bring and brag

anna wants to take the picture of darth vader playing the violin to school for show & tell.

what do i do?

why can't she want to take the cute little eskimo doll we got for her in alaska rather than the picture of a street performer person trying to earn a living?

it is a funny picture.

a father and daughter conversation

anna: dad, how much money do we have?

dad: i don't know (surprised by the question).

anna: well, how much is on your checks?

dad: i don't know (like he would tell her at age 6--she wouldn't even understand, but then again) why?

anna: well, how come we don't get to buy ten dollar things?

apparently she has found something that is ten dollars? or one of her friends has something that was ten dollars? i don't know. but what else i don't know is where did she learn about his "checks". he has direct deposit. where is she learning all this crap? is it first grade?

1st grade and mawzzmeyos

okay, i am not quite sure what to do. 11:30 is coming and going and i feel like i should be picking anna up from kindergarten only she is in 1st grade now. i was thinking about this and decided i should go and make my bed. you know, do something. huh, the bed was already made. i had already done it. wow. it is only day three and i am at a loss as what to do. i know i have things to do it just seems that i shouldn't be able to get to them because of the kids. now, i don't have an excuse and i don't know what to do. huh. wow. this is a wierd feeling.
i told mikey i didn't know what to do and he said "you can get me a bow of mawzzmeyos" (bowl of marshmellows). so i did. now, what do i do? i got a whole 27 minutes before shawn comes home for lunch. huh. wow.

pictures of far, far away

did you know that darth vader lives in victoria canada and plays the violin on the streets? well, actually he doesn't really play any songs or tunes or anything. he just kind of moves the bow along the strings and such.
















if i would have been with shawn when he saw this, i so would have been on it. it is the "ketchikan wal-mart free shuttle".











shawn's appetizer of fresh from the garden snails. barf-o-rama. he ate them all. i tell him it doesn't make him a hero or anything.











the sun decided to come out as it was going down. so pretty. and peaceful.











the room stewards are amazing! they seem to always know when you are out and when your bed needs to be made (even after a nap). they turn your blankets down, lay a chocolate out, and fold these so cute towel animals. shawn went to the towel-folding demonstration on the last day. so, if anyone wants a folded towel animal on your bed, just give him a call.







whale watching in juneau. it was so exciting to watch whales...really we saw a lot. but it was difficult to get a good picture. oh well.











S.O.S.
this is our mandatory life saving drill. women (and children) in front, men in back.











Mr. Black Bear who, at one point, was within arm's stretch of us. He was looking for some food there in the river. wow.










Beautiful Ketchikan, Alaska

this is mendenhall glacier in juneau. i cannot seem to get other pictures up right now. i will try again later.

points of interest from our alaskan cruise:

• it is cold in alaska, even in the summer
• you could survive in the ocean up there for 17 minutes in the summer and 7 minutes in the winter
• indonesians and philipinos are much warmer and friendlier people than easterns europeans
• i didn't fall into a crevass
• i didn't get attacked by a bear, although we did see one...up close and personal
• i rains ALL the time in juneau, sitka, and ketchikan
• juneau is landlocked meaning you can only get there by boat or plane. we went by boat.
• i can live without pepsi or coke for a day
• it is so nice to have your own personal greyline coach to take you to the town grocery store to pick up some pepsi and then take you back to the ship
• tendering is when you take small boats ashore from the ship when you cannot dock (we did it in ketchikan)
• there are a lot of old folks on a holland america cruise (and that's fine with me)
• a lot of people have preconcieved notions about you when you tell them you are from slc
• i really like lobster tails
• shawn really likes baked alaska and salmon
• glaciers are mostly blue not white
• a cruise ship can hold a lot of people (1800 passengers and 800 crew members)
• the best bed i have ever slept in is still on the ms oosterdam
• wierdos live in canada (darth vader playing the violin...i almost thought i was in nyc)
• i missed my kids more than i thought i would
• i am glad to be home

bon voyage!

we are flying out today for our alaskan cruise --and i am a bit anxious.

• pray that we will not be involved in any terrorist plot.
• pray my children will be healthy (mikey ran a fever yesterday).
• pray that all will be well here and there.
• pray that i can eat a lot--oh never mind about that one.
• pray that i won't fall into a crack on a glacier.
• pray that we will enjoy our time away without worry.
• pray that i will not gain 50 lubs.
• pray that i haven't forgotten anything of importance.
• pray that shawn will still want to be married to me after being alone with me for over a week.
• pray that he will be okay without golf--i guess if worst came to worst he could go to the golf simulator on the ship--of course, for a pretty penny.
• pray that i won't be seasick.
• pray that i won't be eaten or marred by wildlife.

okay, i need to stop. i hope you all have a spectacular time here at home. i will be thinking of you as i sail away!

little listening ears are everywhere

my friend dropped off some stuff in our carport. this morning as we went out to the car, anna looks at the stuff and exclaims, "what the hell?"
do i say that?

back from the races...

Here they are--mikey is sooooooooooo excited! I love it. Mikey has his Tony Stewart Home Depot Nascar hat on. It was fun and I might even do it again--only if I win free tickets again. It was a great family outing even though at the end anna and i thought we were going to die of heat exhaustion. Fortunately they have a sonic in tooele--slushies definitely cooled us down.

off to the races...

I won tickets to the fat ass motorsports park for the "heroes of speed". shawn has been wanting to take mikey out there. so, although it isn't nascar, i think the boys and even anna will enjoy themselves. i suppose i am somewhat interested to see what it is like but i definitely will be taking a book.

a.m. ramble

This might be a ramble and a rant seeing as how it is 4:40 am and i have been awake for almost 2 hours. I should be asleep. I want to be asleep. However, without the proper medication, sleeping is hardly an option (I purposely miss 2 or so days every once in awhile so I don't have to take a higher dose...it seems to work our just fine).
So on these nights that i am awake in the wee-wee hours of the morning, I usually try and do something productive and usually it involves cleaning. But this time i haven't been in the mood for cleaning. I have really wanted to be asleep. I tried for an hour and a half to no avail. My mind is spinning rapidly jumping from one thought to another to another. It is a bit annoying. So here are some random thoughts that need a place.

A few friends of mine here in the ward are moving. I am a bit sad because I am pretty sure I will lose contact with at least one or two of them. I like having friends. I value my friendships. I need friendships. And as an adult I have come to realize and painstakingly accept that people come and go in our lives. I hate the going. It is so hard to keep in touch. Everyone has their own lives to lead and if the relationships aren't convenient, it seems they tend to disappear. It makes me sad.
About a month or so ago I thought I would try to renew a friendship. It didn't go so well. I felt like I was so brave and I walked away feeling sheepish. I wanted so much for a connection again. But I was crushed and heartbroken. She didn't seem at all excited about me contacting her. I don't know. It wasn't what I had expected. I guess people come in our lives for a time and then they go. They come to do what needs to be done and that's it? I don't know. Perhaps the timing was all wrong. But I tried. What else can I do? I sit and try and spectulate why it didn't seem to matter but that has gotten me no where. So now, I leave it to rest.

New subject. I was wondering tonight if I am afraid of natural disasters happening. I don't think so and then I think maybe I should be. I mean I am living on a fault line. We have some food storage and I am getting extra meds to keep on hand. I suppose I should get 72 hour kits. I remember going up into one of the cottonwood canyons on a 6th grade field trip. Our teacher told us about the fault line and the possibility of a huge earthquake happening in the next fifty years. I remember I thought I would just move away in about 45 years. Well, I still have 15 or so years left so I suppose I won't worry to much. George Nory had a guy on the show tonight that discussed the happenings of natural disasters. Okay, so maybe he thinks he predicts them. But, there was no mention of an earthquake in Utah. I was going to call and ask about it but then I remembered it is not played live at 3 am. Maybe I will just send an email. Or maybe, I should just stop listening. Nah. I like it too much. Shawn hates it. I am glad it's on when he is asleep.

A week from today we will be flying into Seattle for our cruise. I am so excited. I am excited to go to Seattle again. That's where we went on our honeymoon. I loved it. We are thinking about doing lunch or dinner again at the Space Needle. They had the best rolls. Yum.

I thought I had Mikey potty trained. But he will not poop in the toilet. ARGH! I am going to try pull-ups. He can potty just fine. But pooping is another thing. I don't think he knows how to push just sitting down. You see, he has a "pooping stance". It is much like the position a catcher in baseball uses. He has one knee folded under him and the other knee up. I have thought about seeing if he could do this on the toilet but I just can't even picture it. So, I think pull-ups will be cheaper than underwear. At least for the time being. ARGH!

Okay, I think I have decided to take a xanax and go lay down. I will not function if I don't get some sleep before the kids wake-up. Hopefully they will sleep in.

TTFN

In my little garden...

This happy little sunflower lives in my front yard. We didn't plant it. It just showed up this summer (along with a few others). You can't see it very well (not at all really) but there are oodles of bees working the day away in the center. It was so neat but I didn't dare get any closer and my zoom only went so far.