Monday, March 31, 2008

Another Monday....

I finally got off my duff today and went to water aerobics. It's been a few weeks since I found the energy to go and of course I realized today how much I missed it! I shall be having a talk with myself about attending class and be very stern! No more sluffing!

This weekend we had plans to do many things but I'm afraid very little of them actually happened. We were going to go downtown to the Cherry Blossom Festival, but it didn't happen. I remember very little of Saturday, actually, but I do know the boys cleaned the bathrooms (hurrah!). Also, there was basketball. Oh! I did finally catch up on birthday cards for family. So if you had a birthday in February/March, they are going in the mail today! And I am going to try and keep on top of things for the next few months. And hopefully I can hand deliver all of the July cards! :)

Another fabulous thing that happened on Saturday is that my sweet, wonderful, awesome husband fixed the annoying noise that was coming from my computer!!! The fan on my graphics card (yes, my graphics card is so awesome it has it's own fan haha) died and was making the most horrible noise ever. After much poking around, we figured out that it was the fan and we went to the store and bought a new one. My graphics card is my baby and I need it to do my work, so this was very important!

Otherwise the week has been like most weeks. Work, piano lessons, scouts, voice lessons, homework, school. . . you know the drill. Alan did have to work late on Friday. What a lousy day to work late!!!

Ok, I have a lot to do today! My On Stage class starts up again this afternoon and I have lots to do to get ready for it! Also, it's Monday so - short day at school. Soren is usually home before 2pm. That doesn't leave me a ton of time to get things done.

Bye for now!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Happy Easter!

Can you believe how early Easter was this year? I don't mean to complain, but... I am a little. My St. Patrick's Day festivities were followed far too closely by a holiday that REALLY matters! Haha! Oh well!

We ended up having a semi-last minute group of friends over for dinner. This caused a mad-rush trip to the grocery store on Saturday morning where we purchased the fixings for this:



You know you are jealous! You know it! I don't care how good your meal was yesterday, mine totally looks better! Huh? Hee hee! Just kidding!

We did have a great time, though. And the food was YUM! And the company was fun. And the easter bunny did manage to make a brief appearance (read: lazy mom dumped candy on the table and said - THE EASTER BUNNY CAME. Yeah - that's how much I wanted to do Easter this year!). We are planning on making pizza tonight with the left over ham and then watching an Easter video as a family, which didn't happen yesterday because - hello - NCAA Championships, people! On freakin' EASTER! Another reason I am so, so, so glad Easter is on April 12th next year (yes, I already checked). And we also opted to watch Hoot as a family because it's 1 1/2 hours long vs a 1/2 hour. So we'll have time tonight to watch the Easter video where we would not have had time to watch Hoot tonight. Cuz SCHOOL IS BACK, BABY!

*cough* No, I'm not excited.

Oh - on Saturday we also decorated the COOLEST Easter Eggs EVER. Check it out:





Star Wars, baby! Did you see the cool R2D2 one? Yeah, that was mine. Soren did Darth Vader (as you can see) and Alan did Yoda. We decorated 12 total and then made deviled eggs out of them. Awesome! So much fun!

So now it's time to take the Easter Decorations down. Come on - as if! I just put them up on Tuesday! They are so staying until mid-April.

Ok, I should get some work done. It's noon and I don't think I've done anything productive except blog. Is that considered productive?

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, March 21, 2008

TGIF!!!!

Can you believe it's Friday?

Personally, I'm still in shock that the week moved along so quickly, especially as I wasn't terribly busy. Our Spring Break has been very relaxing and that has been so wonderful for us all!

We did end up going to the library. Alan picked up a book about wood refinishing as well as a book on CD, I picked up a book called An Abundance of Katherines and Soren came out with a stack of books I can't remember the names of because there were so many. I know he has read at least one since then, but he'll get to the rest. He does love to read! This is a very common conversation at our house:

Soren: Can I play on the Wii/Xbox/Computer/etc.?
Me: Not right now. Why don't you go and read?
Soren: Yes! (said under his breath all excited-like) Ok, Mom!

Granted the conversation doesn't always turn out like that, but it does frequently enough and that makes me smile. It probably helps that Alan and I are usually wandering around the house/world carrying a book with us. I went to lunch with a friend a couple of weeks ago and she laughed when I pulled a book out of my purse. Yes, I do frequently carry a book with me wherever I go. Hey, when you spend a lot of time in the waiting area of a doctor's office, you learn to be prepared!

Moving on to the remainder of our Spring Break. The zoo just never happened. The weather has been iffy, at best, so we opted to stay home. Soren did get out my bike earlier this week. The reason he got out my bike is because about a year or so ago his bike (along with 2 other bikes in our backyard) was stolen. We were very sad about this. The sadness turned to anger, however, when my bike was also stolen this week. We thought it would be safe in our backyard. We thought the hooligans who had stolen our bikes, slashed our tires (yes, twice in one week), and caused our neighbors to call the police to have them do routine drive bys in our neighborhood had given up. We were wrong. We now have no bikes. And in my opinion there is no point in getting any new ones until we are in a different place where we can store them more safely. It's sad that people do things like this. I'm trying to not be angry about it, but it's hard. My boys love to bike, but that won't be happening again until we move somewhere else.

But all is not lost! We did not let the evil thief get us too down in the dumps! Instead we raised our spirits by doing taxes! I jest, of course, because doing taxes at our house never raises our spirits. However, with the help of my sister (THANK YOU, TIFFY!), we were able to work out enough deductions that we don't have to pay nearly as much as I thought we were going to have to pay. So for all of you getting refunds, count your blessings!!!

Gosh, I'm making our Spring Break sound really awful! But honestly, it hasn't been! Aside from the taxes and the thieving, we really have had a pleasant time. Today Alan is going to watch more of the NCAA tournament and work on my music cabinet that he has been making for me for.... a while. I am going to go help a friend organize some of the areas of her house and hopefully also be able to go visit my friend who is in the hospital. I am not sure what Soren's plans are. Yesterday he had a friend over for a good portion of the day and he really enjoyed that. Maybe he'll help Alan with the cabinet. Maybe he'll go outside and play. Maybe he'll go to a friend's house. I'm not sure, but he'll have fun doing it! He still can't believe it's Friday.

Ok, my tummy is rumbling (I feel like Winnie-the-Pooh!), so I'm going to go find some honey! Erm... or breakfast. Yeah, that'd be good!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Picture Time!

Since it has been over a week since I updated, I thought I'd reward your patience with pictures!

First we will start off with a cake (there are lots of cakes involved in this post)! Last month was the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold dinner. Oddly enough, I don't think I mentioned this but that may have been due to stress. Sorry about that! Part of the festivities involved a father/son cake decorating contest. Soren and Alan had SO MUCH FUN putting together the Komodo Dragon Cake. Take a look-see:


Fun, huh? They made the dragon out of chocolate and freezed it and boy did they have fun with that green frosting. Anyway, it was a fun time and the cake itself was actually quite good.

Ok, now we move on to basketball. I know I mentioned that Soren finished up his season, but Alan still had church ball going on. He is in charge of basketball on two levels at church - both our ward (congregation) and our stake (many congregations). This has made for some insanely busy Saturdays the past 3 months. This past Saturday was the FINAL basketball Saturday of the year. WOOT! However, the ward in charge failed to staff appropriately, so Alan was there almost all day. HOWEVER - it did afford a really fun experience for Soren:


Forgive the blurry photo, but it was taken with a cell phone. This is Soren Da Ref. He got to referee one of the youth games! Our Bishop told us (and him) how wonderful it was to see him out there and what a great job he did! Alan was so proud of his boy and Soren thought it was awesome to be the one calling the shots! Granted he did have 2 other refs helping him, but I was told he really did a great job! Woohoo!

After the crazy day of basketball on Saturday, Alan and I headed to the temple for a bit. It was really nice to go, as it's been a while since both of us had time to go together. So that was really nice!

Now I shall skip ahead to a most awesome day! St. Patrick's Day!!!! One of my favorite holidays for no particular reason. I seriously go a little nutty. My house gets decorated - not insanely, but enough. I plan a big meal. We invite people over. It's crazy and fun. Our celebrations started early when, on Saturday night, our friends dropped off this lovely cake for us:


Ok, seriously - how cute is that?. Forgive the jumble of confetti behind it, I was tired and didn't want to doll up the shot anymore. Those are my table decorations for the holiday, though. The cake was delicious and was gone by mid-morning yesterday. Yums!

For dinner we had a traditional Irish Stew, which was really more like a lamb roast with potatoes, carrots, and gravy. Either way - YUM, YUM, YUM! I didn't get a picture of that, unfortunately. We also had soda bread (oh my gosh, my friend Jen did an amazing job with that), limeade + sprite, and shamrock shaped knox blox. And finally for dessert I made a mint chocolate cheesecake:


Another YUM to add to the day! It was insanely rich. I couldn't even eat an entire piece, but it seemed to be well loved by all. Next year I will make it the day before St. Patrick's Day so it's a little more firm. I just was out of energy on Sunday night, so it didn't happen.

So now it's Tuesday and I haven't even started thinking about Easter. Who knows what we'll do! I mean, besides the obvious celebration of the Resurrection. We've already done a fancy meal this week! Haha! Stinkin' early Easter. I need time to recover from my St. Patrick's Day festivities! Hee hee!

Today I need to take down all the shamrocks and put up all the easter stuff. I'm also working (slowly) on putting my desk back together as I have decided to keep it until further notice. I'm going through everything I had on it and decided what is staying and what is going. This is a process, but my bedroom will be thankful when it's complete.

This week is also Spring Break. That means I have my boys home. We are relaxing and plan on spending the break sprucing up the house, finishing up projects, and spending time together. Today we will probably hit the library and later this week we'll go to the zoo. Alan is also excited to be off work for the first few days of the NCAA Tournament. If you don't know what that is, count your blessings. It makes March/April a little crazy around our house. Haha!

So that's the latest from this neck of the woods! I am now off to do some tidying, organizing, eating, and what not!

Monday, March 10, 2008

I've Become A Theif!

I stole this one from my cousin. Thanks, Jill!




I find this odd simply because I think vanilla is so boring. Oh well! In my heart I will always be cake batter. Mmmmmm!

I thought I'd take a few minutes and give a more substantial update while I'm here. It's stupid early, but I'm afraid sleep just isn't happening for me this morning. I've been up since 4am and gave up trying to get back to sleep after about 45 minutes.

It's been a little nutty around these parts the past few days. Lucky for me, most of my week was relaxing. I didn't have much going on Thursday or Friday, so it was nice to relax. I had the chance to visit with my friend April, who is now in the hospital for the duration of her pregnancy. Bummer! I also was able to get a few things done for work, take a few naps, and just generally relax. This was nice.

Saturday all the relaxing came to a stop, though. I had trouble sleeping on Saturday morning and since everyone in the house was up by 7am, I put together a grocery list and headed to the store around 8am. Upon returning, I realized what a mess my kitchen was, so while putting away the groceries I organized a few cupboards and cleaned out the fridge. It was great to get that one off of my 'to-do list.' After that, I wanted to take a nap. However, that was not in the cards. Instead, while my boys lounged about watching sports, I got ready for my Musical Theatre Shows and headed out the door for a majority of my day.

Thank goodness that is over.

The shows went well. The first one I felt really good about, but that is because I had my 7 strongest performers in it. They did a great job! The second show was a lot crazy because I had 14 of my 15 kids (one was in Italy.... oh to be 6 and go to Italy.... ha!) in that show. THAT was nuts. However, they did really well. The only major screw up was my fault and they made it work. By the end I was totally exhausted. Totally. I came home a little before 8pm, crawled onto the couch, and did not move until almost 11pm. Even then, it was only to transport myself from the couch to my bed, where I promptly fell asleep.

Our next show is Pinocchio: No Strings Attached. Part of me is a little sentimental about this one, as Pinocchio was the very first musical I was in when I was 4 years old. AWWWW! Lookit!



I was such a cutie! And I was supposed to have my eyes closed. Even back then I didn't take direction well. This is why I'm a director, not an actor. Haha! I think I'll bring in the photo to show the kids when we start - remind them all that I used to be just like them. Only not nearly so loud and obnoxious. No, seriously. I was SUCH a shy little girl. I'm not kidding - stop looking at me like that. I really was - just ask my mom.

Anyway - rehearsals for that start on March 25th. The show is on June 7th. I then get to turn around a run a 2 week music/theatre/art camp. But let's not go there. Yet.

Sunday was just like any other Sunday. Nothing exciting to report. I don't think. Am I missing something? Oh - I didn't have a voice after almost 2 hours of straight singing. There were a lot of songs incorporated into Sharing Time this week. That's ok, though. I've totally recovered.

Today is the performance for my On Stage class. I'm a little nervous. Both for them and for myself. I still need to print off certificates for them all, grab a little treat, make sure I have all the props we need, and be ready to go by 3:30pm. I hope the kids have spent the last week realizing how serious I was about them being memorized and ready to go. *sighs*

One more sessions of On Stage to get through before summer hits. I don't work that job in the summer, so that will be a nice break.

I realized that I spend most of my time on my blog talking about myself. If there was something interesting to report on the boys, I would. However, it's just been 'same old, same old' with them. Work, school, piano lessons, scouts, basketball.... ya know - boy stuff. Hee hee.

Ok, I'm going to go lay down and see if I can manage to get a bit more sleep.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Stolen from Tiff

My sister posted this in her blog and I thought it looked like fun, so here we go:

10 years ago: Mar. 1998 - I was finishing up my final year at Ricks College. I was also 5 months pregnant, sound master of the theatre department, musical director of Pioneer Song, and was told I'd be having a bouncing baby girl. Bwahahahaha. Good times.

9 daily uses: computer, car, water bottle, cell phone, piano, toothbrush, deodorant, my voice, and clothes. Haha - lame list.

8 things on my to do list: Design a website, watch ghosthunters, laundry, fix errors on a website, clean the kitchen floor, put my desk back together, make certificates for my On Stage students, take a nap

7 places I have lived: Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Idaho, Utah, Washington (again), and Virginia.

6 things I enjoy: Playing cards with Soren before school, beautiful music, teaching children to enjoy music and theatre (most of the time), singing, playing the piano, spending time with my sweetheart.

5 facts you don't know about me: I hate sliced pickles (but I'll eat a whole one), my thumbs are different (one looks like a toe), I am obsessed with Ireland (yes, I am very excited for St. Patrick's Day), I have an almost debilitating fear of heights above water, and I hate feet.

4 jobs I've had: Receptionist at a law office, Walk-Around at Sea World (dressed up as Shamu and what not), web & graphic designer, and a teacher.

3 bad habits: Procrastination is actually the root of all of my bad habits. So I'll just stick with that and call it good.

2 books I last finished: The Other Boleyn Girl, A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book

1 favorite: My family

That was fun!

I am very tired today, so I will not be posting a real update. I've got to get some work done, so that's where what remains of my energy will be going.

*hugs to all*

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Love is what makes you smile when you're tired...

Somehow I am sucked dry of any and all energy! Admittedly, it's been a busy week so far (and it's only Tuesday!), so that could be why. However, I still managed to convince myself (with a bit of coaxing from a friend) to go to Enrichment Night at church tonight. Go me! I was able to get through that without falling asleep on my plate, so that was happy.

What has had me so busy? Saturday Soren had his last basketball game. The kiddos lost, but that wasn't an overwhelming surprise. They played hard and did a good job! And now basketball season ends, we get a few weeks off, and then soccer starts. I miss indoor soccer - both for myself and for Soren. We had such a fun time playing. Oh well - it's outdoor here and he enjoys it. I just don't like sitting out in the rain! Haha! Tomorrow is the end of the season basketball party, so that will be fun. I think Soren and Alan are both looking forward to a few weeks off.

Saturday was also dress rehearsal for my musical theatre show. It went ok. At this point, there's nothing else I can do. Haha!

Sunday was just like any other Sunday until halfway through church I started feeling ridiculously sick. I thought about trying to stick it out, but when you are supposed to spend 2 hours flailing around and putting on a cheerful face for kids, it's hard. So I gave up and came home. By the end of the night the nausea was gone, but a migraine had kicked in. FOR RUDE! Ha!

Monday was busy! And I dealt with the migraine all day on top of the busy. I worked all morning, had a dr. appointment in the afternoon, then had dress rehearsal for my On Stage class. That went terribly terrible. Like - I couldn't salvage anything positive to say. I felt bad leaving rehearsal that way, but it was just so bad. I don't know if they are ready for the performance, but maybe the horribleness of it all scared them enough to go home and MEMORIZE their lines. Blah.

In the midst of all of this, Soren had a scout field trip to the THE DUMP. He had so much fun it was almost criminal. It's the dump, for goodness sake! But, he's a boy. And boys like garbage. Trust me, there's an entire room full of nonsense in this house that I keep making him go through and asking him over and over WHY he needs to keep. Needless to say, the dump was great for him.

Today was another busy day. Surprise! I worked all morning on this ridiculously frustrating problem with a website that has a history of giving me headaches. Luckily, I woke up headache free and I was able to stave off another one even while working on the site. Finally, after hours of troubleshooting, I fixed the problem (and was so proud! ha!) just in time to get in the shower and get ready for work where we had an all-call rehearsal. The performance is on Saturday. I am excited for it to be over. Spring break just can't come soon enough. Can I just say that 14 kids between the ages of 5 and 7 is a lot to handle alone?

After rehearsal I taught a voice lesson and then headed home where I briefly hugged and kissed my boys, watched a little Ninja Warrior, and then headed off to the church for Enrichment Night. It was a good time! Since I'm with the little kids all. the. time. during church I don't get a ton of adult interaction. So, this was nice.

Now I am home. Alan is at a meeting. And I am ready to fall into bed. It feels like it should be Friday, but alas - it's only Tuesday. Tomorrow is another full day - very full, in fact. And it starts bright and early! Good times.

Peace out, yo!

*giggles*