Sounding off

Most of my life I have stayed out of politics or just went along with whatever my husband thought because I honestly don't care that much. I think it's all crooked and dishonest and there are no real "good" candidates. Our country is a mess financially and truthfully there's not a lot I, personally, can do about it. Some of you may be busting a gut right now and that's ok, I understand. Still, it's my opinion. I'm sure I'm even probably on the liberal side regarding how much the govt gets involved when they shouldn't. I have to admit, I love the no smoking ban. Works well for me. Most things don't even affect me so, whatever. Lately, however, I have been feeling a little more annoyed at the different things that are trying to be regulated. I think there's a place for all sorts of "activist" groups and "concerned citizens", but to actually make laws seems a little crazy. So here I go.

A law about Happy Meals?? Really? That's why the govt doesn't have enough money to cover the necessities is because money is being wasted on regulating Kids Meals? I'm dumbfounded. I do think we need to be concerned about how our kids eat. I think making apples and milk available is fantastic, my kids even choose them occasionally. BUT, to tell a child that if they choose french fries today, no toy for you! (best soup nazi impression) What if I take my kid to McDonald's once a month and that's the only crap they are ever allowed to eat? No toy? That's about the only reason we go there, prize inside! They don't care what they eat and half the time they don't eat what's in there no matter what it is. We need a law about this? What if my kid is allergic to apples? I think our country is seriously addicted to fatty fast food. Not debating that at all. We are fatter than ever. Maybe we should be putting self-shut off buttons on our Wii's and iPods and Gameboys. I mean if we are really worried about this, shouldn't we cover all the areas? It sounds like maybe fries just need an age restriction, like alcohol. Maybe if the parent chooses fries for their child, the worker should then shout at the parent "no food for you!" I'm just thinking there are lots of ways we can start punishing people for eating poorly. So, birthday cake? Nope, all the presents go back. We wouldn't want them thinking that a delicious cake is linked to gifts.

*Sigh* Where's my 20 acres out in the middle of nowhere where I can wash my laundry on a rock and draw my water from a well and avoid all the craziness we call "life"?

Bo is 5!

My little sweet Baby Bo, Hunka Hunka Burrito, Hubba Bubba, Bubzy Wubzy turned five today. I can't believe he is that big! We started the day by giving him the presents from us and giving him lots of "happy birthdays". He had preschool and after that, we went to McDonald's for a Happy Meal. After naps (which he didn't take), we started getting ready for his party tonight. He requested homemade pizza and M&M cookies for dessert. Grandma Green and Daddy made it just in time for dinner. After dinner, we all lined up for the traditional birthday spankings. Since he had already opened his gifts from us, he only had what my mom had gotten him, which was $20. That's a funny story because earlier in the week, he asked her what she was giving him or how much money. So after she told him $20, he kept asking me when she would be bringing that money over. He had already gotten money from one of his other grandparents and we had even gone shopping, so he knew the joy of spending it at this point. Instead of just giving him the money, she wrapped the two 10's separately. He like that! After, we sang and blew out candles and ate my barely cooked cookie "cake". It was still good....so I hear. Since we were done by 7 or so, Mom and I took him to Toys R Us to spend the rest of his money (he had gotten more in the mail today from his other grandparents). He was very cute and reasonable about if things were worth it or not. He got more Bakugan and a Diego helicopter. He also got a little squishy toy for Katy. I think he had a super birthday! We love him so much!!

Birthday kisses!

more Spanish

Does anyone remember when Bo said the ducks talk in Spanish? Well for some reason, my kids think everything they don't understand must be Spanish. Katy has a terrible lisp. Not just a lisp, tongue full out kind of lisp. I decided to try to work with her on it so I was showing her how to keep her tongue in. Then I showed her how she does it with her tongue out. Then she looked at me, tipped her head to the side and said "I just do this *clucks her tongue" but in Spanish". OOOOkkkaaayyyy.

Today I tried running. I know I said I wasn't going to but do you also remember how I said I'm inpatient? Well, it hurt. I only ran for about 2 minutes before I started to really feel it and now it's been bothering me all day. Sucks. I just walked fast at an incline instead. It's hard to work out when doing the hcg, no carbs for energy. Anyway, it felt good to do something. Have I mentioned my new love for Under Armour? I have had one pair of compression shorts that I wear under my other shorts when I work out, but I hadn't worn them in a while. I put them on and it was divine! I would never pay for most Under Armour stuff, very expensive, but the shorts are so worth it. It's like a silky second skin. Ahhhh!

Today is Bo's birthday. I will post about that tomorrow when I have pictures. We are doing a little party for him tonight. What I will post about now is.....it's really hard to make chocolate chip/m&m cookies and not have even one little chunk of dough! Not to mention the cheesey, saucy pizza I'm about to go make. Dieting sucks. Being thin, however...doesn't!

Antsy

Do you ever just have times that you feel like you want to explode? I mean like your insides are about to burst through your skin, but you aren't sure why? That's me for the last few weeks. It doesn't even matter which emotion, all of them, on extreme mode. If I'm happy, I'm so happy I cry. If I'm irritated, it's so much so that I feel like I'm on fire. Sometimes even boredom goes to extreme where I feel like I need to burst if I don't do something. Totally weird. I'm trying to stay mellow about all of it, but it's just a weird feeling.

Right now I'm itchy to run. No big deal, right? Well about 10 days ago I was running and pulled something in my hip. It's still painful to move it like running. Lots of other things don't hurt it, I rode the bike yesterday, but running does. I just want it better. The temptation to just try it anyway is so great. I know it will only delay it, but it's killing me!

I could make quite a long list of things I'm just too antsy to wait for. I've never been a patient person, but right now.....I'm really bad! During my traffic school, she was pointing out that sitting and waiting for a red light is usually less than a minute and how relevant is one minute in our daily routines. I wanted to shout at her "Do you know how painful it is to sit there doing nothing for the whole minute when you could be another mile down the road???" See, I'm out of control. What to do, What to do? I'm thinking massage.

There May Be Hope

Today, the clouds parted a little and hope is on the horizon for the successful completion of High School for a kid who we thought it might not be possible. For years we have struggled to get him to pass his classes. Though most of his struggles are not entirely his fault, his effort leaves a little to be desired. I have counseled with many teachers and principals. I have started many batteries of test that never got completed for one reason or another. Usually because they talk me out of it. I have argued and pleaded and tried to take things into my own hands to help him to succeed. Up till now, we have barely kept him afloat. It's the time of year to get him registered for high school and all my doubts and fears come flooding back. How in the world is he going to survive?

I went in to talk with the counselor at the school and she was really helpful and sympathetic. She gave me a short list of things I can do to hopefully get him into resource classes or at least get a little extra help. It turns out I was talking to the wrong counselor (they go by alphabet) but she talked to the right one and got a little flag put on his file so she can try to make sure he doesn't fall through the cracks. While I was getting into my car after the meeting, both counselors came rushing out to the parking lot to flag me down. She mentioned that I should go make sure he is tested immediately for an IEP because even if he doesn't qualify, if he is borderline, they can do stuff for him. I have started this process twice and both times was talked out of it by his teachers. So I went ahead and got the ball rolling again and today, just one day later, the resource teacher at his school called me and got things set up to test him immediately! I sign the permission this afternoon. By the end of the year (which is in 4 weeks) we will know what they can do to help him next year. I'm SO excited. If it turns out that he doesn't qualify and really should be doing fine, even better...now I can bust his butt to get the work done and not feel like I'm being too hard on him. Either way, it will be such a blessing to have that done.

One More Down

This weekend I spent the day at traffic school. I'm officially done "dealing" with all my stupid tickets. I was going to fight my other one, but decided I have too much to do to keep stressing about this. I won't even go into how awful the eight hour class was. Seriously, I'm lumped in with all the DUI offenders. That's down right offensive if you ask me! Not to mention they all think they are justified and totally wronged in the process. Anyway....just glad to have it over.

Chelsey spent the last 4 days in Boston on a choir trip. She had a great time and was quite surprised to see how expensive it was to eat out all the time. She texted me a few times each day to let me know what she was up to, which I loved. The other kids (12 and over) went to the open house of the Gila Valley temple on Saturday. They all had a great time and were very in awe of the temple. I'm glad they got to have that experience.

Only a few weeks left of ball, for that I'm grateful. Bo hates going: "it's too much running!". Brooklyn loves it and her team has greatly improved, but it's still several times a week. Only about a month left of school so that light is shining brightly for me. We finally were able to put a full team together for the Red Rock Relay in September. It's basically the same as the Ragnar, but up in Utah. I'm very excited about that. I'm doing the HCG for one more week and then will start my training again. It's hard to work out on the diet because you eat no carbs so not a lot of fuel for that much exertion. I'm looking forward to running again.

I've been reading way too much lately. My house has been very neglected and my laundry is a little piled up. Every day I tell myself "chores first" but then I do a few and then go read. That's one reason I never wanted to take up reading. Now I have conflict! I really have enjoyed the Work and the Glory series though. It's been a good thing.

Bo's birthday is in a few days. I'm not sure what we are doing yet, but I should figure it out pretty soon. I didn't blog at all about Stephen's birthday last week. He hasn't had a party yet and the next few weekends are busy so it was very uneventful. Not much to blog about! I think he wants to have an airsoft war party so that will be nice and inexpensive, yet fun for them. Now what to do for Bo? Probably something revolving around Bakugan.

We are supposed to go camping this weekend, but I can think of a thousand reasons to not. My kids are really excited about it, but I'm just not. I'll probably succumb, but I haven't decided yet. I'm sure if I just committed to it and went, I would have a grand time. So much work. So now you know why I haven't blogged in awhile, not much too exciting going on!

Born to be Free

This is becoming the way of it for Miss Katy. My apologies to the neighbors.

Get Thee Hence!

Starting Sunday morning, my kids have been taking turns with the "bug". It's the nasty stomach flu and it's been lasting about 2 days each. Brooklyn had it first. I shouldn't embarrass them, but I'm going to anyway. During church, Bo went out to go to the bathroom twice. The second time he came back in, he says out loud "I just keep pooping!" After sacrament meeting, I took him home to stay with Brooklyn. When I walked in, Brooklyn was sitting on the couch wrapped in a towel. I asked her why and she tells me she threw up and while she was throwing up, the poop just came out. Poor thing.



Then Monday morning, Dalin reported that he had been throwing up a lot in the night. My kids don't even come wake me up to tell me. I kind of like that, but makes me feel bad too. Anyway, he spent the day in and out of the bathroom having the same trouble as Brooklyn. Finally he came and said "I tried getting there in time, but..well...you know" very matter of factly. Then added "now I'm outta underwear". Bo announced proudly that "I'm all outta diarrhea!" About 8:30 am, Chelsey texted me from school "I threw up". She had senior ditch day so she was coming home anyway. She said she felt fine now and went to the movies with some friends. When she got back, she said she felt awful and went to bed.



Nick went on a bike ride with the scouts and when he got back, he related a little story about having gas, trying to hold it in, but it came out anyway and wasn't just gas. Nice. My poor kids. So today Chelsey is home and we are still figuring out if Dalin can hold his breakfast. It's good that Chelsey has it right now cuz she is leaving for Boston on a choir trip on Thursday. That would not be good if she had it then. What a fun start to the week!



On a good note, I got new shoes! I had a coupon that was expiring so I thought I would see what I could get for cheap. What I found was that the shoes I wanted that were $40 (ridiculous) were now on sale for $24.99 plus my coupon. I hate that store for that reason. When they have their BOGO 1/2 off, they crank their prices up. Anyway, I was glad I waited. While there, I found some super cute tennis shoes that will be good with shorts or capris. Then a way comfy pair of anywhere/all the time shoes. Score for me!



My allergies were out of control today so I spent a lot of time inside reading. I think I read for almost 5 hours today. Very productive, I know. We didn't even go to Bo's game tonight. He begged me not to make him go. He said it's too much running. He stood and cried on third base on Saturday cuz he didn't want to play anymore. Since I felt like crap I decided to just chill at home. Glade didn't come home cuz he had to go do something in the middle of the night for work, so I read more and was in bed by 10.

Family Pictures

I have been trying to figure out when to do family pics for a few months now. Friday, I decided..now. I called and made an appointment for Saturday evening. Saturday was busy with ball games and eagle projects and a scout project and trying to do all the normal stuff. I left fairly early to try to get a run in and did pretty well. I'm running a little faster than normal, but at about mile 2.5 something really weird happened in my hip, not my joint, but the muscle. I tried to walk for a while and then run again, but no go. It hurt really bad. It still hurts today. My body is not getting the message that I'm YOUNG!

By afternoon, I was trying to be organized and not stressed. No yelling or being obsessive. It mostly worked. I only had two mild meltdowns. One, when Glade got home 45 min before we were supposed to leave and told the boys to come help him do yard work. Umm, NO! And then when Stephen came down in a yellow shirt that was totally inappropriate for pictures. We had been talking about this yellow shirt, but obviously we were thinking of two different yellow shirts. Now he had nothing to wear for pictures. Luckily, Glade had an extra yellow polo shirt that was ginormous on Stephen, but matched. We got there in plenty of time and mostly, everyone cooperated and did really great.

When we had looked at all the pictures, Chelsey took all the kids to dinner and then home while Glade and I did the choosing. I can't say I'm super happy with them, but I blame the photographer. I don't know what she was thinking with some of those poses. Too bad I can't see what she's doing while I'm in the pictures. Anyway, they are fine and I probably won't do that place next year. So here are the best ones, the whole lot of them are on FB if you care.

The Princess

The Princess got herself in some more trouble today. I hadn't even left for the morning yet, when I hear screaming from their room. I ran in to both kids crying and Bo holding his arm. She bit him. My kids have never been biters and certainly not starting at 3! I smacked her mouth and gave her a talking to then left to take Whitley to the doctor. On that note, she has pneumonia on one side. She gave us expensive "sample" meds and sent us on out way. I love her, she is always so helpful.

I called Glade to see how things were going at home and he said he had just spanked them both and sent them to their rooms. They found a stash of lollipops I have (for them) and were sneaking them. When he saw them, they ran to their room and locked the door. What is with those two??! So he gave them the lecture about sneaking and asking first. Later, after I was home and we had lunch, we laid down for naps. They asked if they were good, could they have one after naps. I agreed. Things went well so they each got one. Sounds good so far right?

I left to run to the grocery store for strawberries and meat (great sales), I got back and Katy was laying in front of the TV with TWO suckers in her mouth! She just doesn't learn. I got most of the nail polish off the wall, but not all of it and a lot of the paint came off too. I'm definitely going to have to do more to keep her occupied.

Speaking of strawberries, I got ten pounds. Now comes the fun part, cutting. I'm going to freeze some, make some jam and tonight they get strawberries and ice cream. mmmmm, strawberries!

Can Children Kill You?

Question of the day. The good news is that I survived yesterday. Due to my own lack of motivation, I saved all the preparations for Pack Meeting for the day of. I always have stuff roaming around in my head, but never act on them until it's at a stressful point. I spent the entire morning filling out scout cards, organizing awards, making phone calls and gathering supplies for the events of the evening. By noon I was mostly ready with the exception of a trip to the store. Luckily for me, it was my "trade with Alicen" day so I got to do most of it without little ones around. After lunch, I put them down for naps and headed out to do my errands.

Whitley is still home sick. It's officially a week. I'm taking her to the doctor this morning, but I feel like it's a waste. We had her on antibiotics and it didn't do anything. I'm going with the flu at this point. Every time we think its looking up, she comes down with a 103 temp. At night, when I don't hear her coughing anymore, I get up to check on her to make sure she hasn't died. Kind of stressful.

After picking the kids up from school, I finished my preparations for scouts and took the boys with me to set things up. Since I never found my keys, I couldn't get in to the cabinets that hold everything I need for Pack Meeting. Totally panicking now. Just in the nick of time, someone with keys came to my rescue. I threw the rest of the things together in record time and headed home to feed my kids before I needed to leave again in 30 min. While I was gone, Katy happened.

Katy may be the death of me. Right before lunch, Whitley went outside to tell them it was time to eat and found her butt naked in the neighbors yard. The only thing I could glean from her was that she was "twirling" and I think she peed so she stripped down, but didn't feel like coming inside. Earlier in the day, she was upstairs naked playing with her dolls. She is testing her free will as well. Lot's of "no"s and grunts in response to any requests. She's had her bum paddled a few times lately. So while gone at scouts, she painted the hallway with nail polish and her face with permanent lipstick. She looks ridiculous. I had to just let it all be and head to scouts.

Scouts went extra long and we had a big crowd so it was a little chaotic, but I got through it and it was OK. My throat always hurts on this night from talking so much and straining to be loud enough. After it was over, we were cleaning up and just about ready to head out to another meeting when a little brother of one of the scouts fell and hit his head on the wall. I heard the 'boom' and went out to see. My first words were about to be.."shouldn't be running in the hall".. but when I saw the look on his brothers face, I changed my mind. The little guy had split his forehead open and was bleeding. I rushed him to the bathroom and sent the other for his mom. We cleaned him up and got the bleeding to mostly stop and she took him home.

Spent the rest of the evening trying to keep my eyes open through my next two meetings. I was so ready to go home. Not to mention, it was the last day on my diet and I was starving. Seriously hungry. The good news is that I lost 13 lbs in about a week. I'm definitely ready to stop thinking about it so much and just enjoy. I will do one more week in about a month or so and then I will be happy.

So, in retrospect, the day was not that traumatizing, but definitely more eventful than I would have preferred. Let's hope today is not a repeat!

Ketchup

Wow, gotta go clear back to Thursday! Alicen and I have devised a plan to let us both get a good work out in at least once a week. She takes my kids on Tuesday mornings so I can ride and I take hers on Thursday so she can not have to stop and tend to her baby. So Thursday I spent the morning with her sweet little ones while I canned the last of my potatoes, made homemade bread and tried a new jam recipe. That night I was privileged to go to my last ward and teach a canning class. What great gals, I miss them. I think it went ok, you know...criticize the whole thing, go over in your mind what you wanted to do vs. what you actually did....but I think it was OK. I had a great time even if no one else did!

Friday we left bright and early to head to Tuscon for the Geography Bee. It's Stephen's third and final year to compete. Let me just sum it up, it did not go well. I felt really bad for him. I don't know what happened, but he just couldn't even guess a 50/50 right. He was holding back tears the whole time. In his defense, most years, it's unusual for many to miss more than one or two out of 8 or 9, but this year, the majority missed almost half. It was a tough year for everyone. We still made a good day of it and went to lunch and had a good time spending time together with Dad and Grandma as well. Later that night, Glade and I went to dinner with the Johnson's. Glade was grouchy and so was Jenny so it worked out great to have a totally chill dinner with no real plans or expectations. I love having friends like that!

Saturday started nice and early again. Brooklyn and Bo both had 10 am ball games. It got really hot and I ended up with a slight sunburn. A little color is good! Brooklyn won her first game and Bo, well...Bo's was t-ball. After games, we all came home and did Saturday chores and got a little nap squeezed in. The kids were about to explode waiting to get to the ward Rodeo. (only in Queen Creek!) So we finally got them there where they were able to put pants on a goat, ride on a burlap sack behind a horse (not sure why this is fun, but even Katy loved it) and ride "mechanical bulls". It was a dirty, happy day! We rushed home just in time to welcome our Games Night friends in for this month's date night. We never got around to playing games, but had some great conversations. Have I ever mentioned how blessed I am with great friends??

Today has been a very relaxed day. Katy was in my bed eating a cookie at 5:54 am, that wasn't such a great start, but it was fine. Got to church in time, kids behaved and Stephen bore his testimony. Talk about make a mom proud. He cried like a baby, just like his daddy. What a great kid. Whitley has been sick for almost 5 days now with a fever and a bad cough. I started her on some Anti-biotics I have to see if maybe we can get it kicked. She feels awful and I feel awful for her. Poor thing. Dinner was terrible and my kids let me know about it. So much for 'last minute'. Didn't work out so well. Ah well, they got fed.

I started doing the hcg again on Monday and today is my last day of taking the drops. So far this week I have lost 11 lbs. Hoping for one or two more over the next couple of days and then I will be on maintenance. This time I'm going to try a little harder to stick to it, don't want to keep doing this! In total, I have lost 15 lbs since I first started it. I really need to do at least 10 more, but that's a different story and a different month....I want chocolate!

Too Much Baggage

Right now I feel like I have a hundred things hanging over my head. They are stupid things that aren't a big deal, but time consuming and unpleasant. Most of which irritate the crap out of me so I know as soon as I start dealing with them, I'm going to have a bad day! I finally got signed up for my Traffic Survival School. Eight freakin hours!!! Are you kidding me?? Then I found out that the class I would have to go to to take care of my other ticket is different, it's Defensive Driving School. It, by the way, costs as much as my ticket. Hmmmm, seems like a no brainer there. Actually I think I have decided to just show up on my court date and hope like heck that the officer doesn't show up. Worst that can happen is I pay my ticket and go home, right? How did this happen to me? I haven't had a ticket in 10 years and now 2 in three months?

Chelsey's graduation and getting her set up for college is stressing me out. I have no idea what I'm doing and because they are not local, it's impossible to just sit down and have an actual person tell me what still needs to be done. I guess we will be taking a weekend and heading to Flagstaff!

Today I spent the morning canning potatoes and butter and making strawberry jam with a new recipe. Unfortunately, I started my drops again and can't taste any of it! I'm sure the drops are making me cranky as well. I'm ashamed to admit that I gained 7 of the 11 lbs back. I ate like a stinkin glutton all week. I guess that whole maintenance thing is a little important. I'm only two days in and I'm down 4 lbs, but I don't have the zeal I did the first time. I just want a cracker or something "starchy". I'm only doing it for a week though. Then in a few weeks, I'll do one more week.

I still haven't found my keys so that means getting a whole new set made. I had to ask for more church keys, which is embarrassing and my car key is $200 to replace. I'm not sure the whole car is worth that much! Where is that money tree I planted?? Oh yah, we lost two chicks yesterday. They just mysteriously got out of the pen and disappeared. No one will admit to anything of course, so now we only have 5 left. Our other big one starting laying though, so now we are getting 3 eggs a day.

On a positive note, the weather has stayed cool, I've been biking 3 times now, Glade has been home more this week, and I'm almost done with my third book. Most of my laundry is done and put away and I only have a few people who haven't picked up their PETE containers. I think I'll just deliver so I can get rid of that "to do". I'm totally excited to teach the canning class tomorrow and see old friends. I guess I just need to spend some time "unpacking" so all these things can stop nagging at me. Maybe I should hire a secretary!

Easter 2010

Easter 2010 has been a fun and busy time for the Smith family. On Friday, we had an Easter lunch with all the cousins and Aunts (one Uncle). The big kids, twelve and over, hid the eggs outside while the little ones ate lunch. After lunch, we let them go out by ages to find their treasured eggs! Once all the kids had found their designated amount of eggs, they got to open them to find out what was inside. It was a nice time enjoyed by all. We also put together our 72 hour kits with fresh items. This is a favorite task of my children's. They get to eat, at will, all the contents of their old kits. For me, it's a time of garbage and wrappers as far as the eye can see.

Friday night we took our kids to the Easter Pageant at the Temple. We haven't gone in a few years because I don't particularly like taking my little ones. I was surprised and disappointed that many of my children had no idea what it even was. Glade went early and saved our seats. I brought the rest of the kids around 6, it starts at 8. Stephen and I went to get pizza and soda for everyone. Once back, we ate and visited and before long the show started. They all were attentive and even had questions and wanted clarity. I loved that their brains were working. What a great event! I even got a few thank you's for dinner and a fun night out.

Before the cousins arrived on Friday, I made all the kids gather so I could get a few pictures. Ok, I took way more than a few, but how could I not? They are goofy, and cheesy and completely and totally all MINE!

We asked the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday so Sunday wasn't a hectic, chocolaty mess before church. It has been a wonderful change for us. This year he brought one basket and little goodie bags for each child. Inside the basket were little goodies for them to share along with the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It's amazing what little goofy things make them happy.

Easter Sunday welcomed a big breakfast of biscuits and gravy, sausage and eggs and then as a family, we watched General Conference together. After the first session, it's tradition for Glade to take them on a walk while I clean up breakfast and get the homemade cinnamon rolls ready. I love these Sundays. Hopefully it's the traditions and time spent they remember instead of the goodies and sweets that disappear so quickly.