Pyles of Clutter

Oh I've missed you!

Dear Readers,

I'm almost home!  I've been to Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, back to Provo, and soon to be back home.  People, I am not cut out to be gone this long.  Really.  Oh my goodness. 

We started our big trip going to my sister's new house in Salt Lake City.  It is an adorable house, and after she works her magic, it's going to be fantastic!  My sister can make anything look homey and beautiful with very little.  She is amazing.  We spent a day with her and her husband, with both my nephews with their wives and children came over to visit.  I love her family.  They are truly awesome.

Then on to Vegas, baby!  Now, you know that I have been stressing over this part of the trip for weeks, WEEKS!!  So we took off on Sunday morning, getting into Las Vegas at about 1:00. First thing, the hotel screwed up our reservation.  After an hour of crying, arguing, and yes, swearing, I finally got that figured out.  And can I just say that it was the hottest days of the year while we were there.  115^ every day we were there!!  Ugh!!  Double Ugh!!  So we took showers because that is the only way to cool down in 115^ weather.  AJ had given me three names of families that he wanted me to visit.  I want you all to know that I actually called all three, visited with two, and tried really hard to see the other.  Oh my.  We had so much fun visiting the families.  Thank you to the Barlows, the Olds, and the Stuarts for the great time we had visiting!  I feel so much better that my son is there because these people truly care about him.  It brought tears to my eyes. 

So, interruption to the travel log.  We went to visit the Barlow's first, then over to the Olds family.  After we left the Olds home, Sister Olds called me and said, I have a funny story for you.  About ten minutes after you left, guess who came to our house.  Elder Pyle!!  Elder Pyle?!?  Oh people, I couldn't have taken it if we had seen him.  It was hard enough to know that he was there, less than 5 miles away from our hotel.  Crazy!!  That was a funny story.  She said that he was as surprise about it as I was!  Funny.

Later that night, Brother Stuart got us tickets to go see a show there in Vegas called "V".  It is a variety show, and we had a blast.  I will put up pictures later.  Thank you so much to the Stuarts for getting us the tickets.  It was really fun!

Now comes the boring part of the trip.  On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, we were so busy dancing, that we didn't get to go do much else.  (Okay, really, even if we would have had the time, I didn't have the motivation to go anywhere else.  First, heat.  Second, son five miles away.  Hard.) 

Wednesday, 2:30, we start home.  115^.  Hot.  AC going non-stop on the car.  The car does not like it.  My car was over heating like crazy.  So we had to turn off the AC, open the windows, and run the heater.  I didn't know if I was going to make it.  We drove the first three hours of the trip with the heater running intermittently, until it cooled off enough outside for the car to be able to make it.  It was crazy and I seriously felt like I got a sunburn off of the heater.  Oh my.  But we made it back to Provo, and that is where I am now.  I got to see my boy, the old one, and visit with cousins that I adore. 

More updates coming. 

Miss you,

Love, me.

Not too much going on.

* Today, I finished all my Booster Club stuff!!!  Yea for me!!  You cannot even imagine how happy I am about that!  Now if I could just finish the swim meet stuff I need to put together and the the girls camp stuff.  Only one more day.  Yikes!

* I am really having a hard time with this whole going to Vegas thing!  In case you don't know, my son is on a mission in Las Vegas right now, as we speak!  He has been gone almost 8 months.  8 months!!  Crazy.  I was doing really well with it until just now.  Now, I feel like I'm going to burst into tears at any moment, thinking that I will be in the same city as him, but not able to see him.  Oh my.  I hope I can do this. 

*  Terry fixed my van and I'm so happy about that! 

*  Just so you know, I'm watching tv right now as I'm typing this.  I hope it doesn't sound disjointed.

*  This week has been so quiet.  No dance, no swim, no anything.  I kinda like it, but then again, they are in my face a whole lot.

*  Sarafina, the boy cat with a girl name, has decided to come in the house, which is okay at the time, but he (she) has been finding little hiding spots where we don't see him and then we shut the house up and he is stuck inside.  Funny.  He hasn't had any accidents in the house yet and actually gets a little uptight when we shut the door and close him in.  I'm liking him.

That's all I got.

Love, me.

TV Watching...

I have a bit of adult-ADD, I know I do.  I cannot sit and watch tv unless I have some other thing to do, such as now, when I'm watching Perry Mason and typing up this post.  I'm grateful to have a DVR at times like these so I can go back when I miss something important.  Anyway....

These are my favorites right now:

1.  Pushing Daisies-- Did you watch this in the fall?  Because of the writer's strike, it hasn't been on since the fall.  I can hardly wait for it to come back on.  It is the most refreshing tv show I've seen in a long time.  It's quirky, funny, clean.  What could be better than that!  The premise is a man, Ned, has the ability to bring people back to life, but if he touches the again, they die permanently.  If he leaves them alive, then after a minute, someone else has to die. Yikes!  Ned finds his first crush dead in the morgue and brings her back to life, but then he can never touch her again, or she will die permanently.  Oh the intrigue!  He solves homicides by bringing people back to life for a minute, finding out who killed them, then touching them again.  It is so funny.  Watch it!

2.  Eli Stone--  This was a replacement show this winter.  It was also a different show also, with a feel good tone to it.  Eli Stone is a lawyer who starts to have visions of things to come, because of an aneurysm in his brain.  From those visions, he takes certain cases that have significant meaning to Eli and his loved ones. He ends up in the doghouse with his boss, his fiance, his family, his secretary, everyone.  And all the while, he is trying to decided whether to get rid of the aneurysm or to live out the remainder of his days with it, like a time bomb in his head.  It is an interesting show, pretty clean, a little preachy, but definitely leaves you feeling hopeful about the world.

3.  Burn Notice--  I LOVE this show!  It was a new show last year on the USA Network.  AJ and I watched this faithfully all last season, and finally, finally the new season starts next week!  Yahoo!!  The plot is that a spy, Michael Weston, has been burned, which means that the agency he is working for has cut all their ties with him, and left him to fend for himself, even if that means he gets killed.  Michael winds up in Miami, trying to figure out who and why he got burned.  He takes on cases of all different mysteries, solving them to make money.  This is also is a feel good kind of show.  The violence is pretty minimal, and it doesn't have much of that really dark feel to it like a lot of the criminal shows do now.  It's pretty witty, original and the guy who plays Michael is pretty cute, and I love Sharon Gless as his pesky mom. 

4.  Samantha Who--  This is a sitcom about a girl who is hit by a car and when she comes out of her coma, she doesn't remember anything about her life.  Yes, she has amnesia.  But as she starts to piece things together, she finds out that she wasn't a very nice person.  Now she doesn't want to be that person anymore, and so begins to make amends for things she has done.  It's really funny.  Christina Applegate plays the confused Samantha pretty well.  I love it.

5.  SYTYCD--  Otherwise known as So You Think You Can Dance.  Love, Love, Love this show.  I've watched a lot of dance for a lot of years.  My oldest girl has been dancing for 14 years.  That is a long time.  And so we have seen a lot of wonderful dancers, seen a lot of great dances.  It blows me away that a lot of the dancers on this show are still teenagers too.  Teenagers!  It takes my breath away.  It makes me wish I could dance.  Or just be about 50 pounds lighter.  Either would be fine.

Now I still have a lot of my old favorites on my DVR, such as Monk, Pysch, Criminal Minds, The Office.  I'm not so enamored with Grey's Anatomy anymore, or the CSI's.  I watch the original CSI because it's in Vegas, and I'm all about Vegas now.  Not that my son is anywhere near what they are talking about but you know how it is. 

So I hope you get some good shows to watch.  I'm getting pickier as I get older. 

Monday, Monday...

Well, Monday has passed. 

Let's see, what did I do today?  Ugh.  Not so much.  I went to work today.  The magazine scene is crazy.  In the big remodel, they changed the checkout stands.  That means that instead of magazines on every check stand, they are now on every other check stand.  That is a lot of magazines that needed somewhere else to go.  Ugh.  Again, ugh.  It was just not too much fun.  (Do you want to know something else that isn't too fun, my "o" is sticking.  Driving me nuts.)

After work, I came home and had about 20 emails for checks for booster club.  I sent out an email yesterday saying that I was going to be gone for a week, and everyone, and I mean everyone wants a check.  You have got to be stinkin' kidding me.  So I started on those.  I'll bet I wrote about 25 checks today.  Ugh.

While I was still writing checks, the missionaries came to make crepes.  I told one of our missionaries that I really wanted to learn how to make crepes, and from there it when on to having crepes for my birthday, and then it got pushed back to the next week, and so on and so on.  Finally, I can not take anymore of him asking me if this is the week we are going to make crepes, so I gave in and we had crepes today.  Too bad I had about A HUNDRED things to do today.  But, they were pretty good.  He made whole wheat ones, regular ones, and chocolate ones.  Ok, so here's a little story about this missionary.  He has lost a lot of weight while on his mission.  He has done it by really watching what he eats.  So here he goes trying to make the rest of the world eat that same way.  He is always pushing the whole wheat everything.  Ugh.

Alright, so after that, I took the two young ones, otherwise known as Zoey and Tessa, to the auditions of the Suessical Musical that our studio is putting on.  Anyone could try out though, not just dancers.  So I dump off the kiddies, run a couple errands, take Megan to work, and then back to the studio.  Oh my.  Tess is quite a character.  Apparently during auditions, she was just doing her own thing, making up her own dances as she went.  That was fun.  Tess is not really trying out for a real part, just a part of the back up.  But she was making her presence felt.  Oh my.

I came home.  What did I not do?  No exercising.  No house cleaning.  No laundry.  No packing.  Ugh. 

Old time Disney

Do you remember, back in the day, when Disney used to make rated G real life movies?  The Apple Dumpling Game, Escape to Witch Mountain, The Parent Trap.  Oh yes people!  That is my new movie phase!

First, I started with

No Deposit, No Return.  I went on a little Don Knotts kick.  I remember loving this movie as a kid, so I rented it again.  On second time through, I didn't find it as funny as I remember, but I still liked it.  The story is about two bad luck crooks, one of whom can open any safe.  They need money to keep their legitimate business open, when it falls on hard times.  But instead of getting money out of the safe, they end up with two kids.  They try to ransom the kids, and that is where the fun begins.  Fun.

So after that I watched this:

The Incredible Mr. Limpet.  This isn't a Disney movie, but it is funny, nonetheless.  Henry Limpet loves fish and before he knows it, he turns into a fish.  This was the first time I saw animation with real life.  It is a pretty fun movie.  I remember it from my childhood and it was great the second time around as well.  It is a great movie.  Rent it!

Next, I rented:

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.  Oh, young Kurt Russell.  So much fun!  I love this kind of humor.  It is really simple, and even sometimes, stupid, but still so fun.  It's nice to watch something that is clean, with no ulterior motive other than to entertain.  I love that.  The story goes that Dexter Riley is at Medford college and he is in an accident that implants his brain with all the information from a computer.  All is good until he starts spouting out information about illegal gaming rooms.   That's when the fun ensues.  Oh people.  Really.  Rent this one, and with it:

The sequel, Now You See Him, Now You Don't.  Dexter Riley through an unfortunate incident, invents a formula that allows things to be invisible, including people.  The bad guy, superbly played by Cesar Romero, steals the formula to use for nefarious reasons.  Really, another great see. 

Of course, follow this one up with this gem:

The Strongest Man In The World.  Again, the gang at Medford College has another unfortunate accident in the science lab that causes super human strength.  Can I just say that young Kurt Russell is a pretty cute guy?  Rent all three, sit down with a bowl of popcorn, and a glass of kool aid, invite your kids, grandkids, neighbor kids down the street, to come and enjoy some good old fashion fun.  It's not deep.  It's not smart.  It's just simple, pure, fun comedy. 

Try it. 

I'm not sure I have anything to say...

Dear Readers,

I've tried to blog every day last week, and every day, I just couldn't put it together.  So today, I'm just emptying my head because apparently this is all I can put together right now.

• I had a great weekend at my scrapbook retreat!  Lots of visiting, lots of creating.  I did 24 pages which is pretty dang good for me.  I think I like these retreats for a couple of reasons.  1) Of course, the friendships I have made there, so of course, the visiting is great.  2) The things that I learn about scrapbooking, card making, and other creative endeavors.  3) With that much creating going on, it stimulates my creative juices so I am able to put things together easier.  Great thanks to Deb and Jane for putting these on.  I know it is an amazing amount of work, and I'm very grateful to them for doing it as cheaply as possible.  You are awesome women!
• I've been working on my exercise ethic.  It is sadly lacking.  I started walking a couple weeks ago, walking 6 miles.  It takes me quite a while, but I like the time to meditate and run things through my head until I can either 1) come up with a solution or 2) come to grips with the fact that I can't fix it.  But I really have to become more consistent with it.  This week, I made the goal to walk every day but Friday.  On Friday, I will be...
• ...on my way to Las Vegas!  Honestly, I can't tell you how I feel about it.  I know that we will see some amazing dancing and I think our girls are more than ready to compete.  But we don't have the money to do anything other than be there, which is fine, but boring.  We will be going to Utah for awhile to visit with some family, mainly Tyson, who never comes up to see his mother.  I'm also ambivalent about the fact that my son on a mission will be within miles of me and I cannot go see him.  Yes, I could sneak and see him, but it would hurt too much to leave him again, so I have no plans to go and see him.  What are some really, (and I mean really) cheap things to do in Vegas that will keep us busy during the time when we aren't dancing?  Any suggestions? 
• No news on the employment front.  Ugh.
• We had a great stake conference today.  I love our new stake presidency.  They are really fun to listen to, and because I know them pretty personally, I know they are men of God, but not perfect. 
• I have to finish the books for the year for Booster Club.  I'm hoping to finish that on Tuesday so that I can give the accountants my books so that they can get the clubs taxes paid early.  That would be pretty awesome.  I would love to have that finished up so I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the summer.
• I want to do some fun summer things with the family this year.  What to do though?  Any ideas?  Please give me some extremely cheap ideas for some fun family activities.
• My van needs to be fixed and I don't see that happening anytime soon.  Ugh. But it still runs so I guess we're okay.
• Our dear friend Nick will be leaving soon to go visit his family in New York, and then on to his mission in Pennsylvania.  You people in Pennsylvania do not know what is going to hit you when he comes.  He is so awesome.
• I'm in a funk and I can't get out.
• I'll be doing a post tomorrow on my lastest movie phase.  I can hardly wait.  I also have a book review to do as well.  Fun.
• Alright, I guess that is it for me.  I wish I could have something happier to report, but really this is me for now.

Love, me.

A trip down Memory Lane

Happy Birthday, Tyson!!

My little boy is all grown up and turning 23(!) today!

But I can still remember when...

he was just a little baby, about 2 months old. He was a pudgy little thing!

when he was a year old, our apartment burned down and my visiting teacher took care of Tyson, telling me that she needed to practice taking care of a baby (she was pregnant at the time).  He loved mud!

 

For a couple of years, it was just me and Tyson.  Life was complicated, but I was always grateful to have him.

He was always a sharped dressed man!

Tyson was a pretty happy child.  I guess he used it all up before he became a teenager. Ugh.

In 1988, he got two new cousins.  (Look at that physique!)

Tyson had a fascination for the ghostbusters in 1989.  He decided that he would be Peter Venkeman, I could be Janine, and AJ had to be, what else, Slimer. 

No life history is complete without his life long friend, Jordan.

 

They played on many soccer, football, basketball, and baseball teams together.  This is the team that I coached in the fall of '92.

Tyson was baptised on his birthday in 1993.  I'm proud of the fact that he honors his priesthood.

The next year, Tyson was sealed to our family, one of the best day's of my life!

He hasn't always liked being a big brother, but he has always felt the responsibility of taking care of his siblings.

Tyson loves the outdoors!

But he doesn't love heights!  (You have no idea what it took to get him to stand there.)

Or having his picture taken.  (Ok, this was after about 20 photo op's.  He was probably rightfully tired of it.)

Happy Birthday, my boy!  We're proud of the man you've become! 

Love, Mom  xoxox

Only for Deborah

My niece-in-law, Deborah, has tagged me to do a meme.  Ahhhh.  I would ONLY do this for you, Deborah.  I just hope I can think my way through this.

What was I doing ten years ago:  Ten years ago, we had just moved into this house, I was raising my five screaming children, all the normal stuff. 

What was I doing five years ago:  I had a six month old baby, and a graduate.  That is weird.

What was I doing five months ago:  Five months ago.  What month is that?  Let's see, that would be February, which is high dance competition and drill team competition time.  We were getting ready for Nationals.  Other than that, just plugging along in everyday life. 

Five things on my to-do list:  (1) Must finish library books that are already ONE MONTH LATE!  (2) Must write thank you's for people that remembered my birthday.  (3)  Start packing up stuff for scrapbook retreat.  (4)  Find miscellanous jobs to keep children busy all summer.  (5)  Finish reading the Book of Mormon before Stake Conference this weekend (almost there!)

Five snacks I enjoy:  (1) Watermelon with salt   (2) Chips and Salsa  (3)  Sno-cones  (4) Pumpkin Bars  (5)  Popcorn

Five things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:  Sorry, can't even go here with our current financial situation. 

Five bad habits:  (1) Eat too much junk  (2)  Fall asleep saying my prayers (so rude!)  (3)  Wear the same socks two days in a row  (4)  Horrible at making phone calls  (5) Interrupt people *cringe*.

Five places I have lived:  (1) Ephrata  (2) Provo   (3)  Seattle   (4)  Moses Lake  (5)  ???  Where will we end up next!

Five jobs I have had:  (1) tree nursery field worker (my entire teenhood), (2) custodian  (3) cafeteria worker  (4) house cleaner  (5) nanny 

That's it for me!  Did you find out something you didn't know before? 

That's right!

That's right!  It's my birthday!  Another year older, but really none the wiser. 

What will I wish for on my birthday cake (that I will have to bake myself)?

1. Please let Terry get a job soon.  Things are not going well.
2. All my children have a happy and healthy year.
3. We can at some point get Sarafina, the cat, neutered.
4. I can take my family, but especially Tess, to Disneyland.
5. I would love to take a cruise with just Terry and I.
6. I'm ready to paint!
7. I want a good year of school from each of the kids (so I don't have to stress about it)!
8. Oh, to be caught up on my scrapbooking.  Heaven!
9. I wish my parents would be able to travel some. (Mother!)
10. Movies, movies and more movies!

And that is all from me today!  Wish me Happy Birthday all you lurkers out there!

Love, me.

Emptying my head

I just have all these random thoughts in my head so I'm just gonna spill 'em.

• Oh people!  It's scrapbook retreat next week and I'm ready to get out of here.  Not that I don't love my kiddos but this year has been really hard on me and I"m ready for a little break.
• Are you watching "So You Think You Can Dance"?  Oh my.  You should be.  There isn't anyone that is weak among the contestants.  I have several favorites, Kherington, Kourtni, Will, but my favorite is Chelsie Hightower.  Why is she my favorite?  Because her brother is on a mission and he is a friend of my son's from in the MTC!!  He is on his mission here in the Spokane Mission and was trained here in Moses Lake!  I love that boy.  She could be the worst one out there and I'd be cheering her on.  All for you E. Hightower!
• Lilly has to be in a parade this weekend in my hometown.   The chairwoman asked me if I wanted to drive the car she is riding in (dang float people!) and I just thought to myself, I just don't think I could do that and have all the people of my childhood staring at me.  Ugh. 
• There are days when I love the big sycamore tree in our front yard, but right now it is driving me crazy!!  It drops these little dingle balls all over our yard and you have to pick them up before you can mow.  And so it has become Tess' job to clean up the yard everyday and let me tell you!  The wailing and gnashing of teeth is incredible.  It's going to be a long summer.
• They are remodeling our Walmart right now and if it wasn't a zoo before it really is now!  Doing magazines right now is so...  I don't even have a word to describe it.  So today, I go in to do mags and there is all these new workers running around like chickens, etc.  So I'm talking to some of the workers I do know, and they tell me that over Memorial day weekend, a customer that came to the store had the measles and had exposed everyone there.  Really, everyone.  Hmmm.  So every employee that was there on the TWO days had to either prove they had a measles shot, or go and get re-vaccinated, or stay home for three days until proven not to have the measles.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Isn't that a bit nuts?!  That's the health dept. by the way, not Walmart.  They aren't happy either.
• It's Friday the 13th today.  Be very careful.
• Tomorrow is the 14th.  Does anyone know what that means?

That's about it for me.  I'm sure I have something else to say soon.

Love, Me