Resolution.

I'M SO TIRED!!

Okay. For about a month now I have been getting up on weekdays at 4:30 AM. Why? Seminary. I am teaching it this year. Careful what you say...you might be next! So, for someone who has always been a night owl, getting up at "o-dark-thirty" kinda hurts. Really hurts! I am barely functioning most days. I have no energy, no motivation, and life at our house is kinda going down the tubes. I only do what has to be done, and usually only when it's urgent. Laundry, bathrooms, floors, meals...all of it is suffering. Yes, you should feel very sorry for my family.



I need to make one change...just one. GO TO BED EARLIER!!! Duh. Don't ask me why this is so hard, but it is. So I'm making a resolution to change my life by making one simple change at the end of my day. So long to all you new TV shows I want to watch, good-bye evening computer time (who needs facebook or zuma?), no more opening a book as I lay down in bed at night. Starting tonight, I will be in bed at 10 PM. Yep. That's what I'm doing. As of tonight. In bed at 10...no later. Nighty-night, y'all!

UP!

Let me tell you about this wonderful day...

It started early with a trip to Sick Bay to get Chris some help with...

(and this is looking pretty good! His eye was swollen shut, and the poison ivy also covers various other parts of his body. He's feeling pretty uncomfortable, to say the least.)

After an hour and a half and one whopping shot in the arm later, we end up at the intersection of 5th and Vine in Marysville. When we finally came to a stop at the intersection the car looked like this...

and I had a citation for "failure to obey traffic signal". Yahoo. We are all fine. I will have bruising where the seat belt did it's job, and Micah has a small bump on his noggin, but we are all alive, and very grateful. Oh, I also have the opportunity to take an online defensive driving class that will keep this minor misdemeanor from showing up on my driving record if I can complete the course. Do you think it's worth the $25 fee? I probably won't be able to afford it after I pay the fine on the citation.

Later this evening, Lance decided to mow the weeds. (They are all that's growing at the moment.) As he was going around the propane tank, he bumped it and it now looks like this...

Are we having fun yet?

So, as far as I can tell, we can go nowhere from here but.....UP!

F@#$&!!!!!

Yep, I said it.





The Ol' "F" word.





Not THAT one...





FORTY!









And yes, this is in large print so everyone can read it, even the over 40 crowd. (Why are the eyes the first thing to go?)


And thanks to a fun party thrown by a great friend, it wasn't so bad! It's feels official now. Thanks, Cass! She's got pictures on her blog, if you want to check it out.





Fabulous Friends + Fantastic Food = Forty-ain't-so-Bad!






A special thanks goes out to those who "took me back to Hawaii" (I was born there) for my birthday. You know who you are.

Overheard

Lance: Ten o'clock. Time for bed, you have school tomorrow.

Chris: Not me, there's no school tomorrow.

Micah: Me, too! I don't have naps tomorrow!

TMI...way too much

Bold the items you have done:
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Been to the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre
20. Slept on a train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Cooked over a open fire
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Tied a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a Bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Visited Italy

If you're reading this, and you have a blog, consider yourself tagged.

Busted. Period.

This will have you grinning, if not laughing. Now that's a week has pasted since our latest episode of "Life with Teenager and Preschooler", I can think about it without wanting to wack someone upside the head.

Last Saturday, Lance and I spent the afternoon in Columbus at the temple and then he took me to Red Lobster for dinner. (BTW, if you haven't gone there and tried the new firegrilled menu, you must. Mouthwatering.) So, after we got home, I took Chris to meet some friends at the movie. On the way there, Lance calls my cell. Christopher answers, listens, hangs up and says, "Maybe I shouldn't be going to the movies", so we head home.

After Christopher and I left, Lance asked Micah if he wanted to watch a new movie we got from Netflicks.

His answer: "Sure, but I already watched that with Chris and Becca, but Chris told me not to tell"

Oh. Really.

As you may have already guessed, Becca would be the girlfriend, WHO. IS. NOT. ALLOWED. OVER. WHEN. WE. ARE. NOT. HOME. (Okay, I take it back. I do still want to wack him upside the head.)

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?

Moral of the moment? One - Never break the house rules. Two - If you feel you MUST break the house rules, don't tell the 4 year old brother not to tell. 4 year olds don't know how to keep secrets!

PS to all the teenagers of the world - we, your parents, were teenagers long before you were. Do the words "Been There, Done That" have any meaning to you?

Modern Conveniences

Over the weekend, we got a dose of what life would be like without one of our major modern conveniences...

RUNNING WATER .

Instead we got our water from these

(...and this was just for flushing toilets! We had more for food and drinking.)

Outside there was plenty of water in the form of

I was grateful for the snow and ice; it caused church to be cancelled, which meant I didn't have to skip church due to the fact that I was too skanky to be seen or smelled in a public place. I won't gross you out with the detail of how long it had been since my last shower.

Thankfully, we have a membership at the Wellness Center over at Honda.

I can honestly say this is the first time in a long time that I've been happy to go there. Usually it is just the place I go to torture myself by exercising or being seen in a swimsuit. This time, though, it was the destination for a warm shower. (Blissful sigh...)

Monday morning meant relief from our sorry situation -

Meet Ralph, our friendy Rainsoft Guy!

He fixed the problem (an elbow joint in the water system had split and was spraying water all over the walls and the floor) and by late morning we had running water again! Happy dance, everyone! Ralph was the hero of the day, and while I think he's a really nice guy, I really hope I don't have to see him again for a long time.

So, blessings to count...

running water

water storage

snow and ice at an opportune moment

gym memberships

ralph

running water!