Don't Go The Lingerie Department With Young Boys

Today my mom and I took the kids to get some new shoes. We've been having shoe problems lately and the kids needed some new ones for summer.

Carson went over to a friend's house last week and the friend's dog chewed up one of Carson's shoes. He needed new ones anyway because both of them already had holes in them, which I didn't even know. Friday Hayden and a kid in his class traded shoes and forgot to trade back. Today they were supposed to bring the shoes back and trade back to their own, but the other kid didn't show up. Now they are out until next Tuesday (Kindergarten testing) so Hayden might be without his shoes until then; although tomorrow we meet with his teacher and I'm going to try to get the kid's phone number so I can call his parents to see if I can get his shoes back. I'd better get them back because Hayden's shoes are a lot better than the other kid's shoes. As far as Amaya goes, it's getting harder and harder to cram her feet into her shoes so she needed some bigger ones. So they all got new shoes.

After the shoe shopping my mom wanted to look for a new hat. As we were looking at the hats I noticed we were across from the lingerie department and I wanted to look for some new underwear. As I was looking at the underwear, Hayden spotted the bras hanging up. He walked over to one, put one hand on each cup, squeezed them and said, very loudly, "Look, I'm squeezing some boobies!" The only other person in the vicinity didn't look very pleased, but my mom and I started laughing so hard. It was hysterical, even if it was a little embarrassing.

In the future I think I'll avoid bringing the boys with me to shop for underwear.

The World's Smallest Waist

The other day a friend of mine e-mailed me the story of the woman with the world's smallest waist. I was looking at it and Carson looked over my shoulder and asked me what I was looking at. I told him about the woman and how she holds the world's record for having the smallest waist. Then he decided he wanted me to measure his waist. After I did that Amaya wanted me to measure her waist.

Carson, who is 8 years old, has the same size waist as Amaya, who is 3 years old. He sure doesn't take after me in body type.

I've Been Tagged

I was tagged by Tiffany to do this, so here it is, even though I'm a few days late in getting it done. It was hard to think of some of these answers, but it was fun.

I am: a mother

I think: I am a good person

I know: I have good friends

I want: to be debt free (including mortgage) by the time I'm 50, which, unfortunately, isn't that far away

I hate: other drivers who are within 50 feet of me, if I was a different type of person I could be prone to road rage, but instead I just call people names to myself

I miss: my dad who died almost six years ago of cancer

I fear: one of my kids getting seriously injured or dying

I feel: disappointed because the Jazz just lost to the Lakers

I hear: the radio that I just listened to the Jazz game on because we no longer have cable tv

I smell: buttered popcorn

I crave: Dr. Pepper and chocolate

I search for: tips on getting my house and my time organized

I regret: not being as good with money in the past as I am now

I love: my family

I ache: for how much pain and suffering there is in the world

I care: what people think of me, even though I wish I didn't

I always: get stressed out when I'm trying to leave the house by a certain time

I am not: organized

I believe: we live in a very selfish society where more people than ever only think of themselves

I sing: terrible

I cry: almost every day either while I'm watching something sad, or happy, on tv, or reading about something sad, or happy, on the internet, or reading about something sad, or happy, in the newspaper, since I've had kids I've become a real baby

I fight: rarely

I win: games a lot, I'm very competitive

I lose: my keys all the time and with Mike being a locksmith it helps because he always has to make new keys for me

I never: purposely be mean or rude to people

I listen: to people's problems patiently

I can usually be found: at home

I am scared: of flying, not so much that I won't do it, but I just get really nervous

I need: a non-stress life

I am happy about: having my three kids when I always thought I would only have two

I hope: my kids grow up to be happy, healthy, responsible, kind and caring people

I'm not sure who I would tag to do this, so if you're reading this and want to do it, do it and let me know you did it so I can read yours.

Is It a Coincidence?

We live in a cul-de-sac. Since we're not too fancy we just call it a circle. Several of the houses in the circle don't have a front yard with enough curb space to park a car parallel to the curb so most people in the circle pull their cars straight in. We normally park ours parallel because we have the most curb space in the circle. Whenever Mike parks one of our vehicles straight in I always tell him not to do it, but he never listens to me. Today I had to work so Mike took my vehicle, the truck, to take the kids to school because it has the car seats in it and I had to drive our crappy car to work. When I came home from work the truck was parked pulled straight in in front of our house. He parked it out there so I could pull the car in the driveway when I came home. I parked and then went in the house to take my equipment in and change my clothes. I needed to go over to my mom's house to get Amaya so I walked out to the truck to get in. We had a parking ticket for not parking parallel to the curb.

The thing I don't understand is that we've lived in this house for 17 years and for 17 years we, along with all of our neighbors, have parked that way and never got a ticket. My first thought was that Crazy Lady across the street must have called and complained because for some unknown reason she doesn't like us anymore. Oh, I forgot. The reason she doesn't like us isn't unknown. It's because one time we put an empty diaper box in her recycle can because it wouldn't fit in ours and for some reason it totally pushed her over the edge. The horror of having a cardboard box in your recycle can that isn't yours. Ever since that time she has been a total b*tch. I called Mike to tell him about the ticket (and to tell him that I've been telling him for years not to park like that and he should start listening to everything I tell him), and his first thought was that Crazy Lady was the reason we got the ticket. Now I hate to be paranoid about this, but I really think it was her. Mike wanted to tell one of the neighbors who talks to her about it, but I told him that guy would just tell her and then she would get satisfaction knowing that we knew it was her. I think we should just ignore it. Especially since we don't know if it was her or not.

I still just wonder, though, after 17 years of never having a problem parking like that, to getting a ticket shortly after Crazy Lady has taken it upon herself to monitor the circle, if she really did it or if it's just a coincidence.

I Love Wireless Internet

I like the fact that I'm at my job right now and I can go on the internet and do whatever I want to. I usually get to my jobs 20 to 30 minutes early because I have to have time to set up my equipment, and I don't want to be stressed out by thinking I might be late. It takes me only about five minutes to set up, and then I just sit around for another 15 to 25 minutes doing nothing. I can almost always find a wireless connection so I can check my e-mail or read any blogs I might want to. Of course, I don't go check my bank account or anything like that because I am on unsecured networks, but that's fine with me. I did watch a segment on tv about unsecured networks and it said the chances of somebody stealing your info over one isn't very high, but I still wouldn't chance it.

Let's see, since I'm sitting here with another 10 minutes to kill, what should I talk about? Oh, yeah, the Jazz kicked butt the other night against the Lakers. The game was so exciting. I love going to the games, even though we don't go very often. There is just so much excitement in the air. We did have some rather annoying Laker fans sitting by us, though. They kept yelling rude things about the Jazz. There were a lot of cops at the game because there were so many Laker fans there. Mike went to get a beer and some popcorn and he saw that a fight had broken out between some Laker fans and some Jazz fans. Unfortunately, we can't watch the game on tv on Wednesday because it is on cable and we don't have cable anymore. We could go to my mom's to watch it but it doesn't start until 8:30 and the kids are usually in bed by 8:00. I guess we'll have to listen to it on the radio.

Okay, I know I'm being boring since nobody reading this likes the Jazz, and I'd better get off of here so I can get ready to work, so I'll talk to you later.

Mother's Day a Day Early

Today we celebrated Mother's Day with my mom a day early. We had dinner at our house and then went to the Real Salt Lake game. It was a good night.

First we had dinner. Since we were going to a sporting event we decided to have food that is normally served at sporting events: hot dogs. Only we decided to be a little fancier than having regular hot dogs and we had chorizos instead. They are spicy Spanish pork sausages and they are so good. Only Hayden, Amaya and Mike wanted regular hot dogs instead, so they had hot dogs and my mom, Carson and I had chorizos. Then we had baked beans and coleslaw. It was delicious.

Now that I look at the picture of my plate, I realize there was a lot of food on it. No wonder I'm fat. In my defense I didn't eat my whole chorizo because I got full.


Amaya wanted me to take a picture of her eating her hot dog, so here it is. Notice her lovely redneck bib. It's basically a bandana with a piece of terrycloth sewn onto it and it's the ugliest bib we've ever had. Mike's mom got it for Carson when he was a baby and I thought it was ridiculous, until I realized that what a bib looks like is not really important. How it works is very important. This ugly redneck bib works so good so we still have it, and since Amaya is one of the messiest eaters I know, she still wears it.

After dinner we headed off to the soccer game. They play at The University of Utah. My dad, Mike and I all went there. The funny thing is none of us graduated. My dad didn't really know what he wanted to do, so he quit after two months. I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I quit after two quarters. Mike was majoring in psychology and went there for four years. Then he quit briefly to be in a heavy metal band (not a good reason to quit college), and after a while he decided not to go back. Instead he decided to work in the family business.


We actually had pretty good seats. Real Salt Lake played FC Dallas and won 2-1. One thing I like about taking the kids to a Major League Soccer game is that the games are a lot shorter than other major league sports. They only have two halves of 45 minutes with an approximate 15-minute half time. They rarely stop the clock but at the end of each half they may add a couple of minutes to the clock. The kids can actually sit still and watch the game without getting too bored too early. We went to a baseball game last summer and about 10 minutes into it Hayden started whining saying, "When is it going to be over?" I didn't have the heart to tell him we'd probably be there for another five hours. I'm exaggerating, but not by much.

The only bad thing about the game was that once the sun went down it got pretty cold. Hayden was very unhappy about that.

Tomorrow Mike, Carson and I are going to the Jazz game. We are having a sports-filled weekend, and we love it.

I Love to Read

I love to read and I love going to the library. Today Amaya and I went to two libraries today. We have two different library systems near us (city and county) and each system has numerous libraries in it. One thing I love is that I can go online and request a book and it doesn't matter where the book is, it will end up at the closest library so I can go get it. I request books all the time, even kids books. Sometimes there will be books I want to read to my kids, I go on the library website and see that it is checked in, then when I get to the library I can't find it. I suspect it's because it may be checked in but not on the shelves yet, or a child pulled it off the shelf to look at it and put it back in the wrong place, or someone managed to check it out before I got there. It's much easier just to request it and let the library employees do the work of tracking it down.

I really wish it was possible to read every book that is in existent that I think I would like. There are just too many books. I wish I could read every children's book to my kids. We always have the maximum amount of books that are allowed on our library cards. I need to get Carson his own card so we can get more books. I love having our own little library of books from the library to choose from.

Luckily my kids love to read, too. Carson loves to read and is really into dinosaur books and chapter books like the Harry Potter series and The Chronicles of Narnia series. Hayden loves to read and he wants to read anything and everything he comes across, which gets a little annoying sometimes. He will be sitting at the breakfast table eating breakfast while reading the cereal box, and if someone wants some cereal he totally freaks out if they move the box. Amaya can't read yet, and she is totally aware of that fact. When my boys were that age (or in Hayden's case younger) I would say, "Go read a book while I make dinner." I knew they couldn't really read the book, but they could look at the book. They were satisfied to go look at a book even if they couldn't read it. Amaya is not satisfied to just look at a book. It makes her mad if I tell her to go read a book. She'll say, "But I CAN'T read." It reminds me of the time my cousin was very young and couldn't read yet. She asked her dad, "How come I have so many books but I can't read yet?" Amaya is starting to know the sounds of the letters, so I know she's getting close to reading. I just need to start working more on it with her.

I have a good system in place to make sure we get our library books back on time so we can avoid fines. I have a special basket that is just for library books. Library books are supposed to be kept in the basket unless they are being read. I have set up a spreadsheet on my computer with three columns: the date the book is due, the title of the book, and the specific library the book goes to. I have taken books to the wrong library system before, but I'm sure that happens often and I'm sure they have a system in place to get the books back to the other library. Whenever we take books back I delete them from the list, and whenever we get new books I add them to the list and then sort it so the ones that are due back first are at the top. I have to really keep track of when they're due back, because right now out of all the books we have checked out there are six different due dates for all of them. One of our library systems sends me an e-mail a few days before books are due, so that is a helpful reminder, too.

I think that loving to read is one of the best things a person can do. It is great entertainment and you gain a lot of knowledge from reading. My dad was one of the smartest people I've ever known and he got most of his knowledge from reading. He would read four or five books a week (he had a lot of down time on his job), and whenever I would need a question answered on any subject I would call him and he would always know it. It always makes me a little bit sad when I hear kids say they hate to read. I think everyone can find something to read that will interest them.

So everybody get out there and read, and try to get your kids to love reading, too. It's one of the best things you can do for yourself and your kids.

Buyer's Remorse

We ended up buying tickets for the Utah Jazz vs. Los Angeles Lakers game on Sunday afternoon. Now I feel a little guilty about it. They were fairly expensive and it is Mother's Day so it will interfere with our usual schedule of visiting my mom and Mike's mom. Mike told me, "Well, you're a mother, too, and if you want to go to the Jazz game then you should." He's right. We can still visit our moms, it just won't be for as long as it normally is. I'm not sure whether I'm more bothered about how much the tickets cost or the fact that it is on Mother's Day.

I am totally excited about it, though. I can't wait to go. I just need to think about how fun it's going to be (as long as the Jazz don't get killed) and quit thinking about my guilt. Again, we couldn't get three seats together so Carson will be sitting on our laps again. It wasn't too bad last time, but he is eight years old so he's a little big to have sitting on your lap for three hours. It is a good bonding experience for Mike, Carson and I. It's really fun having the three of us do things without the other kids (more guilt for thinking that) because he's at an age where we can really do fun things and have great conversations and he feels so big.

My only worry is that since the Jazz lost the first game, then if they lose the next two we could be at the game where they are eliminated. On the other hand, they played like crap and still came back and almost won, so I think they have a chance to win, especially at home.

Go Jazz!

Mother's Day is Coming Up

Has everyone bought presents for their moms for Mother's Day yet? I haven't bought anything for my mom or for Mike's mom yet. We have three tickets to the Jazz game on Sunday, so we're trying to decide whether to take Carson, because he would have so much fun and he really needs the time with us, or to take my mom for Mother's Day. She would love to go. The thing I didn't think of when I was getting the tickets is that it's on Mother's Day. We need a babysitter for Hayden and Amaya and the only people that ever babysit them are my mom and Mike's mom. I wonder if either of them want to babysit on Mother's Day. Oh, well, we'll work it out.

With Mother's Day coming up it got me to thinking of some of the stupid gifts Mike has gotten me over the years. He is so weird when it comes to buying me presents, either for Mother's Day, my birthday or Christmas. He either gets me something really, really great, like jewelry, or something really, really stupid, like the yearly edition of Guinness World Records. Yes, he really got me that book one year. One year he got me a replica Sinclair Oil truck bank, because his work is next door to a Sinclair gas station and they had them there. When I was pregnant with Hayden he bought me a phone for Mother's Day. Our phone was broken and we were going to buy a new one anyway, so he used the opportunity to not have to think about what to get me and just got me something we were going to buy anyway. How imaginative. So when Father's Day rolled around I bought him a toaster. Ours was broken and we were going to buy a new one anyway. When he opened it he was really disappointed. I said, "Well, I got a phone for Mother's Day. What's wrong with getting a toaster for Father's Day?" He got the hint. Let me tell you, he has gotten much better at picking out presents since then.

Children's Museum

Today we went to our children's museum because they have an exhibit there right now called Sesame Street Presents The Body. I knew Amaya would love it because she loves Sesame Street. Carson and Hayden try to claim that they don't like Sesame Street because it is for babies, but they really do like it. They just don't want to admit it.

Here they are sitting in front of 123 Sesame Street. We rang the doorbell but nobody was home.


Here we are and Carson and Hayden are sitting on Oscar's trash can. We knocked on it and we could hear someone rummaging around, but he wouldn't answer.

Here are Mike and Amaya in the helicopter (not part of the Sesame Street exhibit).

Here is Hayden with his building masterpiece. He made a special spot to lie down in and then wanted me to take a picture of him lying down in it.
Here are the kids trying to race while on different pieces of equipment.


Amaya's favorite part of the museum was the grocery shopping area because it had food in it (no surprise there!), and Carson and Hayden's favorite part was an exhibit that showed how what you eat gets chewed up in your mouth, then dissolved up in your stomach and then comes out of your body as poo (no surprise there, either).

I only had interactions with two idiots at the museum, which I consider to be a successful day. The first one was in an area where there are tons of plastic balls that the kids can put in various tubes and watch them roll around. There were several Asian women with their children and one of them had a container with balls in it. Amaya was walking by her and reached in to get one of the balls out. The lady grabbed Amaya's arm and said, "You can't have that. Those are ours. Go down there and get your own." Amaya just looked at her and turned around and left. Everybody else in the area was sharing the balls. I didn't realize that once you picked up some balls you retained ownership of them. Sheesh. The only reason I mention they were Asian was because I almost would have thought that since Amaya is Asian, too, and they were the only Asian people in there, they might have given her a break. I don't know why I thought that. It was a dumb thought on my part. Then the same women were hogging up one whole area where there were a bunch of tubes to put balls in. Hayden tried to go play in that area and one of them told him to leave. I told Hayden, "If you want to go play there, go play there. Ignore them if they tell you to leave." So he did. Hayden is the type that will butt in front of people anyway, so he got right in the middle of them and started playing. They were very annoyed and were discussing the situation (I assume) in another language so I couldn't tell what they were saying but they were giving him very dirty looks. Very annoying.

The next idiot I encountered was the dad of a little girl who got lost. I saw the little girl looking around scared and crying. She was about Amaya's age. I watched her for about 15 seconds to see if a parent was around, and nobody was. She was starting to leave the area and head out to the lobby by herself, so I asked her if she was lost and she said she was. I asked her what area she'd been playing in and she pointed. So I told her to follow me and I would help her find her mom. As we were walking back into the area where she said her mom was, her dad showed up. I explained to him that she was lost and he totally ignored me and asked her why she had wandered off. It's like he was mad at her because he and his wife weren't paying attention to where she was. I felt like saying, "Hey, idiot, the least you can do is say thank you to me because if I hadn't stopped her she could have wandered outside." People can be so rude sometimes.

Afterwards the museum we went out to dinner and then we came home and Mike and Hayden went to the Utah Grizzlies hockey game and Carson, Amaya and I hung out reading books and watching Cars.

We had a busy and fun day.

Spring

It may not be Spring outside yet, but it is Spring in my house



My mom gave me a bulb for Christmas five years ago. In a few weeks it grew and bloomed into some beautiful flowers. After a while the flowers and greenery died off. Since that time it has sat in its vase looking ugly. It was one of those things I knew I should throw away, but I didn't. At one time the bulb got shriveled up and small and would fall through the top of the vase (it's in a vase with just water in the bottom) and I wrapped a few paper towels around it to hold it up. All of the sudden about a week ago we noticed some green things poking out of the top of it. It took no time before they grew really big, and then yesterday it bloomed. I don't even know what kind of flower it is. I think after it dies off this time I will research how to force it to bloom again so we can have beautiful flowers from it more often than every five years.

On another note, here is a bigger of Carson showing off his Deron Williams shirt he got at the Jazz game. Try not to look at his jagged bangs where he decided to try to give himself a haircut. All I could think of when he did it was, "You are way too old to be cutting your own hair." Don't kids usually do it when they are three or four years old? He did cut his own hair once before when he was in Kindergarten. I sent him to school looking very cute and he came home with big jagged chunks out of his hair.

Sorry, but as long as the Jazz are doing good I can't help but talk about them here. They are our only major league team, besides soccer, that we have here. I'm warning you now that if Real Salt Lake start doing really good I'll talk about them a lot, too. We love our sports teams. If I get really desperate I might start talking about our minor league teams, too, like the Salt Lake Bees baseball team. They are doing really good so far this year. So far they are 24-3. I was just reminded of another thing I want to say about our sports teams, but I'll save it for another post since I've already strayed enough on this one.

We Love the Jazz!

The Jazz won tonight so they will be playing the Lakers next. That will be a tough series. Tickets go on sale Monday morning and we are going to try to go to one of the games. It's hard to get tickets because they sell out so fast. Mike and I have a plan, though. Each of us will be on our cell phones and our computers trying to get tickets while we have each other on the regular phone so if one of us gets tickets we can quickly inform the other one so we don't end up with double tickets. I really hope we get to go.

Carson is really into watching the Jazz. He had a great time at the game we went to and he's having a lot of fun watching them on TV. It just about drives me nuts watching the games with Carson and Mike in the same room. Carson is constantly asking questions and Mike is constantly making comments and telling stories. I don't mind if someone cheers on a good play or boos on a bad one, but I don't need to hear a running commentary on every singe personal story Mike knows about the players or the coach and every single stat for the year. It finally got to a point where I was starting to count how many seconds he could be quiet at one time. The record was 12 seconds. The rest of the time he was flapping his jaws. I finally learned to just tune him out. He didn't even notice I wasn't listening. Carson finally got so bored he fell asleep.

Anyway, all I can say is I guess T-Mac (Mr. Never Been Out Of The First Round) will never "forget" how to pronounce Deron Williams' name again. Idiot.

I Am Tired of Snow

It is snowing right now. It is supposed to be spring, isn't it?

Works For Me Wednesday

I've been trying to make things easier on myself by getting organized. Several weeks ago I cleaned out and organized my truck. While I was doing that I thought of a good idea. It seems like whenever I need gas I am always in a hurry and it's very inconvenient to stop and get gas when I'm running late. So I came up with a plan. Every Sunday we fill the tank up. We are usually driving somewhere that day anyway, and it's easy enough to stop and top it off. It's been so nice to not wait until I think I might run out of gas on the freeway before I stop and get gas. It's been a lot less stressful. So pick a day of the week and fill your vehicle up whether it's empty or not. You'll save yourself a lot of stress and not have to worry about running out of gas.

Go over to Rocks in My Dryer for a lot of great tips.

The Brown Girl

On Amaya's soccer team there are 10 kids, and only three of them are girls. All seven of the boys are Caucasian. I don't like to say "white" because even the palest Caucasian person (Mike's dad) is not white. I even had an aunt that was Albino and even she wasn't truly white. I mean, if you held up a white piece of paper to her, she was darker than it. Anyway, all three of the girls are not Caucasian. Two of the girls are Asian and the other girl is African-American. The very first day of soccer Amaya noticed the Asian girl and said, "That girl is a Chinese girl just like me." She has never said anything about the other girl, until Saturday. Amaya was sitting on the sideline out of the game resting, and she pointed at the girl, who was out playing. She asked me, "Why is that girl in a brown body?" It was so funny the way she phrased it. Anyway, I explained to her about how some people have dark brown bodies, some people have medium brown bodies and some people have light brown bodies.

The preschool Amaya goes to is not very diverse at all. In all the years my kids have gone there (this is the fifth) I think there's only been about three kids in my kids' classes that aren't Caucasian. That's one reason I want Amaya to have the only minority (Chinese) teacher there next year. I think it will be good for her to be around someone like her. The elementary school my kids go to is fairly diverse, which I really like. I think it's good for them to be around all sorts of different kids so they grow up knowing that everybody can be a good person no matter what color their skin is.

There Is A Reason I Usually Don't Answer My Phone

When my phone rings, either my cell phone or my home phone, I usually don't answer it. I first look at caller ID to see who it is and then decide if I'm going to answer it. Usually I don't. It might be someone I don't want to talk to right at that moment, so I let them leave a message to see what they want and then I can call them back later. It might be someone, usually having to do with work, that wants to ask me to do something, so I let them leave a message so I have time to decide whether I want to do what they want me to do. I don't like being asked if I can do something and having to come up with an answer on the spur of the moment. I want to think things through before I commit to something. It might be a friend who I want to talk to but I just don't have the time right then, so I let them leave a message and then I will call them back when I have enough time to devote to a good conversation. It might be my neighbor that I don't like to talk to because he treats me like I'm his counselor and I should be able to sit and listen to all of his problems and then tell him exactly what he should do and exactly what he should say to people. I let him leave a message and I never call him back. Eventually he'll catch me outside anyway and then I have to tell him I'm in a hurry and can only talk for a minute.

The other day my neighbor was outside and was asking Mike how we are all doing and then Mike asked him how his mom is. She is almost 90 years old and is a very, very sweet lady. He told Mike he was worried about her because her health seems to be failing and he gets nervous when he has to leave her alone. Mike told him that he can call us anytime time he's gone and we (meaning me) can go check on her for him. Then he said to Mike, "But will anybody answer your phone?" I felt a little bit guilty about that. I don't know if he knows I avoid him on purpose or not.

Anyway the phone rang this morning and it was him. My initial thought was not to answer it, but then I thought of the conversation he had with Mike and I felt like I should answer it in case he wanted me to go check on his mom. So I answered it. Big mistake. Two hours later, after hearing an in-depth discussion about his ex-girlfriend who is an alcoholic and is getting a divorce and needed him help her but now he can't get a hold of her and what should he do and what exact words should he say to her and do I think he's weird (yes) and what would I do in that situation, I finally was able to get off the phone, but only because he got another phone call. He said he'd call me back and I told him not to because I was going to be busy. The only good part of the phone call was I got caught up on some neighborhood gossip. All I can say about that is we have some really weird neighbors.

I'm not sure what to do. I feel bad not answering the phone in case his mom needs something, but I do not want to get stuck on the phone with him for hours on end. He thinks that because I'm a court reporter I can give him legal advice. He always wants me to find out information for him and type things up for him, which I've finally quit doing after years.

YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! As I'm typing this he is calling me again. I didn't answer it and he hung up without leaving a message.

I have to say that in our circle of seven houses we've got the weirdest bunch of people (I'm not sure where we fit in), but luckily most of them are very nice and we get along great with them. I'd rather have weird neighbors that we get along with than neighbors that want to fight about everything.

Neighbors, you can't live with them (luckily) and you can't have them committed.

Go Utah Jazz!

Last night we had tickets to the Utah Jazz vs. Houston Rockets game. Mike bought three tickets so he, Carson and I could go to the game.

At about 5:00 we dropped Hayden and Amaya off at my mom's house. They spent the night there since the game didn't start until 8:30 and it would be really late before we would get back. Both of them were excited to sleep over at her house instead of going to the game with us, so it worked out well for everybody, except maybe my mom since she had to babysit a lot last week. I think she's resting up today.

After dropping them off at my mom's, we decided to go eat at a Japanese restaurant not far from where we live. I've been there for lunch before but Mike's never been there, so we decided to go there. We didn't want to go eat downtown because we figured all the restaurants would be crowded with the Jazz crowd so we stuck to our own neighborhood. The restaurant opens at 5:30 and we got there at 5:40. They asked if we had a reservation and we didn't. They said they didn't have any openings, unless we wanted to sit at the counter. That was fine with us. Now we know if we want to go there again to be sure to get a reservation. The food was excellent. Neither Mike nor I like sushi or sashimi, so we stuck with tempura, which I know isn't the healthiest choice, but it is delicious. The shrimp we had were probably four inches long. Carson ate so much food I thought he was going to explode.

We decided we didn't want to have to find, or pay for, parking downtown so we decided to take the light rail train. We drove to the station and waited for the train. As we were driving to the station I commented about how nice and relaxing it was only having one kid with us. Carson was behaving perfectly. Mike said, "Maybe we should have stopped at one." I have to agree that having only one child is so much easier than having three, especially with our two wild boys, but then we wouldn't have as much fun and as much love as we have. Anyway, Carson was so good all night long and we had such a great time with him. It made me realize that we need to try to do things one-on-one with the kids more often. I think Carson felt good about the night and I think it made him feel older being able to go to a fancy restaurant and to the Jazz game with us. He had a great time.

We rode the train downtown and outside of the arena they had some activities for kids, a live band and some other things to do. I tried to get Carson to get an autographed poster of the Jazz dancers, but he didn't want to. Give it about seven or eight years and I'm sure he'll think differently. Carson played a basketball game and a football game and then we went inside. We got our drinks, beer for Mike, Coke for me and lemonade for Carson, and some popcorn and went to go find our seats. They were on second row from the top. Even worse than that was that we could only get two seats together. Our third seat was on the other side of the arena. The place was packed so Carson had to take turns sitting on our laps.

The game was great. The Jazz won, even though they almost blew it at the end in typical Jazz fashion. It was very exciting. Even though we were clear at the top, it was so much fun being there with everyone screaming and cheering. It is so much better than watching it on TV. We were hoping they would have won the prior game so we could see them sweep the series, but it wasn't to be. Now they have to go back to Houston for two games so hopefully they can pull another win there. I think we're going to try to get tickets for a game in the next series if they make it that far. The tickets sell out so fast, though, that it's tough to get them.

When we got home Carson was really tired. He wanted to sleep with us. I ended up sleeping with him because Mike needed to get up early to go to a golf course to do a job. Really, he went there to work, not to golf. He's doing a side job so he can golf for free all summer, so it's worth it. Carson and I didn't wake up until 9:30 and Mike was already gone. I haven't slept that late, unless I'm sick, for a long time so it was really nice.

Then Carson and I made banana pancakes for breakfast. He helped me make them and cook them and we had a really nice breakfast just the two of us.

Then we had to go pick up Hayden and Amaya from my mom's. After that the teasing and whining and fighting started. I felt a little bit guilty but I really wished Carson and I could have had a little more alone time. I think he needs more of that. But I did miss Hayden and Amaya and they were very excited to tell me all about their sleepover at Grandma's house.

The lesson I learned from this weekend was that we really need to set aside time to do things with one kid at a time once in a while because it's so nice to be able to interact with them without the others teasing and fighting and causing problems. Right now I think it's more important to have more alone time with Carson since he's the oldest and I think sometimes he feels he's treated like a younger kid like the other two.

Overall it was a great weekend and I really needed a fun, relaxing few days after the week I had last week.

Contact Golf

Is there a good way to tell the parent of a child playing at your house that one of your children hit their child in the head with a golf club? I didn't think so.

Today Carson had a friend from school over. The two of them and Hayden were outside playing. Hayden got his golf clubs out of the garage, which he's not supposed to be playing with. They are not just kiddie golf clubs. They are real golf clubs, just kid sized. Anyway he had a club and was swinging it around in a circle, when Carson's friend got in the way and got whacked in the back of the head. At least it was in the back of the head instead of the front. It hurt bad enough that he started crying. I quickly grabbed him and hugged him. Then I checked his head. There were no marks on it and he said he was okay. I kept asking if he was okay and he kept telling me he was. Just before his dad was going to come and pick him up I checked him out again and he had a small bump there, but he said it didn't hurt. Hayden spent the rest of the afternoon in his room. He really did feel bad about it because it was an accident, but he knows he's not supposed to play with golf clubs in that manner, and I told him he's lucky Carson's friend didn't get hurt bad enough to go to the hospital. That happened to my brother when he was a kid. His friend accidentally hit him just above his eye with a golf club. He had to go get stitches. He has a scar there now. At least it was an accident. The time the same friend (if you can call him that) hit my brother on the head with a hammer, causing him to get stitches again, was not an accident. Also the time the same kid tried to run my mom over with a tractor wasn't an accident. We were glad when that family moved out of the neighborhood.

Anyway, when the kid's dad showed up I had to tell him what happened. I felt like an idiot. Sorry, I let your kid get nailed in the head with a 7 iron. His dad didn't seem too concerned about it. Hopefully he'll let his child come to our house and play again. I'd hate for Carson to lose a friend because of his pesky little brother.

Even Big Boys Like to Cuddle

Today after I got home from work and the kids got home from school I had so much stuff I needed to do: clean the house, do laundry, edit transcripts, check e-mail, etc. I sat down for a minute in my rocking chair to decide what to do first and Carson came and sat on my lap and started to watch TV. I let him sit there and cuddle with me for a few minutes, and then I was tempted to tell him I was busy and he couldn't sit there anymore. But it felt good to have him sitting with me. He doesn't do it that often because he's getting so big. He is eight-years-old after all. So I let him stay and I just relaxed. He ended up cuddling with me for two-and-a-half hours. When he finally got up and went to do something else, my arm was hurting and my right leg was numb, but it was worth it.

The Viewing

After thinking about it all day I finally decided I wanted to go to the viewing. I am really glad I did. It was nice to see my friend's family and talk to them. I really think they are kind of relieved that she died so they don't have to worry about her anymore and she can finally be at peace. Her brother told me that now their family can finally be at peace and move on.

She was on drugs for approximately 16 years. She would go through brief periods when she would be off drugs, but would always go back. There were many times when she would disappear for months at a time and her family wouldn't know where she was. Her parents were basically taking care of her kids most of the time, and a while back they told her she needed to turn custody of her kids over to them so she did. At least that was taken care of before she died.

The other day when we were going to watch the marathon we had to drive through a neighborhood and we drove right past the house where she and I used to live. I pointed it out to my kids and told them I used to live there. It's weird that we drove by that house on Saturday and I was thinking about her and she died on Saturday.

After Mike and I got home tonight Carson wanted to know where we had been so I told him. I showed him her picture in the paper and told him that she used to be my best friend, but that she had started doing drugs and that she died from doing drugs. I told him that the drugs made her want to take drugs more than she wanted to take care of her children, and that now her two children don't have a mom. I really didn't tell him all of that stuff to scare him, but I really want my kids to know, from the time they're old enough to understand, how bad drugs are and the damage they can do to people's lives.

It's so weird to think that she is dead. I just hope her family can move on and live a more peaceful and stable life and her kids will grow up knowing that she loved them, even though she wasn't always around.

"I Am Getting Tired of Looking at the Obituaries"

That's what Mike called and told me earlier today. I said, "Who died this time?" He said, "This time it's one of your friends."

I opened up the paper and looked. This time it is a friend of mine that I used to live with when we were younger. When I first moved out from my mom and dad's house I moved in with her. We had a lot of good times together. In fact, I was with her when I met Mike.

I'll admit that back then I used to party a lot, and her and I did some major partying together. Unfortunately, she took the partying a little farther than I did.

A few years after we no longer lived together, there was a period of three or four months that I couldn't get in contact with her. Her phone was disconnected and when I drove to her apartment it was empty. Finally, she called me and told me what was going on. She had met a guy, and for some reason he convinced her it would be a good idea to try heroin. Even though she was a beautiful girl, she had a low self-esteem, and whenever a guy was involved she would do whatever they wanted her to do. She ended up getting addicted.

She went through a lot of hard years. I know she went to jail once; although she never told me what it was for and I never asked. I had my suspicions. She ended up getting pregnant. She did her best to get off drugs while she was pregnant. Her doctor put her on methadone even while she was pregnant. When the baby was born it was taken away from her and her mom gained custody of her. Over the next year my friend had to prove she was a fit mother, and she eventually earned custody of her daughter back. A few years later she got pregnant again. Her son was born just a few months after Carson was. After I had Carson she came to see him. That was the last time I saw her. I talked to her several times on the phone and told her to be sure to let me know when she had her baby. He was born several months later but she never called me. I called her and talked to her once after that and I went and bought some things for the baby, and she never called me back. Then she abruptly moved and I couldn't get in touch with her. Over the next few years I talked to her mom several times and would get updates about her. She was doing fairly well. She was from a small town and she was living near her parents. Her mom always told me, "She'll be so excited to talk to you. I tell her to call you." She never called. I sent her Christmas cards with pictures of my kids and a note with my address and phone numbers and told her to call me, but she never did. Eventually I gave up trying to get a hold of her. She had my address and my phone numbers and if she wanted to contact me she could. There's only so much one person can do to hold up a friendship when the other person won't participate.

I don't know what she died from. I don't know if she went back on drugs, or if it was the methadone that she had been on to stay off of heroin, or something else.

I'm trying to decide whether I should go to the viewing or just send a card to her parents. It is tonight and it is about an hour away from here. I haven't seen her parents in years and they probably wouldn't recognize me. I can't go to the graveside service tomorrow because I have to work. It's a hard decision.

It's just such a sad thing. She leaves behind her two children. Hopefully they will be all right and know that even though their mom had some hard times, she was very smart, funny and beautiful.

Go Jazz!

It looks like Mike, Carson and I might be witnessing a sweep in person Saturday night. We are going to the Utah Jazz game and I think it's going to be pretty exciting.

They Always Happen in Threes

Have you ever noticed that bad things always happen in threes? I've noticed that a lot of times when a celebrity dies, two more will die within a short time after. It's really weird but Mike and I've talked about this subject a lot. Well, this week the death in threes happened to people we know.

Last Saturday Mike's dad's best friend, Richard, died. He got up in the morning, sat down to read the paper and just keeled over. He didn't have any ongoing health problems, but he was a heavy drinker and smoker so that probably contributed in some way. When Mike's mom and dad were teenagers, some friends set Mike's mom up on a blind date. It was supposed to be with Richard, but for some reason Richard couldn't go so Mike's dad went instead. It worked out perfectly. I really can't picture Mike's mom with Richard. Anyway, everyone is pretty upset about Richard's death. He was a very nice guy.

On Tuesday, Mike's friend Tim's brother died. He was only 46 years old. He had been a heavy drinker in the past and had some health problems associated with that. We knew him years ago and he used to hang out with us a bit, but we hadn't seen him for quite a few years. He was a really nice guy also. He wasn't married and didn't have any children. He is the second sibling out of five to die. The first was his sister. She was only 19 years old when she died. I feel very bad for their family.

Also this week a man that used to work for Mike's dad died. He was 82 years old, so it wasn't as tragic as the other two, but it's sad just the same. He lived a good life and was a very nice man and a very hard worker. He was also a WWII veteran. His wife died several years ago and he had been sad without her.

I certainly hope that nobody else we know dies any time soon.

Crazy Spring

Yesterday it was 81 degrees here. Right now it is snowing. What's up with that?