I'm A Geek

I will admit that I spent Friday night watching the National Spelling Bee on TV. When I saw that it was going to be on I was excited. By the second hour even the rest of my family was watching it and trying to spell the words. I think I'm a pretty good speller, but there were some really hard words they had to spell. I'm amazed at all the work they have to put in to be able to spell those kinds of words.

When I was in 7th grade we had a spelling bee at school. There were several rounds that were done in classrooms and after so many kids had been eliminated the final round was going to be up in front of the whole school. I had made it to the last round before the final round and I was so nervous about having to be up in front of the entire school that I spelled my next word wrong on purpose so I could be eliminated. Looking back I wish I would have just kept going to see how far I could have gotten. My fear of being up in front of a bunch of people is still with me today.

Carson is in 2nd grade and his teacher had the kids do oral reports throughout the year. Whenever Carson was ready to do one I would ask him if he was nervous and he would say he wasn't. He really liked doing them. I think it's good to get kids started young doing things like that so they get used to it and never develop a fear of public speaking.

I hope we can find something a little more exciting and a little less nerdy to do tomorrow night.

"I Wish I Had A Big Butt"

That is definitely not a quote from me. It's from Amaya. She said she wishes she had a big butt so it would fit better on the toilet and she wouldn't have to have someone hold onto her so she doesn't fall in.

Are You Looking For A New Pet?

Try a couple of these.



Don't you think hissing cockroaches would make good pets? They are small, easy to care for and don't require a lot of attention. And the kids love them.

But I don't. Carson wants us to get some for pets, but I think we'll stick to the cute, furry kind of pet.

Those cockroaches are my sister's family's newest pets. To me, they are just plain creepy. If I wanted to get a small, somewhat creepy pet I would rather get a tarantula. At least they look furry.

We Have a Meeting Tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to our SW's (social worker) house to meet the director of an orphanage in Guangdong Province, China. Apparently he is in the United States visiting with some families that have adopted children from China to see what their lives are like and how they are fitting in. Our SW thought it would be good for us to come and visit with him. She will have an interpreter there to help with the communication.

It is going to be a busy day because I have to work tomorrow. I have to leave at 8:45 to drop the boys off at my mom's house. They don't have school because of Memorial Day weekend. Then I will take Amaya to school and go to my job. My job is at 10:00. My mom and the boys will pick Amaya up at 11:00. Whenever my job gets done I will either go to my mom's and hang out or go home and get a few things done depending on how much time I have. Then I will take Amaya and meet Mike at the SW's house at 2:15. We will stay for approximately 20 minutes (the director is only going to be there until 3:00) and then I have another job at 3:00. Our SW's house is only about five minutes from my afternoon job so everything should work out fine. Then Mike will take Amaya back to my mom's and I will pick the kids up when I'm done with work. I am so glad that our house, my mom's house, Mike's work, Amaya's school, our SW's house and my job are all within about a four-mile radius; otherwise days like tomorrow couldn't happen very easily.

After tomorrow I will be more than ready for a long weekend.

Organizing Bags

I won a set of organizing bags from The Lazy Organizer because I guessed that her new baby was going to be a girl and would be born on May 15, 2008. I am really excited about getting the bags because I've been wanting to order some for a while now but just haven't done it yet. Now I will get to test them out and see what kinds of things I can use them for. They look like they would be great for all kinds of things and I can't wait to get them. Once I do, I will try them out and let you know what they're like.

In the meantime, go visit her website and check out the bags for yourselves, and also look at the pictures of her beautiful new baby girl. If I was younger it would probably make me want another baby.

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.