness for DVR's. It also means that Project Runway will waiting for me.

This morning I decided to do some cleaning in my kitchen after dropping Jared off. You know it is amazing how much you can get done by 7 am when you get up a 5. Who knew? It was about time, since I have not done anything but clear the surfaces in there for the whole summer. Talk about scary situations.

The light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer every day. Only 3 or 4 more days to go.

And just so you know, I can sing all the colors to Joseph's coat if the sound track is playing, but I can not repeat them all from memory. Of course I copy and pasted them in from a lyric website. I still can't stop thinking about the show and singing "Go away little girl." Hopefully Diana does not take it personally.

Jared seems to be adjusting to high school life rather well. He doesn't even need to use the elevator. I have had some issues trying to get him out of PE and into Weight Training. That is what his surgeon suggested. How cool is that? No more $15 co pays for physical therapy, just get it for free at school. I think it will be amazing if he can work on regaining his strength.

The doctor says that he is back to 85% of normal, but he does not want him to do any running or even jumping jacks, yet. When people kept saying it would take a year for him to recover, I refused to believe it or even consider that it could take that long. But here we are 13 months later and that really is how long it has taken him. Jared is in all honors classes and they are sophomore ones at that. I am not sure how that worked out, seeing as how he did not complete any 9th grade classes, but oh well. The one class he really still needs to complete to graduate is 9th grade English and there is always summer school next year.

And it was picture day for Jared today and I actually managed to fill out the order form and send a check. Wahoo! It is not always something I have been able to be on top of in the past.

Diana is loving 5th grade, except yesterday she got moved to sit next to a girl she does not like at all. This girl comes from a very difficult family situation and has lots of behavior issues. For instance sometimes she licks her hand and wipes it on the other girls. Diana wants me to intervene with the teacher, but I am not sure if it will matter. Actually I think that this girl has ended up sitting by herself the past two years. Diana is in the all girl class again this year, but she has a much better teacher and I am very happy about that. There are 31 girls in her class. Just thinking about 31 10 year olds makes me weak in the knees. Her teacher did say that one of the advantages to separating the boys and girls is that they tend to learn differently. Boys like to just get a worksheet done and girls like to discuss it before they ever do it. It sounds right to me. The teacher has also received special training in single gender teaching. I feel really good about it.

Trent is registered to start CSN on Monday. It is totally awesome because my husband teaches there, Trent can go to school for $4 a credit. Much better than $56, don't ya think? It will save him $1000. He is signed up to be a music major, which will be very cool, but I wonder how marketable it will be. Of course who knows what he will want to do after his mission.

All in all we seemed to have survived the first week of school, pretty well. Seriously after Monday morning there was no where to go but up, right?

So sorry life is a bit boring right now, no rain in my house or other such catashrophe's. And no exciting celebrity encounters to report. I will keep my eyes peeled.

Happy Friday everyone!

Dontastic and Marieabulous

I have just returned from the Donny & Marie Show here in Vegas. Good Golly Miss Molly was it out of this world. As my gay boss said when he saw it in July "It was the bomb." Seriously, it was two hours of jam packed entertainment.

First let me just say that most people at the Flamingo are unaware that such events need photographic evidence and hence they stared at me when I took pictures such as this one while standing in line to get into the theater. Their strange faces seemed to say "Isn't that lady cute how she needs to take pictures with all things Donny and Marie." And "How nice that they let her out of the mental institution for the evening."

Here I am taking a self portrait with a cabinet full of stuff you can buy if you want to own a piece of Osmond history. No purple socks, Dang.

Yes here is my actual ticket that I actually paid for with my actual debit card. I wish it would have been my virtual debit card, but Oh well, the piper must be paid.

We were ushered into the Flamingo Theater. It looked like a theater I had seen in movies where it was made up of booths with tables. The seats that we could almost afford were on the balcony at a four person table.

The other couple at the table were visiting Vegas from Oklahoma. I resisted talking smack with them about the upcoming BYU football game against Oklahoma. I would hate to have to hurt any senior citizens over rival opinions.

They were celebrating their 30 year wedding anniversary. They were much older than us, probably 65. By the time we are that old we will be celebrating 50 years. I know that is because I got married when I was 5. And no offense to any older people reading this. It was just strange that's all.

We had a nice conversation with them, although I have to admit to being distracted by the interesting trivia questions they were flashing on the big screens. Did you know that Donny had made 58 albums? Me either. Did you know that Marie was in The King and I and the Sound of Music? Me either. I loved seeing pictures of the good old days.

Finally the show began. It was packed with oldie but goodies, dancing to knock your socks off, Opera from Marie and Paper Roses, and of course Puppy Love from Donny. And Soldier of Love, don't forget that. And so much more. It was amazing.

One of the coolest things was the way they interacted with the audience. There were 4 ladies from Scotland sitting on the very front row and they were going crazy. It was just like the 70's all over again. And when Donny sang the song from Joseph, these ladies were singing back up from the audience and you could hear it. It was pretty funny and he even laughed about it at times. He asked them if they knew every word to every song he had ever sung. Donny would also walk along the tables and give people high fives or shake their hands. It looked kind of dangerous, but the audience loved it. I think he shook hands with everyone in the front section who had paid $250 for their seats.

Marie said she didn't walk on top of tables, but she did go out into the audience and kissed almost every bald man on the head. She must have a thing for that. She was totally adorable and bantered back and forth with Donny like on the show of old. And man can that woman dance. She was totally awesome, although she kept complaining about her mike not working quite right.

The whole thing was very nostalgic and brought beck memories of watching their show every Friday night for the 4 years it was on TV. This was before the day of VCR's or DVRs and TV shows actually were something you looked forward to and even planned your life around.

I loved every minute of it, although it did get a bit loud during the Crazy Horses song. It would be so hard to pick a favorite part. Marie did an awesome Broadway medley. The dancing through all of it was amazing. Donny was dripping with sweat through out.

His partner from Dancing with the Stars was there and he had her come up on stage. I did not recognize her, I think her name was Kim. I wish he would have gotten Chelsie. But that was kind of fun to get a sneak peak.

If any of you ever come to Vegas, mortgage the farm and go see this show. I am sure that it falls into the same category as a home or education for approved situations where debt is OK.

And afterwards, it was time for more pictures for the blog.

Here I am with my best Egyptian pose next to THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAM COAT! You know it was red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orange and red and yellow and green and brown and Scarlet and black and ochre and peach and ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orange and BLUE.

And here is another attempt to walk like an Egyptian.

And here I am singing "Go Go Go Joseph you know what they say, Hang on now Joseph you'll make it some day. Don't give up Joseph fight till you drop. We've read the book and you come at on top." Gee, why didn't a chorus line of singers and dancers come out and sing this to me last year when I felt like my life was a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.

Here I am with the very dress that Marie wore on Dancing with the Stars when she danced to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Yes, they called it Puppy Love.

And finally my meet and greet with Donny and Marie after they show. They were a bit stiff, but I am sure they were just worn out from the show. I did most of the talking and then didn't seem to mind. Nor did they call security.

Sadly I did not obtain a puple sock. I suppose I will manage to go on somehow.

All in all it was a the best time ever. Very worth being married 25 year for. Hee Hee. Two years ago, we went to Wicked. I like this trend. My next dream is to see Lion King. Those tickets are only $50. I am going to start saving now.

And since this is an anniversary post, I thought I would throw in a picture of our wedding day. August 8, 1984. We were babies, seriously.

Love you hon, Thanks for all the years of good times and for being there for the bad. Hope the next 25 are just a wonderful, but maybe a little less exciting.

The Rest of the Story

After I wrote my post yesterday, I did give in to the fatigue and laid back down. I made sure to set my alarm on my phone, but alas the spirits of snoozing took possession of my body. My neighbor called me at 8:50 because we were suppose to ride together to drop off our girls and then go right to work.

I answered her call and told her I would meet up with her after she dropped of her daughter. I then ran through the house like the crazed maniac that I am. I woke Diana up and made her join the frenzy. Somehow she got ready and we got in the car. Good thing she had eaten breakfast at 5 am. I did almost run over the crossing guard, for which I would have had a great insanity defense, I am pretty sure. But still, not the best way to start a school year.

We were walking onto the school yard when the bell rang at 9:00. Apparently 5th graders do not want to speak to their mothers, and so I was brusquely told to just leave already. OK, then.

I managed to stumble back to my car and make my way back home, where I was afforded the luxury of brushing my teeth before I had to dash off to work. Showers are highly over rated, right?

Work went well, other than the fact that I was so hungry I was tempted to gnaw off my own leg. Good news, I think I am loosing some weight, survivor style, that is to say starvation. Finally we decided that we needed to leave at 3:00 so we could get home and tend to the kiddies, make dinner, and do our homework.

Can some one please explain to me why it is the parents that get the homework the first week. Seriously, fill out a million forms, that you have already filled out for years. Then here is the list of needed school supplies, could you make a midnight run to Wal Mart to purchase said supplies. I am not so much a fan of the first week of school.

Then Diana and I ran down to the strip to pick up my Donny and Marie tickets for tonight. Yes, my husband are finally getting around to celebrating our 25th anniversary that was back on the 8th. I just hope that I can enjoy the show, seeing as how I can't really differentiate between staring at a blank wall or the TV right now.

Next I took Trent to the bank to deposit some checks and withdraw some money so he could pay me for his car insurance. Of course the gods of technology decided to give me another raspberry and the ATM we went to was out of order. This necessitated a trip to another bank.

When we got home I looked in the cupboards and somehow magically found something to throw together for dinner. Although I am out of cream of mushroom soup, which is inconceivable. Apparently I bought two cases of cream of chicken at the last case lot sale. Bummer.

Then there was the call from the school nurse, telling me that the form my doctor filled out to get Jared out of PE was not explicit enough and so could I just get her a note that said absolutely no PE for him. Well sure, I have nothing else going on in my life. I hope that I just took care of that this morning compliments of a fax machine. We will see.

Then we put Diana's room back together so she could sleep in with out being woken up during the seminary morning madness. I did refuse to go through the mounds of stuff she has and organize it. Do you have a bed that is cleared off? Then, that is as good as it is going to get.

Finally I fell into my bed at 9:30. Summer is definitely over for me.

Tomorrow I should have some fun pictures of our adventure tonight, so stay tuned.

A New Loosing Streak

I think if I have to look for one more thing I am going to scream.

Jared woke me up this morning at 4:30 because he couldn't find his boxers or clothes that I had washed late last night. So I got up and found them for him, because it was not fun having him stand next to my bed in a towel dripping on me.

Next he asked if I had found his paper with his home room assignment on it. We had talked about it last night when he was going to bed. I was too tired and figured I would have time to find it this morning. So my searching began at 4:35. At 5:20 I stopped looking and made Jared breakfast. I then resumed the search until 5:45 when it was time to leave for seminary. I told him I would continue the search and hopefully find it before he had to go to school at 7:00.

Oh and did I mention that while I was looking through the piles of papers on my dining room table, I felt drops of water raining down? Yes indeedy it was raining in my house again. Dang, I so hate it when that happens. I am not even sure where the water was coming from, but the bathroom upstairs seems the likely culprit.

I went through the motions of punching a hole in the ceiling with a screw driver and placing buckets to catch the dripping water. It is still dripping 2 hours later, but it is not constant enough to be a hole in the pipe I don't think. For now it is under control and I will let my husband deal with it when he wakes up.

So the searching continued and I became more and more convinced that the needed paper had been thrown away in all the chaos of the past week. Next I tried to look it up on the Internet. First my computer told me that my Internet connection had failed. Next the Internet worked but the school link was broken. WHAT THE WHAT!!! Way to stress parents out on the first day of school.

Diana was trying to sleep on the couch, because we are painting her room and her bed is covered with junk. That is only adding to the chaos around here. Yesterday, I couldn't find my lesson manual which was slightly important seeing as how I was suppose to teach Sunday School and I had done zero preparation. Luckily I could print it off the Internet. Next I couldn't find my car keys and had to use my backup set, only to find my original keys in my church bag when I got there. And finally my husband and Jared were 15 minutes late to church because they could not find Jared's church clothes anywhere. Dang Bermuda triangle that lives at my house. Finally Jared borrowed one of my husband's shirts and wore a pair of jeans. Geez Louise.

And so back to this morning. Diana is now awake from all the cursing going on. She needs breakfast even though it is 6 am. I got her a bowl of cereal and decided to run over to the high school and see if I couldn't just find out the home room number.

The school was not very crowded at 6:20 in the morning. I talked with the secretary and she did not know if they had posted the list of home room numbers yet. Also her computer was being backed up and so she could not even look it up for me. I cursed the gods of technology once again.

I went to try and talk to the nurse about Jared's PE exemption, and noticed that the lists were posted on the cafeteria windows. I found the needed information and even walked over and found out where the room was for him.

I made my way back to the car and went to the church. Along the way I passed all the cars going to school. I guess they let seminary out 10 minutes early. I picked up Jared and returned to the school. Explained to him where to go to his class and navigated the parking lot of crazed parents and teenagers.

Now at 7:30, Diana is back asleep. I wonder if it will be hard to wake her up for school in half an hour.

I have to work today, of course. So it will be a long day. Perhaps I will go lay back down for a minute or two. Good thing, I went to bed at 8:45 last night.

Does anyone want to argue with me that I am not Nutty?

So that was my Monday morning, how was yours?

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

I thought I would finally post these pictures from July when we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was really nice to see inside and it was great to be able to let the kids go through a temple.

We went to the zoo in the morning and by the time we got to the temple, Jared was done walking. Luckily they had wheel chairs and his cousin his age was excited to push him around. I specifically asked about how the wheel chair thing would work and the worker assured me that the wheel chairs just go off on the elevator but then they rejoin the group.

All was going well until we went down the stairs to the baptistery. Jared and Michael got in the elevator but no one had told them they needed to go down. So the elevator operator took them upstairs. The rest of us all went down and saw the basement. When the boys did not get off the elevator I was a bit concerned. I waited and waited and waited some more.

The rest of the group went on ahead. I went around speaking to every worker I saw asking "Have you seen two young men, one in a wheel chair?" No no one had seen them. I was not really ever totally panicked. How much trouble could two 15 year old boys get into, right? I tried not to envision them running over any little old ladys while trying to do mach 5 in the wheel chair.

Most of the workers kept reasurring me that we would catch up to them at the cookies in the reception tent at the end. It was a true story that where else would two teen age boys be, but at the free cookie table.

Finally I managed to locate them. They still had not seen the basement and so they went down to do that. By this time I had missed most of the tour and so I tried to go backwards and see what I had missed. It was not a good idea to swim upstream, and I kept hearing that line from Mister Mom "You're doing it wrong" over and over in my head.

Finally all was well that ended well. And what could be better than the cookies at the reception tent. They were awesome.

We also had to take advantage of the photo opportunity with the beautiful pictures there.


Here are Diana and I.

Diana wanted one shot by herself. Well herself and her priceless Jesus. I love the way they set up the light to make the Saviour shine.

Here is a group shot of all of us. We are missing a view people who had to work and two sisters who took the four smallest children home for naps.

And here is just the grandkids. We are missing five, but still it is the most that have been together for a long time.

All in all it was a fun event and better than I expected it to be. I was worried that the Zoo and the temple was too much for one day. I am definitely glad we did it. It was a definite high light of our family reunion.

And here is one last shot of some of the girl cousins.

Waa Waa Waa

Why does life have to be so darn difficult sometimes. I am trying to decided if it is better to not work and deal with the stress of financial problems. Or is it better to work so you have enough money to pay the electric bill, but you don't have time to buy bread and eggs.

I have been working what feels like non stop for the past month down at the World Market Center. So far I have helped 4 different vendors with set up for the furniture show that happens in September. It has been exhausting, back breaking work, for which I am very grateful for the extra money. But my body says that it is old and tired and ready to be put out to pasture. I am worried that I have spent all the money at Wendy's and Taco Bell.

This past week I have been working for Raz. They have great home accessories. They have a bunch of stuff that they are getting rid of at 75% off wholesale. It is ridiculously cheap and so I have been forced to purchase a fair amount of things for my house. Seriously, how do you say NO to 75% off. It is practically free at that point. I think when next week is over and I get to rest, I might actually like the way my house looks.

We have lived here for 4 years and I haven't had the energy, time, or money to change anything yet. I totally redecorated my family room, but now I need to paint.

School starts next week and I am not sure if things will be easier or harder. Diana and I went to open house today and her teacher said to expect 50 to 60 minutes of homework every night. This is very bad news, but what can you do.

And I have realized that I have committed to work on Saturday the 29th. What was I thinking? I want to be home watching the BYU football game. Curses. It is so unfair, but the guy we are helping is flying in from Texas so there is no other choice. I only hope that I will only miss the first hour. Thank heavens for DVR's.

Someday. Someday this job will be over, September 17th to be exact. And then I will return to whatever my normal life should look like. Perhaps I will be able to keep up with the housework and keep groceries in the house. It is probably an impossible dream, but who knows. Stranger things have happened.

This venting and ranting has been brought to you courtesy of "Nobody said it would be easy."

Much Ado About Nothing

The dreaded day of my IRS audit finally arrived. I have spent much of the past two weeks searching hi and low and near and far for my supporting documentation.

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on the worksheets I created. I checked and double checked everything. I looked on map quest so I would know where exactly I was going to go. I made sure that all my folders were neatly stacked and ready to go.

I tried to reassure myself that all would be well, but I would be lying if I said that it wasn't difficult to go to sleep. It would also be a lie to say that I slept soundly through the night without a care in the world. I tossed and turned all night long whilst dreaming of the Spanish Inquisition.

Somehow, I snoozed my alarm and was very dismayed to wake and see that the time was 7:18. My appointment was for 8:00 am. Hurriedly I got dressed, telling myself that showers are highly over rated.

The computer beckoned to me to check and see if anyone had commented on my post yesterday. This was a mistake, because before I knew it 15 minutes had passed and I was later leaving than I wanted to be.

Once again, I cautiously sped trying to make up for lost time. There were two different routes I could have taken, but one of them had cars backed up onto the off ramp, so that made my decision easy.

Somehow I missed the building the first time I drove by and actually ran a red light to do a U-turn. I didn't have time to wait and there were no cars anywhere in the vicinity.

Anxiously, I pulled the parking garage ticket from the little machine. My stomach had now felt like I had swallowed a bucket of nails. Quickly, I parked and walked into the building. By now I was feeling a little dizzy and wondered if they have any paper bags I could breathe into.

The security guard checked out my appointment letter and told me to go through two large doors. I wondered if they would lock behind me and I would never be heard from again.

Once in the smallish waiting room, I picked up the phone and dialed the extension on my letter to let my examiner know I was there. He told me to wait for a few minutes.

I sat down and noticed a plant growing up and over the whole wall.

I thought it looked rather ominous and picture worthy. Quick as a bunny, I pulled out my camera and snapped a shot. The secretary behind the glass window informed me that it is against the law to take pictures in federal buildings. I said "Sorry, I didn't know, and it was just the plant anyway."

This secretary reminded me of the secretary in Monsters Inc. I asked her about the plant and she told me that it was 20 years old. Yikes, she did look ancient, but how long had she worked there? Perhaps that plant was her pride and joy, her only source of happiness in this life, and I had (gasp) taken a picture of it. Well, excuuuse me. Am I right, doesn't it look kind of creepy?

Finally, the door leading back to all the cubicles opened, and I was face to face with the MAN. I not sure what I expected, probably someone tall and spindly, with a comb over, and thick black rimmed glasses. The person I stood facing looked more like Wilford Brimley than Icabod Crane.

He seemed nice enough. He ushered me back to a cubicle in the back that even had a window. Somehow, I had envisioned a dark large room with spot lights and torture devices. There wasn't even anything remotely scary about this cubicle. In fact there was a cane laying on the back credenza and a Starbucks cup sitting next to the computer. All very normal run of the mill stuff.

I sat there waiting patiently. One person had given me the advice that I was not to offer any information, only answer questions as they were asked. This had me very worried because when I get nervous I tend to ramble on and fill any silence. So I was concentrating on not talking which made me even more nervous.

First he went over my rights. Blah, blah, blah and yada, yada, yada. Then he asked me a bunch of questions about whether I had any undeclared income or any rich uncles who died and left me millions of dollars that I had failed to report. I wondered that if you did have hidden money, would you just tell the IRS about it. The only question I could answer yes to was the one about getting an insurance settlement for my car that Trent totaled.

Then he asked me a bunch of information like my address and phone number. It kind of scared me to think that I had to give the IRS my cell phone number. All of these questions were harmless, though.

Finally, the moment of truth. We moved onto the part of him asking for my supporting detail about my cash contributions. I was a little put out to find out that he accepted just my letter from the church about my tithing. I didn't need all the copies of my canceled checks after all. What the what? Oh well it was reeeally fun to spend 6 hours digging through bank statements and at the bank in Utah. Seriously, I shouldn't complain, it was much easier this way. But why did the letter they sent me say I needed the dang copies, in the first place.

He did take the copies of the checks that I had given to Friends of Scouting and for Jared's scout camp. I really thought that he was going to question me about the scout camp, but I managed to keep from rambling on about it and he didn't say anything.

He made copies of the two receipts I had from Good Will. I was worried about those as well, but he didn't want anything more than the copies.

Then he did some things on his computer and printed out some forms. All the while I sat there dying from the suspense, but trying to remain calm.

In the end he told me that I did not owe any additional tax. And I would not be audited for 2008 or 2009. And just like that, it was over.

I pondered asking him if I could take my picture with him, but given the whole "it's against the rules" policy, I decided discretion was the better part of valor.

He shook my hand and escorted me out to the waiting room. The whole thing took 30 minutes. I spent longer in the car to get there and back.

And so just like some kind commenter had told me, it was much better than I had expected. Painless even. The worst part was all the stress and worry that I inflicted on myself before I even got there.

I came home and informed my husband, who was very relieved. He was convinced that all our assets were going to be confiscated and we would end up homeless living in a van down by the river. Except Vegas doesn't have any rivers. We do however own a van, so half of his dream could have come true. He's an optimist that way.

I did request that my family address me with "Hail the conquering hero" for the rest of the day, but they didn't seem keen on that idea.

At least now I can check "Stress out over the doom and gloom of the upcoming IRS audit" off my list of things to do each day. What will I do with all the spare time and added years to my life expectancy?

Four Eyes

While we were in Utah, one night Diana and I spent the night at my brother's house. We both put our glasses on the window sill for safe keeping. I couldn't keep from snapping a shot of them. I think they look so fun sitting there together.

These are Diana's new frames that she just got in June. I didn't really realize how much they resemble mine, but I guess they do look kind of similar.


Here she is modeling her new specs and her snazzy hair do.
They look rather nice, don't cha think? What a cute little munchkin. I just want to eat her up. And we have managed to keep track of those darn peepers for the whole summer, so that is really something.

Watermelon Women

I love pictures of the same people doing the same things at different times. Here is a shot from 2006 of Diana and my three nieces. Such cutie patooties.

And here is shot of them again. I should have made them sit in the same order. And we have an additional niece who was not present the first time.

Such fun times these girls have together. And my how time flies.

Audits and Driving are not fun. The End.

I have returned to Vegas from my quick weekend trip to two family reunions.


If the universe had smiled upon me, I wouldn't have spent 4 hours last Wednesday searching high and low, far and wide, up and down, seeking and eventually finding my bank statements so I could figure out my check numbers of my tithing checks, so I could go to a branch of my bank in Utah and get the copies printed out.

Yes, it was ridiculous that my filing system consists of stashing bank statements in various places and random boxes. Of course I was under the misguided notion that who needs the hard copy of a statement when it is all on the Internet just a few easy clicks and a filled printer cartridge away. (Let's not even discuss the evil spirits of printers and printer cartridges today, K. We'll save that special conversation for another date after I get my anxiety medication refilled)

Well color me shocked/dismayed/distraught to learn that my bank switched computer systems in November of 2007 (the year I am being audited for) and so all of my supposedly safely stored documentation, not so much available anymore. Yet again proving that the day of miracles has NOT ceased, I was able to lay my hands on 11 of the sought after statements. I did find them in eleven different places, but what else was I going to do with all my spare time, right?

And so my trip to Utah was able to supply me with copies of just about all of my canceled checks. I am now busy creatively recreating a log for the miles I drove in charitable pursuits and listing items donated to charitable organizations.

Really blogging from jail is beginning to look better all the time. One week til D-day. And by that I mean doomsday or otherwise called my appointment with the Man.

I am left to ponder what does one wear to an audit? How should I do my hair? Would it be best to present the facade that I am businesslike and competent? Or should I go with my usual bag lady persona and go for the sympathy vote?

Perhaps I should google it, huh? One kind reader who I do not know posted a comment that everyone she knows who has been through an audit, said it was better than they thought it would be. That is comforting.

On a totally different subject, I am really tired of driving as I put 1100 miles on my car in the past 5 days. Now I have tomorrow to do laundry and repack for a weekend trip to Arizona for two nephew's baptisms. At least my husband will do the driving this weekend. I plan to be asleep the majority of the time.

I had a nice time at my reunions in Riverdale Idaho. Riverdale is a suburb of Preston, if such a small town can have a suburb. I saw many relatives who I have not seen for many years. Every summer of my child hood I spent at least a week in Preston Idaho. Not to mention I was born there. I haven't been back for a while, and although some things have changed, it is remarkably untouched by modern civilization.

I kept looking around for Napoleon Dynamite to coming strutting down the street. But I didn't even see Tina the Lama this time.

One thing of note, our hotel room at Riverdale Resort came equipped with a fly swatter. Is it just me or does that seem rather odd and not really a good sign if your hotel room needs a fly swatter. My only regret is that I did not manage to snap a shot of it. How negligent of me.

Jared returned from Seattle after a two week visit. He seems to be doing rather well. What will my house be like in a few weeks when everyone goes back to school? Oh yeah that thing I thought was extinct around here like the dinosaurs - QUIET.

Someday I hope to stop living life and blog about all the fun and cute pictures from my family reunion in July. Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

As I returned to town this time, I was left wondering if it isn't just worse torture to get out of the heat for a little while. Would it be better to just stay here and suffer and forget that places exist that are not 110 at midnight? Just a thought.

And can I just say that I am not really fond of the bazillion conversations I have with people I haven't seen for so long. The first thing they always say "So how do you like Vegas." "Well I hate it, thank you very much for reminding me of that fact." I did make some progress this trip on my plans to be buried in Cache Valley. That is something positive.