The Circus

Our Birthday Present to You... Yoga in Your Frontyard While You're Inside Sleeping

2012-01-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

And some love hearts on your lawn.
We do this. Sometimes. Randomly. We toilet papered for the last friend's birthday.

We left our hearts and we took our pictures and posted them on facebook with the birthday girl sufficiently tagged. Can you imagine how funny it is to wake up and not only see the love out on your yard, but to then find this on facebook?:

You never can tell what may happen in your frontyard while you're sleeping. Partner yoga? Totally awesome.

Penguins and Otter Pops

2012-01-24T16:15:00.001-07:00

We heard a rumor from a neighbor that if you dressed up in black and white and headed to the aquarium, you'd get in free. Even adults.

I don't usually pass up free. Especially when it's fun. And especially with our numbers. So we did. Even The Man. And since it was free, we took a couple extra kids with us. Why not? What's a couple more...

The day was dubbed "Penguin Appreciation Day", and who appreciates penguins more than I do? But the newest attraction for the aquarium, even new since our little jaunt to it on New Year's Eve, were the otters. In celebration of the new otters the aquarium gave out free otter pops. Score.

I think Cali ended up with the best seat in the house on Dad's shoulders.

I let the kids split off and run around on their own, as long as the stayed in the groups that they left in. And it didn't matter that they all left me at the otters, they all headed to the penguins when they wanted to find me.
I think they know me pretty well.

Corporate Ladder. Literally.

2012-01-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Another bonus to the new job.
When you have one of these in your windshield:

You don't have to put all your McDonald's coke money into one of these:

Also, this has been sitting in our office for a couple of weeks now:

No one's taking credit for placing the sign on it, but for some reason I have a strong urge to climb it...

Cali's drawings

2012-01-23T16:35:00.001-07:00

Cali, first grade.

A picture she drew of herself with our two dogs, Milo and Strider.

And her self portrait.

Life Lessons While Roller Skating

2012-01-20T12:22:00.001-07:00

You can learn a lot by hanging out with your kids. Luckily for me, we haven't yet hit that time in life when the circus doesn't want to hang out with me. In all truthfulness, they are my best friends. Well, them and The Man. If I want to go and do something, it's usually The Man and the circus that I want to go and do it with.Yesterday Brynn got invited to go to Classic Skating with a friend. And then Cas got invited to go with a friend. And then Sean and Jayme got invited to go with their grandma. Classic has a Thursday deal where it's only a dollar to get in on Thursdays, but what in the world was going on that everyone was suddenly picking this Thursday, of all Thursdays, to go? Needless to say, Tay and Cali were feeling pretty left out so I told them that I would take them too.
From here a couple of things happened.
Firstly, Jayme and Sean didn't end up going to Classic, they went somewhere else so we didn't get to see them there. Sad.
Secondly, Casidee's friend, D, called and told her that she'd gone to the middle school when she wasn't supposed to and had gotten herself grounded so she could no longer go to Classic. No worries. Cas could just go with me since I was already committed to taking Tay and Cali.
This story gets interesting when we found, after arriving at Classic, that the said friend, D, was there. With other friends, including one of Casidee's bffs, A. Not only had she lied to Cas, and ditched her, but she had walked there and met up with 7th grade boys.
Cas and I had a pretty good heart to heart, sitting right there on a hard bench in an overly loud skating rink.
We decided that even though it sucked, like really sucked (that's 6th grade language), to have been lied to and not been included, Cas had come out on the better end of the situation. And she could see that. The walk from our house to Classic is longer than I would have allowed (three and a half miles, one way... that's too long of walk for a 6th grader in my opinion). Especially in the dark. I would have told Cas no if she'd told me she was walking to Classic with D. When we got there and saw them, we noticed that A was looking pretty miserable. They weren't skating, just walking around with these boys. When A saw that Cas was there, she got some skates and spent the rest of the time with Cas. Cas and I talked about, despite the being left out feeling, would she really have been having fun, now that she could see what D was doing there? No. A wasn't pleased with the situation, and Cas wouldn't have been either. Yes, she was left out, but this way she wasn't stuck being there and doing nothing with boys she didn't know. And I loved that Cas would sit there with me, her nerdy mom,shoulder to shoulder, in front of all those kids, and really talk to me about the situation. And that even though D was there with those boys, Cas and A would come and sit by me in between their skating rounds. I hope this level of relationship will last with my circus.
A ended up telling D that she was going to get a ride home from us. D didn't seem to care. I don't think I'll be letting Cas hang out with D too much in the future. Though I'm thankful to have been able to see that A is a good friend.
The third thing that happened last night was stinking cute Tayler bug got asked to "skate" not once, but twice during the snowball boys choice round. I was sitting on my hard bench when I looked up and spotted Tay making her way around the rink... with a boy. What? Super shy Tay is skating with a boy? I tried not to be the embarrassing mom, and stayed put, but only until after the snowball was done. I called her over when she was skating on her own and asked her if she had been skating with a boy? She denied it and I wondered if I had seen wrong, when a friend of Tay's skates up and blurts out, "she skated with two boys!" Two? I was so floored! My sweet quiet Tay skated with two boys? Tay just grinned. I knew I had seen it! She had been asked by a boy her own age, and by a teenage boy who was being nice and asking littler kids to skate.
How grateful I am that I hung around at Classic last night, instead of just dropping the kids off. I was there to help Cas through a tough friend situation, and I got to be there for a boy moment with Tay. And Cali was full of hugs for me through out the evening.
Nothing can replace time well spent with my circus.

What SOPA and PIPA could mean for our blogs

2012-01-18T09:33:00.001-07:00

There's a lot of hubbub about SOPA and PIPA today. Being one who needs to find things out for myself, I started Googling.

And while the intentions of the bills make sense, the overall ripple effect of these bills does not.
I don't run a business online, let alone run one that supports or distributes pirated material so why should I be worried about how this would affect me? If you blog, pay attention to what I've found here about the topics of how this will affect blogs in general. As of now, domains ending in .com or .org are not being targeted, but if these bills are passed it only opens up a door that could eventually lead to more censorship of the internet in whole.
Also, there's no due process involved. If there is a complaint against a website it will be blocked. No proof needed, right now, as the bill stands. Did you do a book review or a movie review on your blog? What if somebody reported that as copyright infringement? You, my blogging friend, could be done. What if someone posts a link in a comment thread? Copyright infringement on your blog.
I'm still learning a lot about these bills. Frankly, I love my blog and I don't want anything to happen to it simply because one of the videos I embedded from YouTube struck a copyright nerve with someone.
I do understand that piracy undermines hard work of a lot of people. It supposedly threatens jobs, and sure, I'll give it that doing something to stop that wouldn't be a bad thing. But these bills, in my still uneducated opinion, are not the way to do it.
A lot of websites are blacking out today (hmmmm, if I mention them I might be making a copyright infringement...) and you can check out the info on the SOPA blackout here. The point of the black outs today is to contact Congress and let them know that even if we support a bill to stop piracy, this isn't the one.
There is too much censorship and no due process involved at this point. I really don't think this is a direction we want to go in. This article is a good one on how these bills can affect you. Me. Us. The normal "every day" people. And he has some good links in it, as well as pros and cons, groups for and against. If you're interested.
I suppose we all need to make up our own minds on this, and I hope that we all take a few minutes to try and educate ourselves and not just get pulled into the frenzy of it. But from what I've read so far this morning, I think more work needs to be done on this before it goes through.
Write Congress now. And while you're at it, sign this petition.

Shark Tooth to Pearly Whites

2012-01-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

30 minutes and $50 later...

Getting rid of the shark tooth... PRICELESS.

Giving back, but taking more

2012-01-16T11:21:00.001-07:00

I remember how hard it was right after my divorce. Not the fact that I got divorced, I've actually been very at peace with that decision. It was most definitely the best thing I could have done. But what I'm thinking of is how hard church was.

I was already on the brink of inactivity. Cali was such a force of nature. Who am I kidding? She still is. Cali, at three years old would act up. She would get irate that she couldn't sit by me because her sisters got there first. Or throw a tantrum over... who knew. And I would have to take her out of Sacrament Meeting. But what stressed me out was what was I supposed to do with the other three girls? They weren't exactly old enough to sit there on their own. Tayler was four and Casidee at the oldest was seven. And without fail Cali would start her tantrums... and I was stressed beyond anything every Sunday.
I dreaded church. It tried me on every level. The place I was supposed to be gaining strength and support, was my biggest trial.
Some how I made it through that period of life. I still go to church on my own, and the girls are now old enough to sit quietly (with a lot of shushing from their mother). Even Cali can quietly content herself with the church books in our bag for the hour.
A few weeks ago we had a tweak in our bishopric, essentially adding a new member to it. Last week I saw his wife, across the chapel, walk out, carrying a not yet two year old, very fussy, twin daughter in her arms, while her other not yet two year old twin daughter and her five year old trailed behind her.
And I felt all the tenderness of the trial of that moment. Only hers is a greater sacrifice than mine was because her husband wasn't sitting with her out of service to everyone else.
I had no doubts about what she needed. And I had no doubts about what it was I was going to do.
Yesterday I sat with her. I didn't have the circus with me, they were with their dad. But I sat with her and in the first half hour of the meeting the twin girls started getting on each other's nerves. She pointed out afterwards that it's at that point that it's all over for her. Once they start in on each other there's no turning back.
But this time, she was able to take one into her lap, and I was able to take one into mine, and they were able to get their own attention, away from each other. And she was able to sit through the whole meeting, with out having to take her kids out.
Maybe I didn't hear anything those speakers said yesterday. But as I held that little girl on my lap and pointed out pictures in a book to her, I have never felt my heart so full. And next week the circus will be right there with us. Doing the most simple of things, sitting with these little girls. And maybe next week with the circus there to point out pictures in books to them, we mother's might actually get to listen to a thing or two.
I didn't have anyone helping me when I was in that particular situation. But I have had help in my life when my needs have been great. And I am truly more blessed than I deserve. How grateful I am to be able to give back a little. And even as I try to "give back" a little, I think I'm still going to walk away from this experience taking more than I gave.

Cali Bites the Big One

2012-01-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

We're taking this week out with a bang.Earlier this week Cali slipped on the ice at school and got a dark bruise on her cheek, and a bruised goose egg on her chin...

This picture was taken a few days later so the bruises are faded. But then today I got a phone call from our neighbor who works in the office at the Elementary school. Cali had fallen during recess and had a huge fat lip. The teeth don't seem to be loose and she says she can go and try and eat lunch. She'd been given an ice pack.Okay, that sounds simple enough to me. And then I got home and saw her:

I hurt just looking at her. (Excuse the never ending remodeling mess in the background).
"Let me see you teeth, Cali."

And I saw it. Her brand new, front, permanent tooth is chipped. The right one in the picture is chipped diagonally up the right side.
*Groan*
From now on Cali's going to wear a football helmet to school. Do you think they come in pink? With, possibly, a picture of Justin Bieber on it?

The Circus Takes Hollywood Connections

2012-01-12T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'm going to preface the night with a few words, tell you to click on the song, and then you get to look at the long line of pictures (which isn't nearly as long as it usually is).

Daily deals (or was it City Deals? I can't remember now) had a deal we just couldn't pass up. Our "brother-in-law" Sam sent me a text telling me about the $20 for 6 for unlimited access to everything. Score? I should say so. Since our family has eight he told me that he was only using four and our two extra could get in with him. I can handle that.

Let me just say that golf was not our finest hour. And you'll see why (the video is of that is a must see).

But let this song play while you look on, because all six of the circus were singing it at one point and it was our perfect soundtrack for the night:

Girl nuts and disco sticks

2012-01-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Oh Cali.
"Mom! Tayler kicked me in the nuts and it really hurt!"
"Cali, do you even know what that means?" (I'm desperately trying not to laugh).
"No..."
"Then why are you saying it?"
Well, she apparently did know the basics of what it meant, because when asked where it was that she was kicked, she had the right area.
And then she got a rudimentary lesson on female and male genitalia. With a rough sketch... very rough.
Any questions?
Yes. To set the next question up I should tell you that the kids got new mp3 players for Christmas and apparently Cali had some Lady Gaga downloaded to hers. "What's a disco stick?"
I think it will be a few years before Cali realizes how perfectly timed that question was. How do you explain a ride on a disco stick to the one and only child who was asleep for The Talk? Well, we just covered the basics of genitalia, so how about how they're used? Roughly... very roughly. She was disgusted and Lady Gaga has been banned from our house. I don't need her speeding these things up for me anymore.

The Man is on a roll... and only 3 days into 2012

2012-01-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday The Man's heavy duty mistake took up our morning. But with such an awesome start to the day, there just had to be more.
We were toying with the possibility of getting a different car. West found one 45 minutes away that had the natural gas conversion on it, which intrigues us. So after unloading all the lumber, we headed out to see the car.
We pulled up to the house and I was immediatley put off. There were huge scratches in the paint down the side. On both sides.
The guy had the price jacked up $2500 more than anyone else we'd looked at, but he had natural gas so we were willing to look at it. Come to find out the natural gas didn't acutally work. But he kept insisting that he had a quote of what it would cost to get it fixed. We still took it for a test drive just because I hate the soft suspension on our car and West wanted me to feel how this one rode to see if I even liked it.
We got in and it just felt... grimey. And then I saw it.

A booger on the window switch.
We get out and tell the man that we're probably not interested. The man, of course got defensive. West continues in bluntness that he has the price so much higher than anyone else for a feature that doesn't even work and the thing is completely dinged up.
I did the only thing I could think of, smiled, waved, and very sweetly said, "but thank you so much."
After that we looked at one more car (that ended up needing a few too many "small" repairs) and as we were leaving she asked that we please let her know if we decided we weren't interested. She would rather us call her and tell her no than leave her hanging.
So today we decided that getting a new car probably wasn't something that we're going to do right now. West, trying to do the nice thing, called the lady to tell her we weren't going to pursue it any farther. And as he tells this to her I hear her response from the phone, "yeah we figured as much yesterday."
Wait, what? We'd been interested enough yesterday...
West continues to say that there was just too many repairs and we'd "found a different one". Her responses are still "off" and then he realizes... he'd called the number for the first car we'd looked at, not the second...
So West not only gets very blunt with the defensive guy yesterday, but then calls up his wife and does it again today.

A heavy duty mistake

2012-01-02T18:39:00.001-07:00

When I woke up this morning my main goal was to get Christmas put away. Good-bye decorations, good-bye lights, good-bye tree.The day had a different plan for me.
The Man got a phone call from a framer buddy. Was somebody else framing the basement on the house West had just finished? Because that's framing faux pas. If you just barely finished framing a house and they want the basement done, that basement is yours.
No...
Why is there a new pile of of lumber on the lot?
Turns out that when West ordered his lumber for his new house, he got distracted enough that he had it delivered to the lot of the house he'd just finished, not the lot that he was starting. A difference of roughly 25 miles. *sigh*
West needs to start the new house in the morning so he needed to get the lumber moved stat. The kids were in school and I had the day off so I decided to tag along so he didn't have to do it alone. I figured I could help him out so it wouldn't take him so long to do it.
We get there and we load up the truck with as much as we can.

Not too shabby of a morning's work if you ask me. That's a lot of lumber to move by hand! We headed to the new lot, talking about our house remodel ideas when about half way there we hear...

and this picture is after we had tossed it from the middle of the road to the side of the road. 300 boards. Now that we've loaded the truck, and now tossed it all out of the middle of the road, we get to load it again. Good thing we had our good karma paid up because a few awesome guys pulled over and helped us restack all of this into the truck.
We slowly proceeded the rest of the way to the new lot without another mishap and breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled up to the curb.
A guy came by and looks at me, and then looks at the truck. "He's not going to make you move all of that is he?" He thought he was being cheeky. Dude, you have NO idea.
But no, this time, I didn't have to move it.

I have to say that West and I are a good match. We both do some pretty stupid things. I'm just glad that West's mistakes are a lot bigger than mine are. Literally. This one was really heavy!

Our True Identity.

2012-01-01T15:46:00.001-07:00

Our Anniversary AKA New Year's eve AKA My Penguin encounter

2011-12-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Man has been teasing me for a week that we had an appointment at 1:00 on our anniversay (which just so happens to also be today, New Year's eve) and that it would take about an hour. And I, for the life of me, couldn't think what it could possibly be. Couples massage?
At 12:40 we got in the car and he started driving. We chit chatted and just generally enjoyed being together when he pulled into the Living Planet Aquarium...
I almost cried. There would only be one reason for him to take me there.
I have been in love with, and even slightly, okay maybe more than slightly, obsessed with penguins since the age of 15. Should I date myself and tell you that this means I have loved them for 17 years? That's over half my lifetime already.
And it has been my dream for the past 17 years to someday be up close and personal with a real live penguin. The chest high blow up penguin I have hidden under our bed hardly counts.
The aquarium has gento penguins. Gento penguins are easily frightened and have huge personal space issues, so we weren't allowed to touch them, but we got to sit in the room with them for an hour. And they still interacted with us. Yeah, this was SO much better than a couples massage!

Every penguin that wandered in was fascinated with the fray on West's jeans.

And the tab on the back of his shoe. This penguin, Ghost Rider, is the black sheep of their penguin family there. (Every family has one). He wasn't afraid of anything. After he was done chewing on West's shoe, it went for the underneath of his leg, and kept on going until he bit West's leg. West tried really hard to hold still, but it kept biting harder and harder until he finally yanked his leg up. The penguin ended up hanging from his jeans because he wouldn't let go! Brian, the penguin guy, finally had to shew Ghost Rider away. I SO wish I had gotten it on video.

In this video Ghost Rider hates the squeegie that they use on the floor. He knew that the squeegie was kept behind the door, so he kept "an eye on it". He'd keep going back to the door and burrying his beak there and just watching the squeegie.

At one point Ghost Rider was hiding underneath the bench, I have to admit, after what he'd done to West, I was a little nervous to have him out of sight and underneath me.

These two penguins are one of the two established mated couples at the aquarium. We got to see them bow to each other which is a courtship move and then they stood and "held hands", which with the personal space issues that they have, is as much contact they'll stand, and they only stand it with their mated partner. I have another video here that shows them "fighting" with each other, because one of them got too close, but they don't actually touch other because that would be getting too close.

I love my man for making this dream come true for me. Love him. I can't even express it enough. That he cares that much about me to want to do this for me. Dreams do come true. Even if it means almost feeding your man to a penguin.
The aquarium is building a bigger center, and they're going to expand in their penguin center. My favorite type of penguin is a rock hopper penguin. Guess what they're going to be getting? I can't wait!
You can also check out the aquarium's website and watch the penguins live here.

Every year we're going to take a picture on our anniversary, holding the picture that we took the year before. It's going to be fun to see how we change year to year, and to have the depth of pictures grow in each one.

Jayme's 11

2011-12-31T19:01:00.001-07:00

Although if you ask West he thinks she turned 10.

Jayme loves to draw and color things. Her favorite animal is the penguin and her favorite color is yellow. Right now she loves spaghetti.
We got to pick Jay and Sean up from their mom's and take them to Jay's choice of Applebee's (since we'd already done her birthday party on her half birthday)for a family dinner with Aunt Lindee, Uncle Sam, Papa Mike, and Granny Suzann.
Granny gave the circus her gifts for them, nesting dolls. A huge hit.

Let us duly note that Jay's had a penguin in it.
And of course, the staff sang to Jayme, which she loved.

The guy in the blue jersey is the world's slowest waiter. Ever. But he was happy.
Happy birthday sweet Jayme!

Our three days of Christmas

2011-12-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

With the swapping my ex Thanksgiving for Christmas it threw our schedule off. Normally we have both exes on the same weekend and same holiday schedule, so we either have all our kids and can be together as a full family, or we get to be together as a couple. We like it this way. But with the switch it made us a little off. So we had to have two Christmas Eve's and two Christmas mornings, one with Jayme and Sean, and the regular one with the other four girls.
Christmas eve eve:
Christmas eve eve started with lunch with Grandma KC and Aunt Jessica and her crew at Cafe Rio. Grandma decided to come for a visit for the holidays and this would be the only day while she was visiting that we would have the full circus. She'd been working for a year and a half on quilts for all her grandkids and they were finally done. The kids got to tell Grandma what colors they wanted their quilts and they were super excited that they were finally done. I didn't get a closer pics of Sean, his was done with Sponge Bob material:

That night we celebrated Christmas eve eve. And of course, no Christams eve eve is complete without a family throw down while watching Christmas cartoon specials on TV:

And of course, the pajamas. We just gave them comfy bottoms this year so that would be why they're all raising knees and legs. They wanted to make sure their bottoms could be seen in the picture:

Christmas eve morning Jayme and Sean got to open all of their presents from us, and we let all 6 kids open the presents for the names that they had drawn with each other.

And Papa Mike showed up with his gift, sleds for the entire family:

Which will be awesome if we ever get any snow this year...
I made our traditional Swedish Pancakes for the kids and then Jayme and Sean went off the spend the rest of the holiday with their mom. Sad for us.
The rest of us cleaned and cooked for the family Christmas eve dinner.
I love my family. They make me laugh. My mom was there, with my brother Bill and his family, and my sister McKell and her family. As well as the world's most awesome father-in-law, Mike. We laughed and giggled and ate a lot of food. Thank you to pinterest for the cheesecake filled strawberry idea! Oh, and we had fun watching Sam-I-am and the dogs tease each other:

We also watched Santa's progress across the world with Norad Santa Tracker which was so exciting, even for me. I think that's going to have to become a yearly thing. Cali pleaded with me as she went to bed, "Mom, please don't stay up too late. He's getting close!"
Christmas morning was as magical as it should have been. Cas got her long awaited for camera and the other girls got their American Girl dolls, which of course, looked just like them.

And being as Christmas fell on a Sunday this year Santa brought the girls Christmas dresses for church:

Santa also brought me the softest robe I've ever felt in my life *sigh* and Grisham's new book :).

And don't forget about the puppy boys who got a nice cushy new bed:

And although we certainly enjoyed the gift giving and receiving, we didn't forget about the true spirit of Christmas. There was much love and gratitude expressed and their was a wonderful peace in our home. As well as, for me, thoughts of my Savior Jesus Christ and not just his birth, but his life. And his atonement for me.
I have been given much.

Bucket list for 2012

2011-12-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Pinterest is inspiring. It really is. But there are so many ideas and so little time!
I've gone through my boards, I've checked them twice, and I've created a bucket list of sorts of the things that I will do, make, or visit in the year of 2012.
Are you ready for this?

1. I'm going to read "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. And not only read it, but explain it the The Man as I go, and then we're going to apply it to our finances. Our total goal (that won't happen in 2012, but we'll at least start it)? Debt free. Can we do it? Yes we can! But I have to read this book first. I hear it helps you get in the right frame of mind to actually want to follow through with it. Yes.

2. We have a pretty awesome job chart system going at our house. But it's just boringly written on a dry erase board. I need cuteness. Our job chart is going to be converted into cute form.

3. Also in the name of converting to cuteness, instead of hanging my handwritten menu on the side of the fridge, I want to paint our cabinet end with chalk paint. It's in a prime position to look awesome. It hangs where the bar starts so it would look like a cafe menu board. I get giddy just thinking about it!

3. We will finish the blasted bathroom. Which means I get to do all these fun details in it.

4. I looked at my "Please take me there" board longingly. *sigh*. But in the name of getting out of debt I suppose I ought to visit a new place that's close to home. Arches anyone?

5. I'm going to try my hand at bleach pen shirts.

6. And I'm making this shirt. Because I love everything about it.

7. As well as this skirt.

8. This one kind of scares me to put on my bucket list. But I would like to have my six pack back. Not a big six pack, just a slightly there cute girly six pack. I had one a couple of years ago. I want it back. Yikes. Now it's on my list. So I have to do it.

9. I'm going to make a quilt. Maybe not all of these, but at least one them. Or maybe not even one of these per say, but I will end 2012 with at least one quilt made by my hands.

10. Because I can't stop laughing about this. I need this in my house and my parentals will probably receive them as gifts. Because I can.

I think I better stop there. I actually want to do/finish this list so I need to keep it realistic (and I've probably already over shot realistic). Okay, wait.

11. Run another half marathon. But this time actually complete a full training for it. Besides, I have a time to beat now, and my cousin wants me to go to San Diego to run one with him. Done deal.

12. Go diving in the ocean. I have been a certified scuba diver for... 15 years and have never gone diving in the ocean. Sad. Is it cheating to add this to the list if I know I already have the trip planned for March to do this? Plane tickets are already purchased. (This also includes seeing my brother Nick get married and going to Universal Studios Orlando (both of them)).

Okay, now I'm done. Time to get started!

We still have a week and a half before 2012, and perhaps I should be writing this post on New Year's day, but I'm not one for "resolutions" on the first of the year, I do them when I'm ready. I happen to be ready. Let's do this.

Ironic or hypocritical?

2011-12-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'm usually a pretty passive aggressive individual. I hate conflict. I avoid it. At all costs. I get nervous and clam up at the possibility of a disagreement gone awry. Except this summer when a large family of Tongans walked all over my stuff because they decided they wanted to make some room in the shade at the local swimming pool by moving my stuff out of the way. I became not very nice in that instant, letting them know exactly what I thought and it shocked me.
I guess you can say I'm still being passive aggressive with this rant on my blog today, but it's my blog. And it's where I dump my over full brain.
So I'm getting on my soapbox, and if you know me you know this soapbox well.
Judging just really gets under my skin and makes me grit my teeth. Even though I've been known to do it, because it's a really hard thing not to do ever, and frankly, some things require a bit of judging. But other things, however, do not.
I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. Life is hard enough with out us making it harder for each other. My favorite quote on the subject? "Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." (Marjorie Hinckley).
Let's talk about gay rights shall we? Well, no, probably not right now. That's not actually what I'm getting on my soapbox for, but let's just say that I have been nothing but kind and supportive to my homosexual friends in the fight to live how they feel. It's a hard battle and I still stand by my words that just because someone lives life differently than we do doesn't mean they're wrong.
Imagine my surprise this morning to read a comment from a gay friend that put down my lifestyle. He, who fights for his lifestyle and wishes to live free of judgement, turned on mine. Claiming that he was next to a family who had *gasp* five children under the age of five. First of all, let's make a false claim to make the situation sound more sensational than it is because we all know that he didn't approach this family and he sure didn't ask the kids' ages. He just claims that they're five kids under five years. I'm sure there were five, and I'm sure they were all young, but come on now. And even if it were so, I had four under four years. And currently have six within five years of each other. So the next comment of his being sure that parent planning classes are available to such people (which, considering the facts that I just stated about the ages of my own circus would include me, right?) stung.
I wonder that those who have to fight so hard to live judgement free, can turn around and dole it out with out a second thought.
And frankly I'm only hurt because though his comments weren't aimed directly at me, they most certainly included me. And that's the thing about judgement. I've also heard this before in the harsher debates of stay at home mom vs. working mom. Comments will be made. And me, on my judging soapbox which I seem to not be able to get off of, will butt in. And then it's said, "well I didn't mean you."
And we never do. We always mean that person over there who has the same situation as you, but I didn't mean you.
I do it. I know I do it. The same as you do it, and the same as my friend did it.
Ironic or hypocritical?

There's a hawk in our house!

2011-12-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

All I can say is that we don't call it The Circus for nothing.
Imagine one hawk flying crazily in the kitchen with five screaming girls freaking out about it... one in tears...
but I get ahead of myself. I wasn't actually at home for the first half of this adventure so I'll have to tell it to you the way it was told to me.
It started with this picture text from The Man:

"I was getting into the shower when these two birds crashed into the window. Scared the heck out of me. One's still breathing but not moving. Not sure what to do with it."
To which I replied via text, "Oh wow. Is this one of those things where we have to bring it in the house with a box nest? :/" Let me interject here that I was only kidding.
"I'm going to nudge it if it doesn't move I'll have to finish it I guess."
"Ew gross."
"It's looking at me. Grrrr."
"LOL"
"I'm trying to pick it up but it's holding onto the ground."
"It knows you're going to kill it."
"Not yet. I was trying to see if it could move."
"Tayler says we should call FedEx."
"LMAO!"

"I tried your box idea. I should have closed the box."
"Maybe I should have said that the box idea only works if they're hurt and can't fly."
"I thought it couldn't. It didn't move at all except to hold the ground when I picked it up."
"This is going to make an awesome blog post."
"Haha we have some good ones. Like Granny's raccoon baby."
"It's a hawk. I looked it up."
"Are you serious?"
"Yep. I'm certain. The pic matched perfect."
"Oh geez. Is it still in the house?"
"Yep."
At this point The Man posts on facebook, "Does anybody have a fishing net or butterfly net I can borrow? ASAP."
Insert mental image here...
"Kaye Lynn says to call Tracy Aviary."
"I just need to get it outside."
"Right. They can come and get it."

"It tried flying. It wasn't successful."
I found out later that West had tried to go up and actually take his shower at that point, telling the circus not to worry about it, it wasn't going anywhere. As life goes, as soon as he gets upstairs it starts flying around. And girls start screaming bloody murder. And there were tears.
"What the... is it breathing?"
"Yes."
"Man that bird is having a bad day."
At this point, after laughing hysterically about this with my co-workers I head home.
I walk into the house from the garage door to see this blocking my path:

And I have to admit that I freaked out inside just like the circus. What if it freaked out on me when I stepped over it? FINALLY I was able to force myself to step over it, as it glared at me with it's angry hawk eye.
I looked up the website for Tracy Aviary and found that they don't actually take wild birds because of quarantining, but was able to get the phone number for Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, who does take them. "Hi. I have a hurt hawk in my house..." Followed by an "Oh!" and a burst of laughter with, "that's a first!"
It would be us.
So West gently picked the poor thing up,

and went to put it in the same box that brought it in to the house, but realized we should probably learn the lesson that it can fly out of the box and did we really want that happening in our car?
Insert mental image here.
So we put a blanket in our dog carrier instead.

We took the hour drive up to Ogden, where two ladies stayed late to wait for us, and one put on the huge leather gloves (please note that West used only paper towels LOL) and reached in and... the poor thing had died on the way.
We learned that a bird's trachea is the back of their tongue, and she could see a lot of blood coming from it. Which meant that there was significant internal bleeding.
We also learned that it was a Cooper's hawk. They hide in the trees until a prey comes along, and then the tactic is to chase them into something to kill it, like, oh, say our house. But this guy didn't pull out of the chase fast enough, or as West imagines it, was fighting with it mid-flight, so he hit the house too.
Oh well, at least he's not hurting and West didn't have to get the shovel. My conscience is clear.

Of course I had to look up "malfeasance"

2011-12-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

This weekend my Brent-Dad gave me this:

He said, "this is so you can look up words and terms and know what the lawyers are talking about when they say things like 'malfeasance'."
It now sits on my desk at work with the medical dictionary that my boss provided me with. That's the beauty of working in Medicaid Fraud, I get to learn not only about the law side, but the medical side, and the police investigator side. I feel like I'm getting the best of all worlds here.
The best thing about this dictionary is that it has my dad's name and address in it. So it's a hand-me-down. And if you know me, then you know I love hand-me-down stuff from my family. I feel like I'm always saying to West that something belonged to my grandma, or great grandma, or grandpa... you get the picture. Especially books. I have a lot of old books from my grandparents.
And now I have one from my dad.
I think he's proud of where I'm taking my life. I don't think I'll ever out grow wanting to make my parents proud.

Thanks Mom

2011-12-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while you get a small hint that maybe, just maybe, they're going to turn out okay despite you. (Click on the picture to read it better).

Cas graduated from N.O.V.A.

2011-12-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

And I'm not talking about the science TV show.
The mission of N.O.V.A. Principles is: "Nurturing youth to seek out positive Opportunities, internalize good Values, and to accept Accountability for their choices in life. N.O.V.A. assists parents, families, and communities in protecting youth from the potentially devastating effects of illegal drugs, violence, and negative media exposure."

Cas has gone through this program at school with a police officer, and has put a lot of extra work into it. She designed a rocket, went with out media (TV, computer, phone) for a week, wrote her own personal mission statement, not only for the program, but for her life, as well as different worksheets that she had to bring home and prepare answers for.
She was extrememly proud of herself when graduation time came along. She felt she had earned it. And she did. So much in fact, that she even called her dad and had him drive the 3 hours out to see her graduate. To his credit, he did.
I'm grateful for Officer Albrand and the efforts that she puts into this program. Cas has spoken highly of her for months now.
They made the N.O.V.A mission into a cheer that they stood up and yelled with such energy and volume that a lot of the kids were plugging their ears as they yelled. I have to admit, I was half tempted to follow suit with it. It was ear ringing LOUD in that gymnasium, and it left me feeling so proud of all of those kids for being so excited about something so good that it brought literal tears to my eyes.
Getting ready for the cheer:

Officer Albrand:

Graduation:

To close the graduation the kids had prepared their own 12 days of Christmas song. Here's Cas in her "tutu", as she's one of the 8 ballerinas. I was taking pics with my phone and wasn't fast enough with it to get a picture of her twirling.

And lastly, but certainly not least, here's Cas with her certificate and t-shirt:

I'm so proud of you Deeds. You worked hard for this, and you deserve the recognition. You'll do amazing things with your life.

The Man's happy birthday

2011-12-11T20:21:00.001-07:00

Happy birthday to my best friend and love of my life. I couldn't have asked for a better to man to travel through life with .
I took a tip (or several) from the Dating Divas and hid items with notes around the house where I knew he'd find them in the natural progression of his day.

Items also ended up in the fridge, his sock drawer, the closet, and on the toilet tank. :) I think the circus had as much fun as he did searching around for where else a treat with a note would pop up.
After everyone was up and ready (and in the process all the notes had been found), The Man wanted bowling. So The Man got bowling. His dad and mom were able to join us.

Up, up and away! It's Super Granny!
We did what the circus does best... goofs around and laughs a lot.

And we won't mention when I threw my bowling ball down the lane and ended up somehow flat on my arse...
The kids learned a lesson in bad words thanks to Granny's gift:

The apron she gave him says: "I'm a dick weed but I BBQ a MEAN weenie and my mom loves me."
And we ate cheesy fries. With fry sauce. Cheesy fries and fry sauce, my true love.

The Man requested crab and steak for dinner.

And a no bake cheesecake for dessert (sorry folks, no cake fun on this birthday ;)).

Granny also dropped off a pumpkin roll.
We love you babe. Thanks for being our everything. And fixing everything. That helps a lot too.

Awesome days start with Costco hotdogs for breakfast

2011-12-10T21:00:00.001-07:00

What. A. Day.The man and I tackled grocery shopping first thing this morning. We were very litterally out of food. As in, the kids squeeked by with pb&j and applesauce for breakfast and I... had a Costco hotdog (complete with mustard, relish, and onions). Don't worry, after Costco we dropped off eggs and milk so the kids coud have some scrambled eggs while we headed out to the regular grocery store for the rest of our list.
And I had to finish up some errands for the man's birthday tomorrow. (I did that sans man though).
We got back in time to crack the chore whip before Tay and I headed out to watch my niece dance in her Christmas dance recital.

I'm glad that I was able to go and support my brother and his family. Family is everything. Speaking of family... from there we joined up with Grandpa Brent and Grandma Julie for their Christmas present to the circus. They've decided that instead of gifts of toys, they want to give the gift of time. And we're way okay with that. Last year they took the circus to the local aquarium, this year it was to the movie theater to see Dolphin Tale

and then to Rock Creek Pizza Co. for some awesome pizza buffet. Because where else are you going to go when you have half a dozen starving kids?

Oh yeah, the movie was 3-D which meant popping the lenses out for Bieber glasses. When will this fad end?
And if that weren't a full enough Saturday, we had one more trip on our agenda. I've been doing a Christmas countdown for both the circus and for the man. Each day they get a card. Sometimes it says something nice about them, sometimes there's an activity for the day. Today's card was an activity. Go find some lights! I'd heard from my cousin about the Christmas house near us so we drove by to check it out. If you're in the Salt Lake area you should check it out. His website is here, it has the address. And according to the website, this is the last year that they're going to do it. I highly recommend it. The lights changed and danced with the music and the trees had lit up faces with talking parts. The website also tells you which radio station to tun in to, but if you odn't want to wait in the LONG line of cars, you can simply park at the bottom of the street at the church and walk up, the show is also playing aloud from the yard.

How many kids can you cram into the back window of a car? :) On tomorrow's to do list... clean face and hand prints of said car window.

Needless to say the circus was pretty excited about what we saw, and that made me the coolest mom ever.
And to think, this day all started with a hotdog for breakfast. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Lying to my children about Santa Claus

2011-12-09T12:56:00.001-07:00

I've heard it mentioned a few different times this season... lying to our kids about Santa Claus.

I guess I'm a little taken back by it. I don't recall it ever being phrased in such a blatant and, well, rather harsh way. Lying to my child about Santa.

Here's how I see it.
Santa is the spirit of giving. Unselfishness. Hope. Love. Acceptance of all. As my children grow older and they ask the inevitable question, "Does Santa really existence?" The answer in my home is, "As long as you believe, Santa will come." Santa is in us all. And perhaps at other times of the year we simply just call it charity. Or service. But come Christmas time, that wonderful time of the year, we all become a little more focused on it. We start looking around us, and we starting giving and loving just a little bit more.
I don't think it a terrible thing to create the magic of Santa for our children. Because that's exactly what we're doing. Creating magic. And as they grow, it gives the lesson of the spirit of giving all the more substance, because they've felt it. They know it. And now they're a part of it too.
So am I lying to my child about Santa? No. I'm creating memories, visions, and lessons to last a life time. And I'm okay with doing that. I'm also okay that my parents did that for me as a child. And I hope that my kids will do it for theirs.
To each and every one of you, with out fear of being politically correct, or being religiously offensive, I simply say "Merry Christmas." This wonderful time, that no matter your beliefs or orientations of life, when we can all have a common feeling of "good will towards men."

Christmas Choir

2011-12-07T19:18:00.001-07:00

Casidee and Tayler joined the Christmas choir at school this year. Second year for Cas, first for Tay. This year their choir was invited to sing at our City Hall. There's a staggering 122 kids in their choir, the biggest they've ever had in the choir before, and the biggest choir that our City Hall has ever hosted. We were packed in tight. In front of City Hall:

Tay on the front row with the light blue shirt:

And Cas in the very back on her tip toes so she can see over the massive group that's squashed on the tiny stage, you can see her head:

Last night was the official concert. They had some pretty fun props, and of course an Elementary school choir is just funny to watch period. They make great faces.

Don't tell West, but I'm secretly hoping that they get into the musicals and plays in Jr. High and High school. :)

Whoville

2011-12-06T21:24:00.001-07:00

Meet the Withers Who's:
Tayler Lou Who:

Cali Lou Who:

Brynn Lou Who:

Jayme Lou Who:

Casidee Lou Who:

Our neighborhood party took an interesting twist this year. Welcome to Whoville. It was outstanding! Everyone did such an amazing job with the decorations

and the costumes and dressing up

and we had a surprise visitor

the canyland was incredibly done

not to mention the soft serve ice cream

The man and I didn't get too crazy with the dressing up, but I get credit for doing all that crazy hair on the circus!

Employee discount?

2011-12-05T09:57:00.001-07:00

We need an oil change on one of our cars. Badly. Burt Brothers would be ashamed at how behind I am. And I mentioned to the man yesterday that we don't get an employee discount anymore. In fact, I don't get an employee discount for anything now.

I made mention of this at work this morning to some of the investigators and their reply was that no, there weren't any employee discounts. The very most I could hope for would possibly be a "get out of jail free" card.

I'm going to tuck this away for future use. It never hurts to have one of those cards hanging around.

Sidebar scroll box tutorial

2011-12-02T11:52:00.001-07:00

I stand by my statement (that really, I probably use too much) that you can learn anything from Google (feel free to insert Bing, Yahoo, or any other search engine here). Aside from learning how to rip and reformat a training video at work so we could replay it on windows media player and burn it onto multiple dvds for upcoming interviews, I have also learned this week how to make a scroll box for my sidebar. It's pictured above, but it's also, obviously, on my right sidebar. Love it. So I thought I'd pass the info on. First, you need to know your widget ID, so you can tweak your widget into a scroll box. I learned how to find that ID from bloggersentral here. Then I followed bloggersentral's instructions for a scroll box here. They were super easy, and in case you didn't know (I'm sure you did, but just in case) to find the code that he says to find, you can just hit "ctrl+F" and it gives you a search box to put the code in at the top of your screen. It's a lot easier than trying to find the scrap of code by yourself. Also, don't include the numbers he has on his lines, I just copied and pasted the lines one at a time so I wouldn't pick up those line numbers.
Sadly, this didn't help me with putting my blog list in a scroll box. The scroll box showed up, but the blog list stayed as it was underneath it. I guess that will be my next thing to figure out.

Baked Donuts

2011-12-01T09:18:00.004-07:00

Cas, the aspiring chef, received a donut baker for an early Christmas present (from a cousin on her dad's side). They tasted like eggnog and were fabulous. I think she's going to do just fine in her dreams of being a chef.
And since growing up is all about learning, Cas learned that it's important to pay attention to the measurement increments on the recipe. She also learned the volatile relationship between vinegar and baking soda. One cup of vinegar added to baking soda turns out to be a lot more exciting, and a lot more of a mess, than one tablespoon would have. Lesson learned.
Tay and Jay helped Cas decorate these masterpieces and the circus couldn't eat enough of them. I guess we'll have to have Cas pull out her donut baker again soon.

What happens when you have five daughters

2011-11-30T09:26:00.001-07:00

Julie-mom said it best, "Oh yeah... I especially like it with the hairy toes."

Our brush with kidnappers

2011-11-29T12:33:00.001-07:00

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I received a phone call while at work. Someone tried to kidnap Cali.

And time stopped for a second. What?
Cali had been playing in the front yard of our next door neighbor's house with their granddaughter. A common occurrence. According to Cali, and then West who had heard it from the mother of the other little girl, the scene played out like this:
Cali and her friend were in the neighbor's front yard playing. A white van pulled up (what is it with white vans? Is it a requirement for this sort of thing?) and a man got out and told the girls to "get in the van." They, being the smart girls that they are, then rushed into the neighbor's garage. Now, what I got from West, the mother of the neighbor girl said it was at this point that she showed up at the house and was able to get the license plate number, and she called the police. I imagined them driving off and her somehow having the notion and the frame of mind to write the plate number down.
I left work and B.A.W.L.E.D. I completely and utterly broke down with giant tears and racking sobs as I drove. Everything that I had ever deemed important, everything I had every prayed, or pleaded, or begged for in my life, suddenly seemed so petty compared to the safety of my children. A safety I took for granted, and now that it was threatened in a very real way... I begged for forgiveness for ever thinking that anything meant more than the safety of my family, a blessing that I no longer take for granted.
I called one of my co-workers, an investigator with Medicaid Fraud where I currently work, but former P.D. I asked him if charges would be placed for just trying to take my daughter, or if this was one of those "oh well, they didn't actually get her so there's nothing that we can really do about it" situations. Apparently attempted kidnapping is a big deal. As in, a first degree felony big deal.
So I called the police department to find out what was going on. After I got home and hugged the living daylights out of every one of my circus, let alone Cali. I couldn't hold them long enough.
I was told by the officer that the charge was not going to be attempted kidnapping, but would be charged as suspicious vehicle. I was a little confused and more than put off, and though I tried to stay polite, I think the officer could tell I wasn't pleased. So he asked if he could explain why.
Firstly, the man who got out of the van came into my yard. Cali pointed out to the policeman, and to me exactly where he stood. It was almost to my front porch. My thought is, if someone wants to kidnap a child, they wouldn't come clear in to a yard, they would stay closer to the street for a get away. According to what the officer learned from Cali, the man never actually made a move towards the girls. There was about 30 feet between them, and a waist high wood fence.
Secondly, there were two men. One that stayed in the van, and the second who came into our yard. It's not clear who said "get in the van" to whom. It very well could have been the man in the van speaking to the man in the yard. Not either directing it to the girls. It's not known, nor is there anyway to tell. The officer interjected here that the girls did exactly what they should have done. They didn't stop to question the situation. They saw a strange van, a strange man, heard the words "get in the van" and the took off to safety. They did it right.
Thirdly, when the mother of the other girl drove up, the van didn't leave. It hung around for a little bit. As in, they didn't act like they were being caught doing something wrong. Had they been caught doing something wrong, they would have driven off as fast as they could. But they hung around, and this is how she was able to get the plate number.
After hearing this explanation, I realized that the neighbor had probably fed off the excitement of the girls, and blown the situation a bit out of proportion. To my relief.
We have since set into action stricter measures, as in, no playing in the front yard. Back yard only now. And the kids understand the need for it. Which is good. I am so thankful that my child knew to not mess around with that situation. She stayed calm and collected, and didn't over react. She answered the police man's questions with exactness, telling him where the van had parked, where the man had stood, and was able to give a description of the color of his hair and the clothes that he was wearing. And then she told the officer that she just wanted to "kick that man."
Oh Cali.
We don't know exactly why that van was there. We probably never will.
I'm thankful for the police officers who came to help, but who were able to be realistic about the situation, and were able to help me to be realistic about it also. I'm thankful for their patience with my phone call and their concern for the well being of my child. I'm thankful that my daughter is home. Safe. And not just her, but the entire circus, every day. I can not express it enough. My family is safe. And I hold them a little longer at night, and speak a little kinder to them in the rush of my day. Because, along with all the other life's lessons in this, the number one is that I have learned in a very deep and real way, that nothing, nothing, matters more than they do.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T21:18:00.001-07:00

We hosted Thanksgiving again for the fourth year in a row. This is actually a very selfish thing for me. Can I just say that there is nothing better than leftover turkey and stuffing sandwiches. As well as the world famous (okay, maybe just in my world) turkey rolls. I claim Thanksgiving before anyone else does simply because I want claim to the leftovers.
And if you haven't had them before, you need to try turkey rolls. Which can be made with chicken, but it isn't nearly as good.
Mix shredded leftover turkey with cream cheese.
Take thawed roll dough. Flatten out, fill center with cream cheese turkey mixture, and seal roll around the filling.
Dip in mixture of 1cup melted butter mixed with a dry ranch dressing packet.
Bake until rolls are no longer doughy.
Make a gravy using leftover butter ranch mix, cornstarch or flour, bouillon if needed for taste, and of course, water.
As for Thanksgiving itself... what's wrong with these pictures?

Yes, that would be the men of the family being completely obsessed with the black Friday ads. While the women couldn't care less. We played board games with kiddos.

The man and I were quite certain that although last year, being the first year either of us had ever gone black Friday shopping, turned out to be a fun experience, we weren't necessarily prone to do it again. Until the man spent the entire evening flipping through ads, circling things with a sharpie.
We survived 10:00 Walmart, and Midnight at Shopko, and 5:00 Lowe's. I find it impressive that we're 90% finished with our shopping for our circus when we hadn't previously even started. I think I would call that a black Friday success. And it was fun to boot. Although, come to find out, most everything is fun with the man, no matter what it is that we're doing.

I loved being surrounded by my family. We had both of the man's parents there, his sister and her boyfriend, one set of my parentals, and my brother and his family. We didn't have my part of the circus as I was nice and traded my ex Thanksgiving for Christmas. His entire family (including two out of state sisters) were in town and they wanted to do a large family picture. So our Thanksgiving only added up to 14 people, but that's about our comfortable limit for the dining room. If we hit many more than that we'll have to take it to our open basement. I think Julie-mom brought the best veggie dip I've ever tasted, and we had pies galore. In fact, we've eaten pie for all three meals for the past three days. I kid you not. The circus is in heaven over it.

I love that on Thanksgiving my great grandma's china comes out. And every time my Brent-dad sees it he says, "she would be really happy about how it's being used now."

This year was the first year that I made a pumpkin pie. And a banana pie for that matter. Usually I just do the chocolate and apple pies. But as I made both the pumpkin and banana pies it was nostalgic. I have some very dear memories of my Dick-dad making those pies every Thanksgiving. And I felt a little bit of pride that I was following in his footsteps with the pie making.

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection. A time of tying generations together. And with my great grandma's and my mom's china, and with my dad's pie making memories, I'm bringing my circus into a family of traditions. They're not big traditions, but they're ours.

Clean bedrooms might be overrated

2011-11-23T10:38:00.001-07:00

12 phone calls in 2 1/2 hours.
If they spent less time calling me about playing when the bedroom is clean then can I go to a friend's, they might actually have been done with the bedroom by now and really could go to a friend's.
But that would be too simple.
Instead I get, "can I go?"
"Is your room clean?"
"My stuff is."
That's code for the room isn't clean.
Or I ask, "Are you working on your room right now?"
"No."
"Why not?" asked in pure exasperation and frustration.
"Because I'm on the phone with you."
Do they think this is helping their cause?

Wordless Wednesday: Space Derby

2011-11-22T20:14:00.001-07:00

West made it. The cub scouts played on it.

"Oh baby she's beautiful"

2011-11-21T13:26:00.001-07:00

The other day on facebook I made mention in a status that my only regret for eloping the way we did, was that we didn't even think to take even one picture. Not a single one. I have no pictures of my marriage day with West. And that kind of sucks in my book.

Today West sent me this via text. It's from after our elopement, but still during that time when we thought we'd do a wedding. We even went dress shopping. He was very insistent that he was going to have a say in the dress I wore. I told him he could help narrow it down to two or three but he didn't get to know the final decision. It was a good compromise. Of course, by now we know we're too busy living to do a wedding. Maybe sometime later in life we'll get around to a renewal of vows.

"Oh baby she's beautiful. MINE. May not be a wedding photo but close enough ;)"

How grateful I am, during this week of Thanksgiving, for a man who actually loves me. He truly does. He doesn't tear me down. He lifts me up. He holds on to me, he cherishes me, and he leaves me with no doubts that he feels this way. How blessed am I to have him in my life.

If it weren't for the melted crayons...

2011-11-15T21:00:00.001-07:00

In the Thanksgiving episode of "The New Girl" Jess and Schmidt cook their turkey in the dryer. Did you see this? I was watching it with my circus and after laughing at it I declared that this year we too, are cooking our turkey in the dryer. Brynn, (who is the master of sarcasm) replies, "we can't cook our turkey in the dryer... it has too many crayons melted in it."

All I want for Christmas is... NOT this.

2011-11-15T20:37:00.001-07:00

Dear Hallmark. Thank you for showing me that I do NOT want this ornament.Times six.

I have my hands full?

2011-11-10T13:52:00.001-07:00

I went to Subway for lunch, went through the process of creating my sandwich, and handed over my debit card to pay for it. The cashier, a lady who was a bit older than I am, took my card and stared at it. Intently. It has this picture on it:

"What's the story with this picture?" She asks.
"That would be my family," I reply.
She starts counting. I kid you not. Gets her finger out and starts ticking off the kids, one, two three, four...
"How old is your oldest?" She asks after counting off all six of the kids.
"Eleven."
"Wow, you work faster than I do. I had six in 14 years of each other."
I won't tell her that I have six within 5 years.

Here it is.
I have six kids.
They're all in elementary school.
I have my hands full. As I'm repeatedly reminded of by strangers who feel it their duty to tell me so.
But they're amazing kids. I can take them into public and I know they're not going to throw a tantrum. They're not going to run around and scream. (Though they may dance a little and giggle a whole lot). They're polite and they, for the most part, share with each other. You say I have my hands full simply because of the mass of them? Huh. I would have said otherwise.

Family Pics with Storeyland Photography

2011-11-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

This year we had our family pictures done by a friend of mine who's just starting out in his photography business. He made me a deal I just couldn't refuse so he could get some "practice" in. I love some, others not so much. And my only complaint is that on some of the kids I only got to see one picture of them. I didn't get to choose which pose or picture, or even the shading of the picture that I wanted. So, like it or not, that's what I got. Also, I went through a lot of effort to 1. find that couch and 2. get the couch out to the location. I wish it had been more of a focal point in the pictures. Or at least in more of them. I do like how he played with his shading and coloring on the pics though. In that aspect I think he's brilliant. If you want to check him out, you can find his photography page on facebook as Storeyland Photography. He really has some great stuff going on and I see a great future going for him in photography.
Thanks for the pictures Alex!

Casidee, age 11, 6th grade:

Jayme, age 10, 5th grade:

Brynn, age 10, 4th grade:

Sean, age 9, 3rd grade:

Tayler, age 8, 3rd grade:

Cali, age 6, 1st grade:

B.S. for dinner

2011-11-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Last night as we were sitting down for dinner, Sean declares, "I'm eating nothing but b.s. for dinner." And I choked on my bite.
Of course, when BLT's are what's for dinner, this easily translates to Bacon Sandwich. As in, no L or T on his BLT, thank you very much. Still...

When I grow up I'm going to be...

2011-11-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

I picked my circus up from being with their dad on Sunday night. This means an hour and a half drive (just the one way that they're now with me), which means some interesting conversations.
We started talking about what they want to be when they grow up. I have this need to stay abreast of their thoughts in this area, because I know I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to be, but for some reason, they were just thoughts. I never really believed that I would or could actually become a marine biologist, or a zoologist. Do I regret that I never saw them as more than dreaming? Most definitely. So now I listen to what my kids want to be and start suggesting things they can do, even now, to start down that road if they want. I'm not pushing my kids, the decision and pace is completely up to them. It's just my job to show them how to make those dreams reality, that those ideas of what they want to do, have practical steps to them, and don't have to be just thoughts of "what if" in their heads.
Cas wants to be a Chef. I've told her she needs to think about culinary schools for college then. At 11 years she's already making dinners at home. She can fry eggs, make spaghetti, taco meat, and she's my right hand girl when I get busy (*ahem* side tracked) and have to yell out, "Cas go check on the..." insert whatever may be on the stove. I think the next step is to help her create the menu and shopping list and start broadening her skills to something that requires a few more steps to them. We should look in to extra cooking classes for her also.
Brynn wants to be a veterinarian. Her game plan is to call a couple of the vets or animal hospitals near our house and see if they have a volunteer program and what the age for that might be. She wants to volunteer with simple things like cleaning cages and kennels. The idea behind this is to get on familiar terms with the vet and the staff, and then as she gets older she can work in the office of the animal hospital while going through school. It gives her an in for internships and references to begin work too.
Tayler doesn't know what she wants to be. Maybe a nail technician. Or work at Walmart. We obviously need to work on this a little bit. What appeals to her is the customer service. We'll have to think on this a little more. Maybe it's wrong of me, but I'm not okay with my daughter saying she's going to grow up and work at Walmart. Not that there's anything wrong with working at Walmart, not by any means. An honest job is a good job plain and simple.
Cali very confidently told me, "Mom, I want to be a vet too. But not a vet for animals. I want to be a vet for people."
"A vet is only for animals, a vet for people would be a doctor."
"Oh. Well I don't want to be that then."

At least she's not setting her sights as a cashier at Walmart...

Sister Time

2011-11-07T18:40:00.004-07:00

I have... interesting family dynamics. I have 4 brothers, one of whom I've never met, 4 sisters, and 2 sets of parents. Which obviously means divorce, remarriage, and thus step siblings. I only grew up with my one full brother. My mom remarried to my step dad, who is 10 years older than she is, which subsequently made his kids, a brother and a sister, 10 years older than my brother and me. They lived with their mom, and for the one year that my sister did live with us, I was in 2nd grade and she was in high school. Not a lot of sibling bonding going on there.

My dad remarried when I was in High School. Another brother and two more sisters. This time younger than me. They lived with their mom and my dad. I didn't. Again, not a lot of bonding going on there either.

I've since had some amazing experiences with my mod podge family. Being adults has put us more on a level playing field in life and I love the color that they each add to my life. I love my family and wouldn't trade any part of it for anything.

This weekend I got to hang out with my only big sister, McKell. Though our families have done a lot together through out the years, I think this weekend was the first time I've ever just hung out with my sister. Ever. No family function, no kids, no specific reason... just us and a Saturday night. We hit a comedy show for dinner and then hit a small hole in the wall for pool. And we laughed and joked and talked. And I loved every minute of it. I had some awesome shots in pool and, as always, I loved being with my man, who always treats me like gold, this night being no exception. And McKell's new man was fun too, this being the first time that we finally got to meet him. What it boils down to is that I'm so grateful to have her in my life. And I'm so thankful that we had the evening to grow together as sisters. And I look forward to many more, because I never did have a biological sister, so how lucky am I to get a second chance at it by having step sisters?

Trick or Treat 2011

2011-11-02T22:40:00.009-06:00

We love Halloween at our house. I mean L.O.V.E. Or at least I do. And of course, my enthusiasm spreads to the circus. This year I stole an idea from pinterest.com and made... wait for it... WITCH CURTAINS! I think next year I might double layer them, but I am so happy with how they turned out! And they were easy too.Making magic. Making monsters. On Halloween it's all the same thing, right?We hit a trunk or treat a few days before Halloween and Cas won a prize.And we got to hang out with neighbors and friends.And Sean got to show off his Grim Reaper mask, since it wouldn't be allowed at the parade for school.And with that we were ready for THE day.

Sean the Grim Reaper (sans mask for school):Tayler the Cheshire Cat:

Cas the dead skateboarder:

Cali the Vampire:Brynn, half devil half angel:Jayme the pirate:And I love that my new boss let me go to the school parade to watch the circus. In his words, "Well, you have to go that!" And he was funny excited about it too. Yup, still loving the new job.Happy Halloween from our circus to yours. (Trick or treating with friends and neighbors).

Dating Blog

2011-11-02T12:21:00.003-06:00

I've fallen in love.
With a blog that is. I was searching around on pinterest.com for some fun ideas for both West's birthday and our anniversary (which both fall in December with Christmas, so I need A LOT of ideas for him through out the month)and I found a link to this sight.

A blog to give me fun ideas to spoil my man? Who spoils me all the time and I need a lot of help thinking of things to do for him in return. They're tag line says it all: "Strengthening Marraiges One Date at a Time". LOVE! Here's to being strong to your marraige. We all know it's the little things that add up over time.
I love my man, and am already stocking up on the ideas to surprise him.

Still

2011-11-01T13:03:00.003-06:00

Sometimes a song just jumps out and hits a chord with my life. Sometimes it wraps up all my jumbled thoughts and feelings and plays it out all nicely in a way where I just *sigh*, and nod along, "yeah, that's it exactly."
I had that this morning.
Yesterday I went to bed feeling so... so... grateful. So blessed. And there was no doubt in my mind where this all comes from. And it leaves me feeling... in awe at His love for me. To bless me with such an amazing life, amazing experiences. And maybe it leaves me feeling a little overwhelmed at the richness of the goodness that surrounds me. I'll say it again. I am blessed. And I went to bed last night with the feelings of awe and thankfulness at this life that is mine. This morning I still felt the same, and this song hit me while I was driving to work.

Still - Tim McGraw - Tim McGraw Videos

Still
Sung by Tim McGraw
There's a place I like to go
Where I can hear the cotton grow
Midnight train whistles blow
A dozen miles down the road
All I really have to do is just be still
There's a place I love to be
Mom and Daddy my sister and me
First time I ever saw the beach
Back to 1983
All I really have to do is just be still
When this road gets crazy
And tries to break me
And I've had all I can stand
I can close my eyes no matter where I am
And just be still
There's a place that I can see
Where my baby's next to me
Close enough to feel the heat
All wound up beneath the sheets
All I have to do is just be still
When the road gets crazy
And tries to break me
And I've had all I can stand
I can close my eyes no matter where I am
And just be still
There's a place I need to go
Where the stained glass windows glow
Every part of me is known
Thank God I can go there
Thank God I can go there
Still
Still
Oh
Thank God I can go there still

And I don't know if it's the lyrics, or the feel of the music, or all of it tied together, but this is it. I have so much. I get to do so much, and experience so much and my life is just so full. And maybe it's because even when the road gets crazy and tries to break me, I can close my eyes no matter where I am and just be still. With Him.

Halloween Half Marathon 2011

2011-10-31T10:57:00.009-06:00

Confession: I am a quitter.
Or at least I have been in my life. I've never stuck through with anything. If it got hard, or I realized I didn't like it, I didn't finish it. Plain and simple.
Somehow I got "talked" into running a half marathon. Actually, it started when I signed up to run in the Dirty Dash 10k, which just seemed like a whole bunch of fun, not a whole bunch of running. And that's exactly what it turned out to be. But when I said I was going to do the Dirty Dash, my cousin suggested I then run in the Vegas half Marathon with him in December. I said okay. I was looking for something new to get into, running could be it. When my friend Jen heard that I was thinking of the Vegas marathon, she told me I should do the Halloween half with her in October. Okay again. Mostly because we had to wear costumes and it sounded hilarious.
So I started to train. And I found that as I added a mile, or as I pushed for a faster time, my body adapted really well.
But then we went on the cruise in the middle of my training... and I never got my groove back.
So with a lack of finishing my training I knew I wasn't physically ready to run 13.1 miles. I was close, but not ready. My finish goal went from 2:30 to 2:45. I was going to do this.
So I got up at 4 a.m. and put on my pirate costume and met up with Jen and Kim in 36 degrees to wait for a bus to take us up Provo Canyon to the starting line.
I literally lost all feeling in my toes, and even by the time the race started I still had no feeling in them for the first few miles. But the view at the starting line was beautiful,
as was the view for the entire run. And I ran.
Until Mile 8 when we stopped and took a picture in front of Bridal Veil Falls. What? We're running a marathon? I guess we should keep going then.

And by mile 9 it hurt. My hips and calves just hurt with every push forward. But I thought of my kids, and how they had watched me train (in the beginning before the cruise messed it up ha). They had ridden their bikes with me on my runs, and asked me every time I came home from a run how far had I gone? How fast had I done it? And they started talking about joining the track team, just to be like Mom. So with every painful step, I thought of them, and I had so much to teach them right now. How NOT to quit. Even when it's hard. I knew they'd be at the finish line. And I was going to run across it.

And the circus was there for me. They were yelling, jumping, screaming, and I laughed. They joined me for the last few feet to the finish line. It was probably one of the most significant moments in my life. I didn't quit. My circus was there. I did it.

And I have the medal to prove it.

2:48 is realistic. I wasn't 3 hours, and if I do it again, I'm nailing 2:30, maybe less. Today is Halloween, and it's fitting that I'm walking like a Zombie from the soreness in my hips and calves. But I think about it, and it makes me proud of myself. I did it.

Dead body stench? No problem.

2011-10-28T09:40:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I had lunch with four investigators, two lawyers, and a paralegal. I now know how to get rid of (or deal with?) the stench of a dead body that has been there for a few days... you know, something every girl should know.
Everyday I'm fascinated with the path my life is now turned to. And I know I've only been working with the AG's office for three weeks now, but already I'm trying to decide which direction I should move with it. I'm definitely staying with it. The stories are fascinating. The cases pull me in. The people I work with are incredible. I might aim to replace our paralegal when she retires. Maybe I'll go through training to become one of the investigators. Maybe I'll do both!
It's amazing to be a part of it. It's amazing to see how good life can be. It's amazing to see, continually, how far my life has come. And I'm not even done with it yet.

Neighborhood Spook House

2011-10-26T08:50:00.003-06:00

We had no idea that just a block away from us, ghosts, ghouls, and all sorts of evil things had taken over a backyard. Including this pirate ship with ghostly pirate captain at it's helm.

Something wicked this way comes. I think our neighbors nailed it! It was tame enough for the young kids, but had its fun moments enough (mostly people jumping out or making sudden loud fire cracker type noises) that Cas wasn't sure she wanted to go through it again ha ha. Though Cali and Brynn took another go at it.

(Nice Bieber glasses. I know, what can I say? Except that thankfully "style" is such a fickle thing). The cost for this surprisingly fun event was a can of food for the food bank, which gave you unlimited access to the spook alley. They had a fire with chairs set up in the front yard with hot chocolate, donuts, and popcorn for sale. They also had a TV set up in the front playing "Nightmare Before Christmas". Apparently this is an annual deal, they've done it for five years now. So anyone who has smaller kids (or UNbrave kids, such as we have been blessed with), that still want to have fun with taking them to a spook house, but don't want them sleeping in your beds with you for the next month, should go with us next year :).

He doesn't know my birthday but...

2011-10-25T10:19:00.002-06:00

West and I were watching my new addiction, The Vampire Diaries, last night. I found it on Netflix, decided to check it out, and now am utterly hooked. We were watching one of the first episodes where the character Damon makes fun of the Twilight series and then something was said about reading Grisham. I started to laugh simply because John Grisham is my favorite author of all times. It started years ago when I was big into yard sales. I started picking up his paperbacks for a quarter. From there I just started buying them from book stores and now... I own them all, and just buy them as he writes them. So I started to laugh at the line, but what really surprised me was when West stated, "Hey! That's your favorite author!" I was shocked. "You don't know when my birthday is but you know my favorite author?"
I had him there. He's not a man for details. And I know this. He knows my birthday is immediately around the time of the superbowl, so even though he doesn't follow football, he knows that when they start advertising the superbowl, it's time to start finding me a birthday present. It works. So to hear that he had my favorite author down... as far as I'm concerned, that's all the proof I need that the man loves me.

We do.

2011-10-24T10:29:00.001-06:00

The finer points of eating like a girl.

2011-10-24T10:00:00.002-06:00

I'm a sucker for cookie dough.
Our neighbor's son came by our house a few weeks ago selling cookie dough to raise money for... wait stop. You had me at "cookie dough". Hand me the order form.
The cookie dough arrived yesterday. The kids were nestled all snug in there beds, and the man and I were snuggled on the couch watching... something. It was a guy show. I made my way into the kitchen, and came back with a bucket of cookie dough and a spoon. As I curled up in to the couch next to the man again he burst out laughing.
"What?" I asked.
"What are you, a girl?"
Well come on now. Duh. "As a matter of fact, I AM..."
"I mean, like a high school girl. You come out here with cookie dough and a spoon? And that's it? You're just going to eat it?"
He kept laughing at me. I just sat back and ate my cookie dough. I kid you not, it wasn't but three minutes later that he disappeared into the kitchen and came back with... a spoon.
"What are you, a girl?" I ask.
He laughs, "I knew you would have something to say about this. But you're sitting there eating it and I can SMELL it."
He digs in.
"See? Girls know how to do it. I bet you don't even feel like crying anymore."
At this we both burst out laughing.
The finer points of teaching my man to eat like a girl. On the couch with a bucket of cookie dough, spoons, watching a... well, NOT a chick flick. We'll keep working on it.

How do you clean?

2011-10-21T08:55:00.003-06:00

I asked Cali to go upstairs and clean out her closet. Which really only means to hang up all the clothes instead of throwing them on top of the shoes.
2 hours later I went to check on her and this is what I found. EVERYTHING had been removed from the closet and she was fast asleep in it.
Isn't that how you clean?

LAST year's Halloween costumes.

2011-10-20T12:15:00.007-06:00

How did I not get these posted last year? I'm so utterly proud of how well they all turned out that I'm not going to just shrug my shoulder's and so "oh well". They're getting posted!
The Joker:
Frankenstein's Monster (diy head with a milk jug):

A Black Fairy:

And with the other three we hit a theme. Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" had come out last year and we weren't escaping it come Halloween time. We had:

Alice in Wonderland, I stuck more with the Disney cartoon version for the costume:

The Cheshire Cat, relying heavily on the Disney cartoon again. We even made her a "fade away" smile:

And since masks aren't allowed at school:

And the Mad Hatter herself. We went half and half with Johnny Depp's version and the Disney cartoon version:

The circus, incognito:

Wait until you see them this year :).

Pumpkin massacre... Carving

2011-10-20T11:05:00.017-06:00

West sister, Lindee, had her annual Halloween dinner and pumpkin carving party. Lindee throws a good family friendly Halloween bash. We love going every year. Her house was decorated fun, inside and out, and in the garage... the massacre... I mean, the creativity was flowing.
Also I heard this song on the radio this morning :).

Jayme's werewolf jack o lantern is eating the ribbon, not puking. We need to make that clarification. Sean enlisted the help of Uncle Sam. Tay's jack o lantern is on front row on the left. Cali kept carving away at her mouth after this picture was taken, making the mouth huge. We thought it turned out great! It's officially Halloween season when you have pumpkin guts in your hair. We're working on our costumes right now. Sadly, we won't be able to have Jay and Sean with us this year on Halloween night (Boo!!! (haha pun intended)), but maybe we can finagle them for the trunk or treat. Right now we're pulling together costumes for a dead skateboarder, a half devil half angel, the Cheshire cat, and a vampire. And if we're lucky on trunk or treat, we'll also be pulling together costumes for a dead hula girl and the grim reaper. We're full steam ahead. A lot of them are repeat costumes that we already had so we only need to gather a few small items, but the half devil half angel is new and that's taking a little work. I finished a large piece of it last night and I'm really pleased with how it's turning out.It's a good thing the circus has a mom who loves Halloween so much, otherwise they wouldn't have such cool costumesAck, I just realized I never posted pics of the costumes from last year. What??? Okay, I'm going to have to do that right now, because even if I do have to say so myself, they looked AMAZING. And they didn't pick easy things either!

I am a child of God

2011-10-14T09:17:00.006-06:00

One of my very dearest memories, and yet most heart wrenching memories of Cali came to the font of my mind just now. She was only three. Can you picture it? She was so.... small. And her small three year old voice... Man I love my children. But I feel such regret that I didn't know how precious they were at that young age, until they weren't that young age anymore. I feel such heartache over it, I feel like I've been such a terrible mom.
But I'm trying to learn from that, and curb the cycle. When I start getting frustrated, or annoyed, or overwhelmed, I stand back and think of how they looked, smelt, and sounded when they were about 18 months old, or two. And I take in the feeling that I have that I didn't appreciate them as much as I needed to at that age, and I hold on to that regret. So I look at my sassy 11 year old, and picture her at two. And knowing that I don't want anymore regret about the kind of mother that I'm NOT, I let that aching feeling into my heart, and it helps me bring to surface how much this child does mean to me in the heat of a tough moment. And I'm better able to react with love (which doesn't rule out disciplining if it's needed, it just means that my discipline is coming from a much better place than simply angry reaction), and to keep a dearness of them in the moment.
One of the moments I think of is when we were at Starvation Reservoir as a family with West and his kids. West and I were still dating. I was struggling with my activity in my church. My divorce had knocked the wind out of me, and my bishop at the time of my divorce had knocked the last leg I was standing on, out from under me. I know I have a Savior. I know my Heavenly Father loves me. But struggle I was.
I was sitting in the bow of the speed boat, we were driving fast and the wind was whipping through our hair. Cali was sitting across from me. In all of her innocent three year oldness. And I heard it. Blowing to me on the wind. Her tender small voice softly singing, "I am a child of God, and He has sent me hear, has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him someday." I choked up with tears. As she finished her song, completely unaware that I had even heard it, I pulled her into my arms and knew that I needed to teach her with all the love and understand that I possessed.
I was thinking of that moment this morning. And though I was still hit with it like a sledgehammer, I found it was more tender than achy. Which I'll take as a sign that my efforts to curb my cycle with my children may be working. I'm loving and appreciating them NOW. All though I'm far from being the mother I think I should be, I have come a long way with them. And I will forever be grateful for the chaos they create in my life. They are my life. They are my biggest support group and my own personal fan club. And I am that for them. I love them with all that I am. And I hope I can show them that as I try my best to prepare them for life.

One last time

2011-10-10T21:37:00.005-06:00

Have you ever done that? "I'm waking up at 5 a.m. for the last time. I've cut my last check. I'm logging out of this system for the last time. I'm clocking out for the last time. I'm driving this commute for the last time..."

But I haven't said good bye to my friends at Burt Brothers for the last time. They can't get rid of me that easily.

Ron Burt (owner) told me he wouldn't say this for just anyone, but he's leaving the door open for me. If I need to come back, he'll find a way for me to do it.

I don't think I'll be needing to go back though. I'm going to rock it at the AG's office.

Still, when he said he doesn't usually miss his employees, but he was sure going to miss me, it brought tears to my eyes. Maybe I don't want to admit it, but I'm going to miss them too.

How sweet was Chance the receptionist to give me this?

I loved lunch with Tina and Kelcey (thanks Wendel!). And I may or may not have shed a tear or 50 with Tina when she gave me a card with a wonderful note in it.

The thing is, I have walls. I know I have walls. And I know why I have those walls. We won't get in to that right now. But once I finally let someone in, they are a part of my life forever. I am fiercely loyal and forever grateful that they are there for me. Tina is one of these people. I may or may not miss her, actually, I'm leaning towards may not. Because I'm going to email her everyday and I'm pretty sure we're just going to have to hang out now that we can't be at work together. You get kind of attached to someone after spending most of your time with them for the past four years.

Bathroom Nook... (looky what I did)

2011-10-10T20:08:00.007-06:00

We ripped our bathroom apart last year. And I mean clear down to nothing but wall studs and a plywood floor. You can see pictures of the renovation here. And a little bit more about the project here. That second post shows a bit of how we're slowly getting it put back together. Our priorities changed a lot over the summer. Warmer weather calls for more playtime. And that's where we invested our money and time with our circus. But now that it's getting cold and the storms are rolling, it's back to fixing our house. I had a small project that was on my list to do. Finally. Most of the projects... OK ALL of the projects so far have been the man's. Plumbing, wiring, framing, sheet rock. He's a rock star. But this project fell into my court. I needed to take this decorative nook in the new toilet room (that the man so sweetly built there as a surprise for me):and I found this tree:

and the man wanted some... depth to it. So I took this picture as inspiration:

And after a trip to the craft store, came up with this:

The lighting was hard to get a good picture of it, because we don't actually have lights in that room yet. But I'm pretty excited with how it turned out.

Anxiety or Adventure. Either way, I'm taking it on.

2011-10-07T09:56:00.004-06:00

I have to admit, I'm having large amounts of anxiety over the changes in my life right now. All of which I have voluntarily taken on, which doesn't help the anxiety. Because if it wasn't the right thing to do with my life, then I have no one to blame but myself.

I actually have a good, stable job. It pays my bills, it's steady, and I can do it well. Granted I have to drive 40-45 min in my commute, granted I get annoyed with how things and people are treated and handled, granted I have had to fight for every increase I've ever received there, but they've been good to me. I have received those increases. They give me flexibility when I need it for my circus. And I've been doing it for almost 4 years now, so it is very much my comfort zone now.

And they don't want me to leave. I have been offered more money, more vacation time, more flexibility to move around and work in the stores for variety and training (I'd asked for that at one time and was told no), and I've been offered an assistant. An assistant. Really? I'm hearing with every phone call that the store managers don't want me to leave, the owners don't want me to leave, the controller doesn't want me to leave (his #1 candidate to replace me is at the top of the list because she reminds him so much of me. He said her animation and her conversation was just so similar to me, and they need more of me around this place. How's that for a compliment?), and even our outsourced HR guy doesn't want me to leave. Our IT guy told me how the owner really likes me and... doesn't want me to leave.

I have to admit that the sound of the money almost had me. Almost. But then I remember why I'm doing it. I'm not done proving myself to life yet. I am in with the state. And who knows where I can take it?

And that's just it. I know what I'm being offered at Burt Brothers to stay. And it's not at all shabby. What I'll be able to do with the State is yet to be determined. And it's really hard for me to walk away from something so certain to go to something that isn't.

Getting a job right now is still kind of hard. And getting a job with the state is even harder still. I hit a point in the application process where I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to go any farther. I had to pass a typing test with 60 wpm and I didn't do it. I can type. When I'm good and warmed up I can flow at 67 wpm. But that day... oh that day, I couldn't type to save my life and I couldn't not reach their requirement of 60 wpm. I knew I was out of the running. And yet...

It has come together for me when it shouldn't have. And maybe when things come together so easily like it was meant to be, then maybe it was meant to be. And despite the uncertainty, it feels good. I'm excited to go in and prove my worth to them. And hopefully stumble into something that I really enjoy.

Hopefully the anxiety will subside once I get going there. I hope to go somewhere with it. It's time for the new adventure.

Hey, let's go on vacation... day 7 and 8

2011-10-04T20:38:00.012-06:00

So day 7 was a "fun at sea" day where I'm pretty sure we just sailed around in circles. And day 8 was just a lot of pics that the circus took after we got off the ship and were waiting for our shuttles to the airport.

What does this mean?

A lot of pictures that no one but my family and I are going to care about.

So enjoy LOL.

The whole fam damily, every one of us:

Brother Bill and Sister Steph:

Cousins Cali and Brenna:

Cousins Deja and Cas:

Cousins Brynn and Yasi:

Kid's dance party:

If you know her, this needs no explaining. But what we must all remember is that it is very crucial to dress in camouflage when on a cruise ship:

At the family comedy show with Papa:

Sisters (we've decided that I am a giant and they are all elves.):

Heart smiling! Brynn and Grandpa:

It isn't a trip without a picture like this:

Ayden:

Brother Cody has had enough:

Cali is the queen of self shots:

Watching the family of 50 dolphins swimming outside our room window. There was a lot of cheering coming from our window sill, how many kids can we cram into that window anyway?

Mini golf on top of the ship:

I discovered that I do NOT have a long lost talent for shuffle board.

Jayme, Brynn, and West:

Hey, let's go on vacation... day 6

2011-09-30T16:41:00.008-06:00

Grandpa ate breakfast with the little girls. And my heart smiled.We woke up to Ensenada Mexico.

The rest of my family wanted to shop close to the dock, but we wanted to go see La Bufadora. The blow hole. We took a tour bus (not affiliated with Carnival, but there specifically to help people coming off the ship) on a 45 minute drive to the blow hole. It's humbling. Driving through a third world country like that. To see the houses, and the people working in the fields. And all the dirt. More than once I found myself counting my blessings for all that is in my life.

The blow hole itself was pretty cool, we sat and watched it for a good half hour. We tried to predict how high each surge of wave would blow up.

And we haggled. Of course we haggled, it was Mexico after all. The girls and I got sun dresses and swim suit covers and bags, Sean found a Mario piggy bank. West was all about the fresh churros and virgin pina coladas right in the pineapples.

At one point during the haggling, Cali got herself up on this banana and was dancing like a crazy fool, or at least a crazy 6 year old. She actually had a small circle watching her by the time we turned around and pulled her off LOL.

After that adventure we chilled by the pool on the cruise ship and the kids tried out the slide.

Sean:

We weren't sure what to think of the towel animal on this night... though I should probably add that we put Mario there, but still, the placement of the creature was...odd.

We hit family karaoke on this night, a first time for me, and also for my sister McKell. We totally ROCKED it in a very terrible way LOL.

Asher fell asleep for it all.

Hey, let's take a vacation... day 4 and 5

2011-09-29T21:05:00.012-06:00

I think it would be an understatement to say that the circus was excited to go to Mexico. In fact, the whole thing to them was, "We're going to Mexico" or "When we go to Mexico..."
We had more than enough paperwork to get ourselves on board (the lady joked with us and asked if we were applying for jobs), but that's better than the rest of my family who, for some reason, didn't even bring the bare necessity, the one and only thing we needed, birth certificates. My poor dad was s-t-r-e-s-s-e-d. No worries. They all eventually got on.
We had windows in our cabin (so cool).

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. But we did get an elephant after dinner.

We woke up the next morning to Catalina Island.

We had to ferry over.

And we snorkeled. The water was fah-fah-fah-freezing. It took literally a very long 5 minutes before I got used to it. But once it got comfortable feeling, it was bliss. I love water. I love sun. I love beach. I love my family.

After that the kids had some activities in the kid camp on the cruise ship that they wanted to do, except Brynn, who wanted to tour the island some more with West and me.

Another great two picture sequence:

Brynn! Didn't you read the sign? We're not in Disneyland anymore...

That's better.

We drove up to see the Wrigley monument:

And finished up with the "scenic" drive with the golf cart.

The island had only golf carts, except the few smart cars we saw. The garages were tiny.

Cali was thoroughly exhausted by dinner. She even slept through dessert. Dessert? None for her.