A Whiny Moment

Do you ever get so stressed out that you simply have to shut down?

I'm there.

I have been trying this whole (short) week to get my life together to go on vacation to Oregon. I have to finish laundry, clean the house, pack suitcases and bake goodies (cuz this lady doesn't go on vacation without home baked goodness sitting next to her in the car!) You'd think that each day I can get a little bit here and there completed, but it has been next to impossible.

I would get in a groove and get busy doing a task, and then a child needs me and I'm gone for two hours taking care of that need... I KNOW!! I ONLY HAVE TWO CHILDREN!!! What's the deal!?!

Or...

My visiting teaching companion calls and we need to visit our ladies... which is fine because I love the ladies we visit and we have so much fun together.

Or...

I have this or that outside the home to finish (and things like Girl's Camp still looming over my head).

Or...

Or...

Do you get the picture?

Honestly, I shouldn't be sitting here blogging. But since we're being honest, if I didn't take 5 minutes here I would probably go to my bedroom, clear some of the folded laundry off my bed and lay down and cry.

Now I've vented and I can go make something like oatmeal cookies, or white chocolate popcorn or (heaven forbid) dinner.

Memorial Weekend

This past weekend was a bit untraditional for us. For as many years as I can remember, on Memorial weekend, we always pull out our little pop-up trailer, load up the sleeping bags, blankets and coats, pack delicious food and head for the mountains. That was an unrealistic plan this year. My lovely mountains still have snow in them and the areas that don't are wet, muddy and still hitting freezing temps at night. PLUS the forecast for the weekend was bleak with rain/thunder storms predicted every day. We decided to leave the trailer parked and use our creativity to come up with something new to do. Here's how it all played out:

m Friday night: Calvin took Adam on their first Father/Son campout. Our ward rented an area that has cabins so they were able to sleep away from the weather. They had a great time and are looking forward to going again next year.

Aly went to a friend's 16th birthday party. They went bowling and saw Prince Caspian. She had a great time.

I went with my friend Amber to I.F. where we confronted our personal self-image demons and clothes shopped. I was excited to buy three pair of summer pants, a shirt and a new dress for Sunday. I was more excited when I realized that everything I bought was on sale: I saved $130 on everything I bought!!!

m Saturday: We left the kids home and went on a date, the aforementioned Indiana Jones movie. We also went to a local ice cream shop and found a yummy new flavor: Playdough. Man that was good!!

m Sunday I had to teach (we have early church and YW meet first). Right after the lesson we packed up the car and headed to Montana to visit my parents and sister. It was a beautiful drive through the Galatin Canyon... well, parts of it were beautiful:

The Galatin Canyon follows the Galatin River, which is running full and fast. It was also full of rafters, kayakers and anglers. As we were approaching the end of the canyon, we drove past some men who were just getting out of the river and apparently forgot that they were on a public hiway. One man in particular decided to climb out of his wet suit... in plain view of all passing motorists. The problem was that he wasn't wearing anything underneath it. I was shocked to see, well, personal body parts that should have remained personal to him.

AUGH!

The rest of our trip went much better. It's always good getting together with family. Of course there was good food (mom's famous fried chicken and gravy along with lemon sour cream pie... yummmm), laughs and a crazy fun game of 4 square in Mom's driveway.

Since my parents will be moving back to Idaho in about 3 weeks, it was our last fun trip there. Next trip we'll be loading the moving truck and cleaning the house!

So, even though things were a bit untraditional, it was a good weekend. We had fun and we enjoyed spending time together. You can't get any better than that!!

Adam demonstrates his wall climbing skills for Papa.

Grammy & Papa have a great driveway to play 4 square on!

Adam got hit by the ball. Poor kid.

This is our sad attempt at a family pic in the canyon. It was rainy and windy

and cold. Oh well... we tried!

Indy

Calvin and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie today. Here's my review...

HUH!?!
Indiana Jones meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind.


It was .... good, but a bit weird. Cate Blanchett was fabulous (of course)! Shia LaBeouf did a good job as well. Harrison Ford was okay (I'm waiting for the lightning to strike by saying that). The first time I saw him running, I thought, "sheesh, he runs like an old man!" But then again, so do I. I forgave him and got used to it. I was happy to see he still has a cute bum. ;-) There were some fun action scenes, some very contrived scenes and of course -- true to an Indiana Jones movie -- there was the obligatory gross out scene. This one was giant meat eating red ants. They were disgusting and fabulous.

Our favorite part of the whole movie was listening to the little kid sitting behind us. He was so excited to be there! He screamed at the appropriate parts, gasped when he should and cheered for the good guys. We enjoyed it through his eyes.

Would I see this movie again? I'll probably have to because I'm sure Adam will want to see it, but I'll probably wait until it's at the cheap theater.



P.S. The "crystal skull" looked like it was plastic, full of wrinkled saran wrap.

Archie's Reaction

(This took about 1/2 hour to download. I hope it plays.)

Joy and Sadness

There were tears of joy and tears of sadness in my house tonight. Yes, tears again over the results show of American Idol. (The last and only time I cried this season was when Brooke went home.)

I mostly enjoyed the show tonight. It got a little slow in some parts. Especially when Amanda was forced to sing and (gasp) actually dance. Adam was thrilled to see her again, though. I wondered why she even came back.

Amanda (on left) shows how much enthusiasm she has for being on the show.

Some of the more famous talent scared me. I was uncomfortable for Donna Summers when she was escorted down the stairs and began singing. I was hoping the young men were standing by to catch her in case she passed out, which looked like it could happen any second. I was scared of George Michaels... very scared. If I were to run into him in a McDonald's, I'd drop my chicken nuggets and run for the door. And Carrie Underwood was amazing (as usual) but I think she needs to fire her stylists. They forgot to give her pants! Also, I was very scared that Paula's sisters were going to make their TV debut. I kept yelling, "Stop jumping Paula! Don't bend over Paula!" Thank heavens for double sided tape is all I can say.

On the flip side, there were some great moments! Like when Cook sang with ZZ Top. That was good TV! Even though I'm not a big Crosby, Stills and Nash fan, I enjoyed Brooke singing with Nash. I really enjoyed seeing David Johns again (thankfully without his ascot.) And Adam and I really enjoyed watching Gladys Knight with the 'Pips' (guys from his favorite movies); Ben Stiller (Larry Daly from Night at the Museum), Jack Black (Nacho from Nacho Libre) and Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man). Adam loved the Pips but could have cared less about Ms. Knight.

Probably the best moment for me was when Simon apologized to Cook for being such a stinker last night.

Finally, when the big announcement came, my family came together... Calvin had just gotten hom from a board meeting in Driggs, Aly had been at play practice and Adam had been climbing over couches... we sat in front of the TV holding our breath. Aly was certain Archie was going to win and I was hoping for Cook... this is how the moment played out in our house:

Calvin (Mr. Non-Emotion): laughs
Michelle (Drama Queen): throws her arms in the air and cheers
Aly (Drama Princess): sits in stunned silence, fuming
Adam (working into becoming Mr. Emotional): starts crying outloud, wailing and sobbing, tears streaming down his face, "I WANTED DAVID ARCHULETA TO WIN!!!"

Maybe we took the show a little too seriously this year.




But wasn't it fun?

A.I. Ruminations

I've been sitting here wearing out the redial button on my phone as I vote for Cook and Archie. While I'm dialing away, I've had many thoughts running through my head:

** I always hate the end of the American Idol Season. This is the only "must see" show that I watch. There are a few other shows that I enjoy (House & Lost) but this is the only show I rush home for.

** Voting tonight was weird. I had a really hard time even making a connection... I couldn't even get a busy signal on all 6 lines! I would dial and wait... and wait... and wait... there was nuthin. No busy beep, no ringing & no dial tone. 30 seconds later I would end up hanging up and starting over. In past weeks I could make my vote in 6 - 8 seconds. As the night got later and voters started going to bed, I found it easier to get through.

** I missed the personal message from the contestant that I voted for. In years past, the top 3 (at least) would record a message like, "Thanks for voting for me, David Archuleta. Watch American Idol (blah blah blah)" Why didn't they do that this year?

** Tonight, I think Cook got the majority of my votes. Not because I thought he did better, but because I think he's very nice. Archie, obviously, won. He sang beautifully and he got a LOT of my votes. I voted a lot for cook because I didn't want him to feel bad. He did a good job too.

** Annie on Anniethology said she'll close her blog down if Archie doesn't win. That's a little extreme for me since I just started this one, but I agree with her. Archie most definitely should win. I think he won the minute he came out on stage. I LOVED his opening song!

** The only thing I won't miss about this season is hearing Randy say to both Davids, "Dawg, you can sing the phone book." He said that about 326 times too many.

Doncha Wish....

...you had a garden helper like Adam?





This is Adam's answer to my request that he water the plant he brought home from preschool. That's the plant in the styrofoam cup on top of the upside down bucket being sprinkled on the backyard patio. (I had thought he would take a little cup of water out and pour it over the flower. My bad!)

(Dad, before you have a fit about how long the grass is... the lawn mower is broken and in the shop. Besides, the kids think it's fun walking in grass up to their knees!)



I took my little gardener to the nursery today to buy flowers. He gave me directions and planned the flower garden for me. His choice was 'rainbow.' All the flowers are colors in the rainbow. He was very helpful in finding the right color of purple and searching out blues. We have them in the garage waiting for planting... hopefully tomorrow if it doesn't snow.

Okay, That Was Awkward

Tonight at my voice lesson, my teacher had me sing loudly into a microphone ... a capella ... with his window open.

I begged him to close the window.

He said it was too hot. We needed the fresh air.

He said the neighbors would only worry if I was screaming.

I wondered how they could tell the difference.

Our Day in Photos

You can also view these pictures here.

Spectacular Sunday

Today we skipped church...

.. to worship in the Chapel of the Great Outdoors (Yellowstone Park). It was an amazing day!! (We haven't missed church in eons, so we felt like it was okay. PLUS, I have to teach YW next weekend and we won't be able to go out of town because of that.) We have been itching to go to the park since the beginning of the month and when this opportunity presented itself, we took it! (Dave & Jackie invited us along.)

The day was fantastic!! I'm not sure I can convey how wonderful it was. From almost the get-go we saw everything we wanted and needed to see.

There were large herds of elk (no babies yet).

Large herds of bison (with babies that still have umbilical cords hanging down).


And best of all... GRIZZLY BEARS!!


There were also Mountain Bluebirds (which made us think of Mom), geese, blue heron, bats (yes, in the daytime), coyote, & bald eage. We even saw a moose on the way home -- which was a miracle. (I was driving down the hiway at 68 mph and saw it way back in a field.)

This morning, as we drove past Midway Geyser Basin, we noticed that the steam rising off the geysers was blue and pink. Later this evening, with different lighting, it wasn't. Old Faithful was HUGE and there were many geysers erupting at the same time in that basin. The colors of the pools were vivid and beautiful. Most of the snow has mostly melted in the lower elevations, but as we drove toward West Thumb and into higher elevations, the drifts along the side of the road were very deep. We hiked to the look-out at Old Faithful, which is something I don't think I've done before in my life. The hike was only 1/2 mi, but it climbed 200 ft in that 1/2 mile. Some of it was very steep. But it was beautiful. I haven't seen the most famous geyser erupt from that vantage point before and we enjoyed it.




We saw the bears at West Thumb and after watching them for about 20 minutes, we walked around the boardwalks there. The pools were so beautiful. Yellowstone Lake is still frozen.

We came home sunburned and tired but happy.

The only drawback to the day was that David was sick and couldn't go with us. It was too bad, really, because he would have enjoyed all that we did and saw.

It's Dance Recital Time!!

I Did It!!

Well, here I am. I finally started a blogger blog. TTL has been encouraging me for some time to give this place a try and I decided to jump in and just do it.

I hope you'll give me time to learn my way around this program. A lot of my hesitation in making the change was due to the fact that I find it hard to learn new technology. I have been blogging at Spaces for many years and I knew that program very well. Now I have to change my mind set and re-learn everything. AUGH! If you live nearby, please pay extra attention to my family while I do this, because I'm sure I'll neglect them for a couple weeks while I get things squared away. (I thought about calling this space: "Blog Obsessed.")