Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We hope you are able to enjoy the time with loved ones on this beautiful day. We miss you all.

Much better day!

Today was a much better day for me. I signed up for 2 classes through a community college (clovis.edu) because I could get 6 credits for the same price as 3 and they offer a digital photogaphy class online! So I start 2 classes January 12th. I am pretty excited about them. Hopefully they will have my transcripts before the next semester so I can take more general ed classes like English/math without having to redo the ones I've already done.

I also attended the Girl Scout Cookie Coordinator training. That was a waste of time, but I am almost ready to get the girls started selling. They can start selling January 10th (preorders) so I just have a few more weeks to get completely organized and set up.

And another great thing for me today is the shoe blog I was writing for (haven't in many months while they revamped everything) contacted me again and set me up to blog twice a month so I start that the 29th. I really enjoyed that one.

So far it has been a good day. Tonight we are going to Contessa's Christmas concert. Each grade is singing 2 songs and then they sing a group one as well. She is excited about that concert. Hopefully the boys will be good and sit still during it. It is after their bed time so we just have to hope Cameron won't be too grumpy!

Complaints!

I am in a complaining mood. It hasn't been a good day. I admit that part of it is because I am cranky, but not everything! So my complaints for the day:

• Screaming kids
• fighting
• kids not listening
• broken lamps - seriously, can't I find a floor lamp that won't break within 6 months?
• dirty dishes - yes, I know it is my fault because I didn't wash them. However, do 3 kids REALLY need to use 10 different cups a day? 2 of them aren't even home all day!
• junk mail
• too many toys everywhere
• crumbs
• no naps - why Cameron thinks he can skip a nap is beyond me. Thus the reason for many of these complaints!

Okay, I admit getting them out there has lessened my stress a bit. So maybe I should make a list of things I am grateful for. Then I can feel even better:

• family
• friends
• cuddles
• clean diapers
• nice fitting jeans (don't have too many of those right now!)
• massages - I should really spend the money on a professional one some day. I think I would enjoy it! But, the homemade ones are nice too.
• clean cars
• clean house
• smell of fresh baked breads, cookies, etc.
• bubble baths
• books
• good music
• computers - I can keep up-to-date with some of my favorite people

I really do feel much better now. Thanks for listening. I guess I need to stop letting these dumb hormones take over!

And so my Christmas season begins, kinda...

I make no secret of it. I am not a Christmas person. Personally, I have allways hated the commercialism of it. I really don't mind giving gifts, but I will not accept them for myself. Same with birthday gifts, but that's another day. I also don't really like the decorating, so Amy does it all herself. One thing I do look forward to each year, though, is a concert. We've kinda made it a family tradition each year (except for 2006 right after Cameron was born) to attend Peter Breinholt's Christmas concert. I first heard Peter's first Album, Songs About the Great Divide, as a missionary (don't give me that crap that I shouldn't have been listening because it wasn't hymns). He's a wonderful folk musicial from Salt Lake. Last year and this year, they added a couple of acts to the lineup. Peter was joined by Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band and Sam Payne. You may have heard some of RSATRB, they had a small hit a year or so ago call "Dream Big" that was used by NBC as the theme to some reality-type show that only lasted a couple of episodes. They play a wonderful mix of everything from folk to bluegrass to celtic and even calypso on a couple of songs with Ryan on the fiddle and an incredible group of musicians on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin and another bigger mandolin looking thingy, bass and double bass, and percussion. Sam Payne is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine. He's a folk singer with an amazing gift for storytelling. He's also an accompished jazz musician. This year, the concert, called "The Gift", was the Christmas in the Canyons concert at Tuacahn Ampitheater in St. George, UT. The scenery was beautiful, the night brisk, but not too cold, and as allways, we had good seats, 3rd row right. Not as good as last year when we had front row center, but good none the less. Once again, all the guys put on an amazing show, from the Celtic inspired opening number done by everyone, I Saw Three Ships, Sam scatting on a number of songs (he's awesome at it), to the allways uplifting Dream Big, Sam's song All the Christmas they need (allways my favorite song of the night, brings me to tears), and they allways finish it off with Silent Night with the audience helping out (I've got a video of it I'll post, though I didnt have my phone ready and missed the first bit of it). I would love to post some pictures, but I couldn't bring the DSLR in because they had no video or photo posted outside the auditorium. We did bring in the little Canon, and I did get a few pics off without the flash, but I don't know how they turned out as I havent looked at them yet, but I'll post some if they turned out ok. Do yourself a favor and pick up their Christmas albums. I know they are avalible at Deseret Book and also from Amazon's MP3 store, or directly from the artits at their websites (If you pick they up, pick them up directly from the artists so they actually see the money from them). I may be reordering Sam Payne's Christmas album as I cant seem to find my copy and I didn't seem to rip it. Each of them also tours quite a bit and look for them to come to your areas. If anything, they are again doing next year's show in St. George again. Its not too bad of a drive (from Phoenix, easiest thing is go to Vegas, hop on I-15, and it's about 100 miles north). The scenery is beautiful (check out Snow Canyon just north of town, I've got some pics on Flickr I took there about a month ago) and hotel rooms are plentiful and usually pretty cheap.




Here's the video of Silent Night. Excuse the lousy quailty as I took it on my phone.

Here's a youtube video of Sam Payne singing All the Christmas They Need.



Peter Breinholt singing an original song, Christmas Eve Song, also from youtube



and Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband video for Dream Big

Shopping

I am proud to say that I am mostly done with Christmas shopping! I HATE waiting until after Thansgiving because it is nearly impossible to find what I want and then I stress over whether it will arrive on time if I ordered it online. I can't stand long lines and crazy crowds trying to buy the same items and being grumpy, so I just avoid it. Heck, if I could avoid food shopping from a week before Thanksgiving to a week after Christmas I would!

So I am pleased with myself this year. I bought all the kids presents & most stocking stuffers. Parents are taken care of as well. I even have everything except one item for our communities Christmas Elves program for needy families. I will buy that tomorrow to get that done too.

I even have gifts for Collin's birthday so we are doing great. Of course, I spent way too much in one month to get everything but that is to be expected. I always overspend! Thankfully Devin works a ton of overtime in the winter to cover it all. I sure love that man.

So how are you doing with preparing for the holiday?

I'm getting old

Devin and I were enjoying a relaxing afternoon together yesterday with Cameron taking a nap and Contessa and Collin at school. All of a sudden Devin tells me not to move and pulls out a piece of my hair. WHAT was he thinking?! Anyway, so it turns out that particular piece of hair was not any shade of brown or red like most of the others. No this one was white. Then he proceeds to pull out 7 more! I am officially getting old. I'm not even 30! Heck, I'm not even 29 so why am I going gray already?

I guess that's just the way things are. At least I'm not alone, Devin had much more gray than I do! HAHA!

For the love of shoes!

Cameron needed a new pair of shoes. Seriously, when don't kids need new shoes! So we took him to took for some. We eventually found a pair of Yo Gabba Gabba shoes in his size. He loved them. He loved them so much that he took them with him to bed last night! He set them on the edge of the bed and pulled the blanket over them. I'm assuming he wanted to keep them warm! It was really cute. He was so excited to have his new shoes. He's been wearing them since he woke up. Oh, for the love...of shoes.

(Of course, I "needed" new shoes too and ended up with 2 pairs of boots! I have never spent so much on shoes for me before. But I love them.)

It's a BOY!

So we didn't mean to find out what we were having, but we know now that we are having another boy. His due date is March 24 and so far everything looks great. He moves around alot and is constantly enjoying the bouncy-ness (is that a word?!) of my bladder. We will have to do some rearranging of rooms in the future, but we are excited to welcome him into the world in less than 19 weeks. YEA! Over 1/2 way through.

He's 2!!!

Cameron is 2 today! I can't believe how fast time goes. He is such a fun kid to be around and even though he definately has an attitude as well. I'm just hoping we don't have another day where I spend time cleaning his crib wishing it was chocolate I was cleaning up. I'm not sure if I can handle that anymore!

Pregnancy Update

I thought I would just give a quick update. I am now 16 weeks (5 months if you prefer). I saw the doctor yesterday and the heartbeat is steady and strong. I have an ultrasound scheduled in 4 weeks on Nov. 3rd so that should be fun. Devin doesn't want to find out what it is, and I am in agreement so we probably won't know what we are having until the birth.

It is quite inconvenient to have to travel so far to see the doctor for 5 minutes! We left our house at 3:50am and got home at 6:15pm. We were so exhausted we put the kids to bed about 6:50pm and didn't hear a peep from any of them! We tried to stay up, but at 7:15pm we were ready to crash, so we did. Pretty pathetic! It was a long day, but we were able to get some needed groceries and we even got a few birthday presents for Contessa & Cameron plus a new carseat for Cameron. So all in all it went well. Of course, I was sick most of the day, so poor Devin had to deal with everything plus the kids pretty much on his own. He didn't complain though. He encouraged me to sit as often as possible which really helped.

So that is were we are at with this pregnancy. Everything seems to be going well so far.

Goals...

They say the key to goals is to write them down so that you can look at them and have something to work towards.  I think this has really been my problem with goals through out my life.  I dont write them down, and I dont let other people know them.  So I guess I'll try that here.

1.  Lose weight-I don't have any specific number in mind, but I know its alot.  My biggest problem has been a lack of motivation.  I went to my doctor a few months ago for a check up, hoping that would scare me into it.  Unfortunatly (or fortunatly), to use his words, I was "shockingly healther than I should be".  I was a little worried about by TSH as it was borderline low, and thyroid inactivity I learned runs on my mother's side, but I also don't want to commit to daily medication the rest of my life.

2.  Be a better father.  I know I'm not a bad father, I just don't feel like a good father.  I guess I'm spoiled in this regard.  My father was an incredible father, and my father in law is just as good.  Also, I had alot of good examples growing up in young mens.  I really am trying harder to become more involed in Tessa's and Collin's lives in paticular, as I don't feel I had the same type of relationship with them at the stage in life Cam is at when they were that age, and sometimes I feel like I might portray to them I like him more that I like them, which is not the case at all.  

3.  Become a happy person.  I know, this is not me at all.  I'm eternaly pessimistic, glass half empty, sarcastic, and sometimes just a plain a-hole.  I have a touch of manic depression.  Lately, my manic periods are getting shorter and my depressed periods are getting longer.  I tried SSRIs (antidepressents)  a couple of years back and felt worse being on them than being off of them, so I quit them.  For someone who works in the medical field, I am extremly distrustful of western medicine.  Pharmacuticles in this country are nothing but marketing hype instead of solutions most of the time.  But I think my biggest obstacle in this is I've been fighting it alone.  I think this is the closest to opening up I have ever been.  I like to keep my private things private, but sometimes, I think I have to give in and let others help every once and a while.

4.  I want to see every national park, at least in the Western US.  I not only want to do this for me, but for my kids.  I want them to see the wonders God has created.  I am ashamed to say, I grew up in Arizona and lived there for 25 years and I never saw the Grand Canyon untill a year ago.  And I only scratched the surface there.  I am within a day's drive of so many places, less than a few hours to a lot of them, and Great Basin NP is in my backyard.  I hope I will realize how miserable theme parks are and visit a NP or two instead.

5. Visit England again.  Most people don't know this, but when I got my mission call to England all those years ago, I hated it.  I thought there had to be a mistake.  I was supposed to go to South America.  I kinda kept my disappointment hid, because it seems like in LDS culture, to serve in Brittan is consitered a great achevement.  I even had people ask me how I managed to get to go there.  They thought I must have slipped a few Benjamins' in with my papers.  In fact, I almost consitered comming home twice.  Once when I was out after about two and a half months, and again at about 18 months.  But I thank God for understanding and inspired mission presidents who help me realized the importance of my work.  I learned to love the people and the country.  I still have a few quirky habits like occasionally saying distinctly British things and a love of Marmite, which I have almost every morning at work.  Ive even been told on occasion that I have a bit of a accent, which is funny, since its been almost 10 years, and I never really had a accent to begin with.  I also hope to once again find the level of spirituality I had then.

6.  Become a better husband.  I've got to give it to Amy.  She puts up with a lot of sh!t from me.  I sometimes wonder why she's stuck around.  I'm glad she has, as I couldn't afford a divorce at this point.  (Clarification-I know Ive been pretty serious this whole post, but this is the sarcastic side of me peeking out)  I'm a good provider of all things physical (at least I like to think I'm a good provider if you know what I mean!), but I have a lot to work on as far as emotional.  I think working on my own self esteem and self image will really help me out as far as this one goes.  When I can truly love myself, loving others will come naturally.

What I've realized in the last few paragraphs are 1.  I shouldn't blog after being up all night at work and working all the next day, and 2., well, I cant think of that right now, but I will at some point.  So anyways, post up a goal of two of yours and that way we can guilt each other into acheving our goals.

Another cash offering made to the Mother Church of the Cult of Mouse

I hate theme parks.  I hate the parking, I hate the prices of tickets.  I hate the crowds.  I hate the lines.  But year after year, I somehow decide that this year will be diffrent and make a pilgramage to some theme park located usually somewhere in Southern California.  First off, the location.  Southern California really has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Too bad its full of Californians.  For you Californians out there, why do you feel entitled to allways drive in the left lane when faster traffic comes up behind you, even if the right lane(s) are empty?  And do you know what the cruise control in your car is for?  Anyways, I digress.  Californians aside, it looked like this would be a decent trip.  We arived in excellent time, even after my GPS put me on two toll roads, one for 2.5 miles, and another for 1 mile, costing me $4 for less than 4 miles of driving, and not to mention, it took us around the back side of Garden Grove/Anaheim, and we had to drive back into town.  The hotel, the Hyatt Orange County/Garden Grove, was a very nice hotel with nice hotel amenities like $15 a day parking, $10/day internet (thank goodness for ICS in Windows Mobile and a unlimited data plan), and $5 for two tylenol.  But luckily we were across the street from a Target and lots of resturants.  So Friday comes and we load up on the shuttle bus (was very nice not to have to pay parking at Disneyland) and off to the park with the other perfect yuppie couples.  Things for the most part went pretty well this day.  We took a mid day break and Amy and Cameron took a nap while the other kids and me went to lunch and to browse around Fry's electronics for a while.  We went back to California Adventure later that evening and it was decent (it sucked the only other time I went there).  Saturday was a diffrent story.  It was packed.  It was hot.  It was humid.  We were miserable.  We did go to Blue Bayou since it was Tessa's birthday and had lunch there.  The only other time I had gone to Blue Bayou was 9 years ago when I went with Amy's family when we were dating.  It seems since then, they have upgraded the resturant from casual dining to fine dining, and by adding the occasional white aspargus and other fancy ingredient, have found a way to double the prices.  We droped a C-note on lunch, and that was not including the birthday bucket we had ordered the week before when we made the reservation that they didnt bring, but then again they didn't charge us for.  I guess I'm just not geneticly inclined to go to theme parks for more than one day.  As a kid, the trips we took to places like this were wake up early, drive there, do it, and come home that night.  I just cant go on the same rides over and over (except Pirates of the Carribean, my all time favorite).  I did go on quite a few rides I had never gone on before since I am a huge wuss and was afraid of them.  I quite enjoyed Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones.  I also went on Autopia for the first time ever, and it sucked.  The only ride I didnt like was Soaring over California.  Collin and Tessa loved it.  They went on it twice, once with Amy and once with me.  I hated it, I was freaked out the whole time.  I'm not much of a flyer to begin with, and between the simulated close encounters with the mountains, ocean, and land, the thing that freaked me out the most was seeing the feet dangeling from the row in front of us.  Saturday night, we headed out to Ontario to meet up with Scott, Miss, and her kids Sam and Ethan.  We went to the Ontario Mills Mall and had dinner at a resturant there.  Those Mills mall people have the same archetectural vision as the LDS church.  It was exactly the same as AZ Mills.  I guess they want you to know where you are going whether you are in Ontario, Tempe, or wherever else they build their malls.  And I would once again like to thank my GPS for not only sending me about 20 miles out of my way, but also putting me into the middle of a huge traffic jam.  Whoever said technology was making our lives easier was full of it.

Just an Update

I guess I should get back to actually updating this thing! Man, I have been lazy.

I am now 12 weeks and everything seems to be going well. I had a check-up Monday and no problems so far. YEAH! I am mostly over the morning sickness, but it does hit me on occassion still. I am also forced into maternity clothes as my other "fat" clothes don't fit anymore. I am going to get sick of them fast!

Contessa is enjoying 2nd grade and just started girl scouts and soccer which she loves both. I am the "cookie mom" so I may be contacting everyone to buy a dozen boxes of cookies each in February & March! So start saving up now! (just kidding, I will only make you buy 6!)

Collin loves kindergarten and riding the bus. He is also starts soccer today.

I have Cameron's schedule perfect now! After I drop off Collin for afternoon kindergarten, Cameron takes a nap so I get 2 1/2 hours to myself! YEAH for me! I love this schedule.

We are hoping to visit family the end of October since it will be the last opportunity before I can't travel anymore (plus Devin's work is crazy in the winter). We will see if we can pull it off.

So that is the little update on our family. Maybe I will update more often. I'll see if I feel like being less lazy!

I know most of the time I post something here, it's usually of a satirical  nature, but I want to change gears a little here.  Every once and a while you meet someone who brings out the best in others.  Someone with the ability to lift up others.  Ely lost a great member of the community this past week in Dr. Bruce Wilkin.  Though I only worked with Dr. Wilkin a little over two years, he always impressed me with his dedication to his craft and to helping others.  Health reasons forced him to retire last year, but on the few occasions I ran into him around town since then, he was allways happy and smiling.  After attending his services today, I really gained a appreciation as to how incredible he really was, how selfless and caring he was to all.  I wish I had the opportunity to know him better, because it seems there was so much more than just the Dr. Wilkin I worked with.  So take a minute and think about someone who has inspired and touched you in your life.

God be with you, Dr. Wilkin, untill we meet again.

Just another reason why I hate Utah...

Ok, just let me start with an apology here.  I will be making generalized steriotypes that some of you may or may not fit into, but be assured, this doesn't pertain to anyone personally.

So we had to go to SLC for a Dr.'s appointment for Amy (she can talk about that if she wants, I'm not going to) and do some school shopping and food shopping.  So we get into town early on Monday and get quite a bit of stuff done.  And since the hotel we stayed at had a full kitchen, we did most of our grocery shopping done Tuesday morning.  So we were sitting around the room trying to figure out something to do, so Amy thought about going down to Thanksgiving Point to go to the farm area there.  So we make the trek from our hotel in Taylorsville down to Lehi, not a short drive by any means.  Of course, the shake from Iceberg Drive Inn definetly made the drive a little easier.

So we finally made it down there.  Now let me preface this by saying for the most part, I like Utah.  Its a beautiful place.  But for some reason, I hate Utah County with a passion.  The fakeness that abounds in that place reminds me of the movie the Stepford Wives.  So anyways, we get to Thanksgiving Point and the first thing we see is a line around the building for the Imax theater.  Im not worried I say to Amy, that just means no one will be at the farm.  That wasn't the case.  I guess it was $2 Tuesday and the chance to save a whole $1.50 over the regular admission price of $3.50 was just too much a draw for the Common Utah Mormon Housewife (Commonus Domesticus Deseretus).  The CDD is between the ages of 22-35, has between 1-4 children who have never been disciplined in their entire lives, and exists solely for her trophy abilites.  They travel in large luxury SUV's from outlying master planned communities and often congragate in groups, often leaving the care of the children to one's mother, mother in law, or a ugly friend, so as not to disturb their gossiping time.  So after we find a parking place in the back of a unmaintained dirt parking lot, we get in the line that stretched almost around the building.  As we got close to the door, this should have been my first clue to get out of there.  The entrance is also the exit, and countless CDD's just plow their double strollers into my children without so much as a warning or apology.  And if you dare to make eye contact with one, you will recieve a look that says its your fault for being in my way.  As I mentioned, they often congragate to participate in gossip or other idol chatter by stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.  At this attraction, this proved to be a problem, as the sidewalks are only standard neighborhood size and are usually bordered by animal pens on one side and block walls on the other.  This proved to be a problem many times during the trip.  Time after time, a CDD with a double stroller would just park it in a way that no one could get by and take a picture of one of her children by a goat.  Finally, after seeing what must have been 100 diffrent types of goats, we get to the 2 play house play area.  There was a short block wall where me and Amy had a seat while the kids played for a while.  After we let the kids play for a little bit, we rounded up the kids and decided we had had enough and were heading to the door.  I get Cam in the stroller and start heading down the sidewalk when a couple of CDDs jump in my way and block the sidewalk.  Not wanting to be rude, I sit there for a couple of minutes thinking they will move in a second or two, or will notice me in front of them and move to the side so I can get by.  Needless to say, I must have either blended in well or was just not visible to them (just how, I would like to know), because they didn't even notice me.  I continued to listen to their conversation about buying a $200 gallon of tanning solution that turned out to be the wrong color, when Amy, who had almost made her way out, turned around and noticed I wasn't there.  She came back to pick up her fallen comrades, and the two of us lifted up the stroller with Cam in it and walked across the rocky area next to the sidewalk to open sidewalk.  None of the 20 people we passed even bothered to move over so we could put the stroller down.  We escaped with our live and our children, though we had lost our sanity somewhere in the park and wern't going back to find it.  So if you want something to do in Lehi, just go to Cabela's across the freeway.

After that experience, we realized that including travel, we had barely killed just over an hour, and needed something else to do.  Since the kids have seen pretty much every kid centric movie released this summer (I never got to go to the movies as a kid), movies were out.  Then I remembered a billboard for the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy.  I have to admit, at first I was a little worried.  It was located in what appeared to be a closed down supermarket in a residential area in Sandy.  But since tickets were more than $2, there were significantly less cars in the parking lot, so I thought let's give it a shot.  There were 2 exhibits, and we chose to do the exhibit of Utah species.  It started out kinda boring with a few tanks of trout, but as I looked at things a little deeper, there was a lot of really interesting bits of info on little plaques around the displays.  But trout and minnows will only satisfy kids so long, so we went to the saltwater part of the aquarium.  It's small, but among the best Ive seen.  Hopefully, they will get to build the full size aquarium they want to soon.  I wish we would have bought the membership rather than single day tickets.  Oh well.

Poll Time!!!

OK, I know this is kinda dumb. Ive got this comming weekend off (Fri, Sat, Sun) and it will most likely be my last until December or so, since we should finally be going back to summer schedule at work. Now here's the dilemma. We were originally going to go to Twin Falls, ID to the new temple open house, got tickets and everything. But I was also thinking San Diego because we have Seaworld passes good untill the end of the year. My heart says Seaworld, but my head and wallet say Twin Falls (actually the wallet says stay home, but I'm done listening to him). So I need your help. Which one would you do? OK, Twin Falls is closer (250 miles), has a uplifting spiritual experience, and is closer (I know I mentioned that already, but I wanted 3 good things about TF and could only think of 2). But on the downside, TF is, well, in Idaho. It is close enough that we could come back same day if we get bored enought and do something else Saturday and Sunday. San Diego is more funner, has more funner stuff, and has Tijuana near by (donkey show?), but its much further away (about 600 miles each way) which hurts even more with $4.50 gas, and it also has Tijuana near by (guess I could fill up in TJ for $2/gallon and wait at the border for 3 hours to come back in). Also, if you dont like any of those options, suggest your own, but don't say come to Phoenix cause its too damn hot. Just leave your choice in the comment so I dont have to decide.

Devin.

How we gonna kick it, gonna kick it root down!

Hi, Devin again. I know probably anyone who reads this (the 2 or 3 of you) don't know that I am Basque. To be honest, not too long ago neither did I. Already, I know you are saying to yourself, "what the hell is Basque". Well, that's what I would say to myself. I know most of you don't swear as much as I do (though IMO, hell isn't swearing). The Basques are from northern Spain and southern France (from what I've discovered, I'm from the Spanish part), and you can learn so much more on Wikipedia than I can ever tell you myself. Anyways, my parents came up this weekend, which just happened to be, besides July 4th, the annual National Basque Festival (and parade) in Elko, NV, about 180 miles from us. To be honest, it was a much smaller event than the website made it out to be, and I didn't get to see the weightlifting or lumberjack competitions because Cameron was screaming and Amy had a migraine and was being a not very nice girl, so we had to leave early. But what we see was really cool and wants to make me find out more about my heritage (maybe it will get me working on my genealogy again).

This is a pic I took of Cameron in a little beret I bought for him. I thought I'd go artsy and make it black and white.






Another cute one of Cam my dad got. Love the filthy face. It really stands out in this one.







Collin in his beret. Once again, in a artsy sepia tone.







Tessa in her sunglasses. I guess being almost 7 and a 2nd grader make you too cool for a silly hat.






Children in traditional Basque clothing in the parade. Just after this, they did a little dance. Sorry for the not close up shot, I had the short lens on.





Some more dancing by the older dancers, this one was a dance that was done to sell fish at the market the announcer said. Interesting. Once again, sorry for the crappy shot. I had the zoom lens on and I think I zoomed too much.




I've got plenty more bad pictures where those came from. All of my pictures are viewable on flickr in their unorganized and untagged goodness. I've never got around to properly organizing them, what with all the Counterstrike and Diablo 2 I've been playing a work lately. To keep weirdos from glancing into our lives, if you want to see them, leave a note or email Amy or me and we will send you our flickr info.

Home alone...

Well, since nobody's done this in a while, Ill give it a shot. Amy and the kids are in AZ at the moment, leaving me home alone for Father's Day with my Father's day Present, a PS3 and MGS4. Guess who's not putting on pants and playing video games all day on the couch...

Bad Day

It's been a bad day. No, it's more than that...it's been a HORRIBLE day. Cameron woke up in the night with vomit everywhere and has continued this cycle for a while. Then Devin couldn't find his wallet and he thinks he might have left it in his truck. Of course, it's not there. His passenger door was unlocked and not closed tightly, different than normal. I still tried to hope for the best, until I went to take the trash out and found his ice scraper on the side where his passenger door was. So yes, I believe it was stolen.

He has spent all morning calling credit card, bank, DMV etc to get everything cancelled. He filed a police report and put a fraud alert on his credit report. *sigh* long day and it isn't even 11am yet. I really hope that everything turns out well, but with his social security card in there, I don't know. He will go get another drivers license today during his lunch break and then we can see about the social security card.

Luckily he only carries one credit card in there, so that one was easy to cancel and he didn't have too many people to call. Of course, his debit card was in there too, so I will have to get him some money until his new one shows up...oh yeah, and another wallet! Dang it, he liked that one. *sigh*

Twilight Series

I'm not usually a book review person. I love reading, but don't do it often. However, I finally caved and bought the Twilight book while in AZ. I read it in 1 1/2 days and was hooked. Thanks to Lexi, I am now obsessed. I read the other 2 books in a day each and have since read them all at least once more, if not more. I agree with Lexi's review that the 2nd one dragged in the middle since I am apparently a vampire girl too!

So I am one of the obsessed. I am glad I'm not as bad as some though. I was looking on Etsy and saw someone that makes wood block things with quotes from the book. Silly, but cute.

I am excited to read the 4th book (I already pre-ordered in through Amazon, so it should arrive by August 4th). I was really excited to go to Stephenie Meyer's website and read the first chapter of the Midnight Sun book that is the book written through Edward's view rather than Bella's. I can't wait to read that one either.

New Camera!

I am so excited to be getting my new camera tomorrow! I can't wait. Devin bought it for me (using money I made writing!) so I will be the owner of a Nikon D40. I am too excited, I can't wait to start taking pictures with it. So hopefully I will get some great shots up here soon.

Free Photoshop

Adobe is now offering a free online PhotoShop! You sign up for an account at www.photoshop.com/express and get 2GB of free storage space for your pics plus some fun features to edit your photos. Have fun with it!

New Bikes

Contessa & Collin got new bikes Monday! They were very excited and are doing well on the bigger sizes. We were supposed to be buying Devin a bike, but ended up with bikes for the kids instead. Poor Cameron wanted one so bad! It's kinda funny to watch him try to get on Collin's. Maybe next time we will find something to fit him.

I will post pictures when I find my camera!

Cameron the Star!

Our local paper comes out once a week on Wednesday's. Well, we had a community Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and one of the reporters for the Ely Times asked if he could take a picture of Cameron. So I said he could, even though Cam had been crying (he had finally figured out what the egg hunt was all about and all the eggs were gone!)

So here is his picture in our paper. My baby is a star!

I'm such a procrastinator!

So I had 10 article to write this week, and then was asked to write 2 reviews for a new client. I did the reviews since I knew the other articles weren't due til Sunday. My new client then asked for 4 articles on Wednesday. So I got 3 of those done when he asked me to write another review.

I procrastinated way too much. It is now Saturday night and I have gotten all but 1 article done for my new client, but I still have 4 more for my original client that are due tomorrow! So what am I doing, blogging and watching tv. AAAHHH! I have issues.

But if I hadn't procrastinated tonight, I wouldn't have seen the tv show I talk about in the next post! So I guess that's good.

Anyway, I am heading back to work right now...now...here I go...I'm going...okay, really I am going to get back to writing my articles...now

Never expected this...

So Devin & I were watching a show on Spike TV tonight. We started watching it because someone Devin knew growing up is supposed to be on the show Joes vs Pros on Thursday. Well, I was quite shocked to see David's best friend on it tonight! I can't believe Trent Madsen was on a game show...and won!

It was pretty shocking, but cool. Doesn't seem like he's changed much since we were growing up! Pretty much like Dave, the same attitude is still there, they are just getting old!

SEAWORLD!

We took a spur of the moment trip to Seaworld this past weekend. We found a hotel online Friday morning and left about 30 minutes later. It was a long drive, but we had a great time. I thought my camera was in my purse, but it wasn't and I have no idea were it is, so we didn't get good pictures. There's only so much a cell phone can do! It was cloudy most of the day, but Amy & Devin took turns going on the shipwreck rapids and getting wet (Devin more than Amy because he advised her to buy a poncho...Thanks honey!). VERY FUN!

Anyway, we were thrilled to feed and touch the dolphins (well, everyone by Collin) as well as the sting rays (again, not Collin!) Our passes are good until the end of the year, so we may have to try and go back again sometime. The kids really enjoyed it. But, we will will stay an extra day or two next time, these turn around trips are hard!

Here is what the kids have to say about Seaworld:
Contessa - I liked it so much! And, all the shows were so cool. It's hard to chose a favorite part because I liked it so so much.

Collin - I liked Seaworld. I really liked the sharks.

Cameron - (As observed by Amy) I loved watching the animals. The shows were cool because the dolphins and whales jumped out of the water and splashed people.

We are hoping other's will want to join us next time so we have even more fun. So if you are interested, let me know and we will start planning another trip!

This looks interesting

While I am not too keen on giving celebrities free stuff, after all, they have enough money to buy their own stuff I think this is an interesting idea.

The WAHM Spot is gathering together handmade items from wahm's to put in a basket to give to Jennifer Lopez. I was thinking about Jessica's cute shirts and onsies and how exciting it would be to have Jennifer Lopez's little girl in it!

So anyway, here is a link to the blog. You can also enter to win a look-alike basket of your own.

Lovin' This!

I am lovin' THIS site right now. Perfect inspiration ideas.

Croup...

Why is it my kids think they have to have Croup so often? Devin took Cameron to the hopsital last night and gave him a breathing treatment as well as some meds to reduce the swelling. This morning, I took him to the clinic to have him looked at to see if there was anything else wrong, such as RSV or the Flu.

Poor kid has 2 ear infections as well. I don't have the results of the RSV or Flu tests, but I don't think he has either of those.

I'm really glad Devin works at the hospital...it really makes things much easier since we tend to get great service!

My Love's

With Valentines Day coming up, I was thinking about what Valentine's Day really means. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE getting flowers, gifts, and extra attention. But, I just don't think that Valentine's Day is only for couples. See, since the kids were born, I have more than one person to share my love with. Obviously, Devin gets the most intimate of my love as my eternal companion and best friend. But, the kids get the motherly love.

So, I am celebrating Valentine's Day this year with the kids. I am throwing a preschool Valentine's party for Collin were we will make candy, paint hearts, and anything else I can come up with. Cameron will get to join in on the fun as well. When Contessa gets home from school, we will bake cookies and spend time together doing crafts.

I think I will create a different day for Devin & I further away from our anniversary to celebrate our love in a more romantic way. No one ever said you have to celebrate Valentine's. Besides, flowers are much cheaper at different times of year! I think I will start planning our new special day. Maybe he will get a modified March 9th afterall.

Yeah!

We had our house appraised for our refinance. It appraised for more than we needed, so we were able to lock an even lower rate than we originally thought! I am pretty happy about that. It will be great to have a (much!) lower interest rate and only 1 mortgage payment instead of 2! I can't wait to close this loan and have everything done. I will be even more happy to not have to make a March mortgage payment.

Balloons

I marvel at how excited kids get from balloons. I needed carnations for a preschool experiement we are doing tomorrow. So I took the kids with me to the flower shop. I bought each a balloon as well to keep them entertained. All three love them. Cameron has a bright green balloon. The lady tied it to his wrist. He just stood there holding his arm out and watching it. He didn't want to move!

So now they are sitting on the coach playing with the balloons. I should use this time to get some writing done, but I just had to share.

Best workout I've found in snow

We had several inches of snow last night and today. Devin shoveled snow before he left for work and by 3pm, I was out there doing it again. We had about 6 more inches during that time. So, we now have 1-2 feet of snow in our front yard. After moving all that snow, I am pretty sure I was able to burn tons of calories, not to mention my arms seem stronger now!

I will get pictures up soon. I had to take some so you get an idea of just how much snow we have. One picture is a tonka truck wheel. The truck is upside down and covered in snow except for that little bit of tire.

When Devin got home and shoveled again, he asked why we left Arizona. "For the money" was my response. His? Not worth it! He told the nurses at work that this was NOT in the brochure!

I don't understand how some people love the snow so much. It's too much work!

Laundry

I can't stand laundry! I swear it never gets completely done and it takes too much time and work. If I could, I would just toss out the old stuff and wear new clothes everyday, just so I wouldn't have to do laundry. Extreme? Yes, but it is my dream.

(Can you tell it was laundry day?)

Sick still

I had my lithotripsy (kidney stone shockwave treatment) on Wed. I am still hurting. I am pretty frustrated at this point. The whole purpose of the treatment was to lessen the pain, but it is now more constant. I really hope it stops soon!

After we got back from Salt Lake City where the procedure was done, Collin decided to be sick. For several days he ran a temperature varying from 101 - 104 degrees. The lower number was with Motrin! So we had several fun days being sick together.

Thankfully, Devin has been a huge help. He does as much as he can given that he is working at all hours as well. Hopefully soon we will be back to our normal routine. I don't think my kids and husband are appreciated the horrible meals we've had lately!

I am Grateful for:

I wanted to create a post of things I am grateful for. Add your own in the comments!

- My husband - for everything he does for me and the way he makes me feel
- My children - I never knew what true joy and fear was!
- My faith - without it, this world would mean nothing
- Laughter - changes your perspective on things...and I hear it helps burn calories!
- Our home - keeps us warm and safe
- My extended family - life wouldn't be the same without them
- Men and women in the military - they protect our freedoms to which I am grateful
- Families of those in the military - they make great sacrifices so their soldier can protect us.
- Internet - so I can keep in touch with family and friends
- Pain medicine - see previous post!
- Dishwashers - I hate dirty dishes!
- Health Insurance - Even when it sucks, it's better than nothing

Another night in the ER

So I ended up in the ER last night again. Kidney Stones...again. I tried to take pain meds at home instead of waking up the kids, but they didn't relieve the pain enough, it was too much. So, Devin came and picked us all up. Contessa & Collin were able to sleep in his office, but Cameron wasn't having any of that. So they walked the hospital halls while I was checked...and drugged!

I am better today, I just feel really tired and sick. I have an appointment Tuesday in Salt Lake with a Urologist to try and break them up. Apparently they are all (15 or so) really large. One seems to be stuck, which is the reason for the pain. I am hoping they can get it done so they will be easier to get rid of.

So that was our fun night.

Live In Ikea?

I saw this and just had to share. Someone is ACTUALLY living in Ikea for a week. It cracks me up. Why didn't I think of it?!

New job!

Amy just go another new job! I applied for a blogging job a month ago and never heard anything, so didn't think I got it. Well, I got an email yesterday saying they wanted me to send a piece and if they like it, then I will get paid, and I will be able to blog up to 5 times a week.

They LOVED my post. So now, I am blogging about....shoes! I can't believe it. The best part is that I am basically making up a person and writing a journal entry about her shoes for that day. I love it. The pay isn't too shabby either!

So, that is my good news for the day. The blog should be up soon, but it is www.shoetube.tv.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

To Clarify - Collin says after the song, "Give me some money Bishop!" He thought it was hilarious!

Happy New Year!

So, I was a real partier last night and after watching a movie with Devin, went to bed at 10pm! We did toast the old year away just before I went to sleep though, so it works.

I am very excited for our new enrichment program. We are doing stake enrichment classes, rather than ward ones. All of our ward activities ended after a few months, so I hope the new activities will work much better since there will be more women involved.

One of the activities we are doing is called "Faith in Every Footstep" that will be a walking group (around the church) and we will also read a scripture as well. So 2 days a week I can do that, if I can get the kids taken care of. The time is just bad for me though - 6:30-7:15am which is when I am getting Contessa ready for school.

They are also having 2 other classes I am excited about, and hope to go to. One is on preparedness. The first class is on debt & budgeting. They will also go over food storage and wills later. Then there is a cooking demenstration. So I guess I have a few things to do now!

I guess I am most excited about them because they are all things I've been wanting. So I hope the walking one will help me get in shape and lose a little more weight, while the cooking class will make me a better cook, and the preparedness will help me get my home ready. Now all I need is a home organization and time management class and I am set!