Walt Disney World Trip

We went to Disney World and took Jessica (it was an incentive for her to make up her classes and graduate from High School and Seminary). We stayed at the Disney All Star Music Resort and took the free Disney transportation. We visited Animal Kingdom (awesome shows), Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. We got the Disney Dining plan added to our package for free! That was awesome. The sit down restaurants that we never would have afforded otherwise were fabulous. The weather was unreasonably hot and muggy, but we didn't get rained on and were hurricane free. The trip was great!

I finally got my pictures loaded from our trip. It took a long time to sort through and pick what I wanted to put up, I hope it's not too boring.

New Kitchen

Our kitchen is finished and looks great! At least I think so. And maybe I'll be able to stand living in my house a little easier now. Here are a few pictures:

Bad things come in threes?

We've all heard that bad things come in threes. I may be feeling a bit sorry for myself, but I think I got more that three this time around. Or maybe I'm starting on my next three, who knows.

First my sink plugs up and in trying to solve that problem (#1), we find our counter is falling apart and my cupboards are rotting. So we decide to bite the bullet and re-do our kitchen (#2) [now this may seem like a good thing, but at the same time I've been without a kitchen for more than a week, let alone the huge expense, so I've felt like it's been a problem]. Then I get gout again - trust me that's a problem (#3). Ok, that's three, I should be okay for a while - right?

Nope. Before my kitchen is back together (still missing the counter - but the rest is great) Anthony's car "throws a rod", and yes, it's as bad as it sounds - dead engine! So we can either get a new (no, let me re-phrase) - refurbished old engine put in and hope it lasts a while (it's only guaranteed for 30 days) or we get a new (oops, I mean used) car. I call that big ugly problem #4.

So the magic mobile, or "billboard" as Jessica calls it, is dead. We need another car, and fast. Someone in my office suggested the goverment surplus place, so Anthony went down and found a Ford Taurus that was a city car not a cop car for less than $2500 in good condition, besides the 100k miles. Ugh, can you believe we got a FORD? It just seems so wrong not to have a Toyota. Oh well, could be worse, right?

Three in braces!

That's it - it's done. I've got all three kids in braces now!

They all talk just a little funny (it's kinda funny). Jeremy is the worst - but of course he just barely got his on AND he has this terrible bite plate that makes him lisp when he says "s" sounds. Do you love the color he chose? Eewww, I think it's gross (but I don't really count). At least he got green bands to match.

Ouch!

Gout is such an ugly word. I suggest that it be called "inflamed hammered toe". That would be a more accurate way to label the type of ailment I have - again. This is only the second time I have experienced the excruciating pain that comes from having gout - which feels sort of like my toe joint has been hit by a hammer and has swollen up until it is stiff and painful to touch. The sheets on the bed hurt, let alone shoes. At least this time around I knew what it was and went to the doctor before it got that bad.

The doctor told me I should cut down on eating large amounts of red meat and drinking alcohol - the two most common causes of gout. Then he grinned, knowing that I never drink alcohol and I told him I don't afford red meat other than hamburger and then not in large quantities. So evidently my body doesn't flush the uric acid it produces. Why? Who knows.

At least it is fairly easy to treat with medication. But now I find that once I've had a bout, I will likely have another within 2 years (yep, right on schedule), and then more and more frequently. Nice, huh? Oh well. Thank heaven for medication!

Happy Pioneer Day!

Being the decendant of many pioneer ancestors makes me feel proud when we celebrate the Day's of '47 Pioneer Day. I am truly grateful for their sacrifice and dedication and determination to come west with the saints to this valley. These are just some of those ancestors--

My Dad's pioneer ancestors:

---James McFarlane & Martha Ann Smuin

My Mom's pioneer ancestors:

---Mary Richards & James James

More Braces!

Jeremy has a tooth that is tipping over sideways. We didn't worry about it too much since his teeth seem so straight and nice otherwise. But I just kept feeling like all wasn't well. Now this bottom front tooth is pushing his top tooth out of place. So this time when I took Jessica and Melissa to the Orthodontist for their regular appointment, I brought Jeremy along.

The dontist looked him over and told us it was good we brought him in - his front bite is so straight and flat his top teeth completely close over his bottom teeth so you can't see his bottom teeth at all - and they are not so slowly grinding each other down. Eventually his teeth will be so thin that they will crack and break off until all he has left are stubs!

So, yes, I now have to have my third child in braces, and he has to have a bite plate to correct his bite and prevent his teeth from further damage until they start to move to where they belong. Nice?

I don't know about you, but money just seems to be flying out of my bank and into my kids mouths . . . and house. Ugh!

Old house woes :(

We moved into this house in the summer of 1996. Jeremy was 2 years old and Jessica was 5 and the house was 14. Jessica is now 18, Jeremy is now 6'3" tall, and we have Melissa now (she's 9). A lot has changed in our world since 1996, and very little has changed in our house.

We were going to try to move several years ago, so we painted and got new carpet in the front room and stairs. But that's it. Now my house is 27 years old. I think in human years that is more like 70. No offense to 70 year olds, but the body starts to fall apart as we age, and boy is my house falling apart!

It started the day we moved in - my mom was helping me clean the kitchen and put down contact paper on the shelves before I put all my dishes in them (for anyone who knows mom you'll be nodding with understanding). Well, she noticed bits of sawdust in the corners and along the edges of the shelves under the drawers. Dad checked it out and said our drawers above the shelves were "rubbing themselves raw" slowly shaving bits off the bottom of the drawers. We didn't do anything at the time and now they are shaved just about to the drawer bottoms (cheap drawers). So we've been thinking it's about time to get new cupboards.

Oh, yeah - we did get a new faucet for the kitchen sink when our old one started to disintegrate - yep the metal actually started to flake and break off and get holes all in it. That's when I noticed some black flecks coming out of the seal between the sink and the counter top. When the kitchen sink got blocked up and we started working under the sink, I saw that the black flecks were the seal of the sink disintegrating and now the particle board under the formica counter is also disintegrating from getting wet steadily for who knows how long! I can just see my sink falling through the opening some day. So we know we need a new counter.

And---my linoleum floor (original with the house by the way) is breaking and coming up in pieces, especially where we sit in front of the computer. So we definitely need new flooring.

So I guess I've held off as long as I can and now we have to re-do our kitchen. I didn't want to spend money on this place - I wanted to move. I wanted a house (not a twin) with a family room and a laundry room and more than ONE bathroom! I'll never move out of this itsy thing. I know I'll be stuck here forever. I just have to bide my time until the children leave and then I'll be old enough to be glad I only have one bathroom to clean and a tiny yard.

Anyone have any suggestions on a good plumber, cabinet guy or contractor? HELP!

Happy Independence Day!

I love the 4th of July! Unfortunately Anthony and I are still recovering from our illness and don't quite feel up to celebrating too much. I do love the fireworks and plan on seeing them, even if it's just from the side of the road.

Anyway, happy 4th of July to everyone!

Swine Flu

It got me! Yep, after being sick for two days, I went to the doctor on Tuesday (6/30) and tested positive for Type A Influenza. Anthony tested negative, but since he had all the same symptoms as I did, the doctor treated us both, prescribing Tamiflu. The test was quick and painful. The nurse took the swab that looks like the one they use to test for strep and stuck it so far up my nose I thought she hit my eye! Man was that painful. Anthony kept backing away from it, that may be part of the reason he tested negative - maybe she didn't get a good test.

The doctor said this is a flu that acts more like a really bad cold - it's mostly in the head and chest, complete with head and body aches, fever, congestion and a really bad cough. I was flat in bed for about 4 days and felt like I had been run over by a truck with alternating chills and fever. I tried not to breathe too deeply so I wouldn't cough too much. After a couple of days on medication, I started feeling much better. Anthony is still not feeling well (but he didn't take his medicine for a couple of days because it made him throw up).

Happy Birthday Daddy! on June 26th

I couldn't really do a Happy Birthday slideshow to remember Dad without his twin sister being in some of the pictures. So here's wishing a happy birthday to Glenda too!

Graduation!

* * * Congratulations to our Jessica! * * *

On Thursday, May 28th she graduated from Seminary!

She worked hard and made up her absences by reading the Book of Mormon, looking up a whole list of scriptures and writing a page on each - both of which took quite a bit of time. We are proud of her for working hard and getting it all finished in time.

And then, after cramming 8 make-up classes in with her 8 regular classes for this last quarter, she found out Tuesday that she would actually be able to graduate from High School after all!

The graduation took place at Salt Lake Community College last night. We are so proud of her!

Congratulations Graduating Class of 2009!

Happy Anniversary

May 16th was Mom and Dad's anniversary. Here's a little memorial.

Happy Mother's Day!

These are some of my favorite mothers!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a great spring break and a happy Easter!

Do take a moment to remember the greatest reason to celebrate Easter - the resurrection of our Savior. I love my Savior and am grateful for his sacrifice for me and all of us.

School Pictures

Now that the school year is two thirds over, I finally got all the kids' school pictures scanned into the computer. I know I'm the mom and I'm supposed to think my kids are adorable, but I think this year their pictures turned out particularly good. A mom can brag, right?

Jessica is a senior this year, Jeremy is in 9th grade, and Melissa is in 3rd grade.

~ ~

More Braces

Well, it's Melissa's turn - she got braces on today. And just like Jessica did, she has a medieval torture device in her mouth too. It's called a distal jet appliance and it is designed to separate the two banded teeth on the right to make room for a missing permanent molar to come down between them - and so it doesn't come out the side of her mouth. The bar on the right has a spring at the end, and as it expands, it will move the tooth back. The appliance can also widen her palate just like Jessica's, if the need arises later on. And don't worry about the blue gunk - it's just extra glue that will flake off over the next couple of days as she brushes.

Lucky for Jessica, she no longer has that box in her mouth to widen her palate. Somehow she broke it off one of her teeth and since her mouth moved so quickly the "Dontist" decided to leave it off. Now she only has to have a wire to maintain her widened palate. She is so excited to have her teeth looking so much straighter already - her front two teeth don't overlap each other anymore. Yay!

Sterling Scholar Niece!

Congratulations to my niece! She has been nominated for Sterling Scholar in English for her High School this year. Just like her mom (who was also a Sterling Scholar) she is smart and an excellent student. I know it takes a lot of work to make Sterling Scholar, so...

Way to go! and

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Remembering Mom's Birthday

Today is Mom's birthday. I was missing her and thought I'd put up a few pictures in her memory.

Best Deal of the Year (so far)

I'm Scotch - literally and figuratively. My husband says my ancestors invented copper wire by stretching pennies. So it's no surprise that I love the after-Christmas sales. I love it when the sales get to 90% off. I got Melissa a Christmas shirt at Target for 75 cents and was feeling pretty good about my deal. Until I saw Anthony's deal.

Ok, so our toilet seat broke. Not a great subject for a blog entry, but just wait. So Anthony went to the store to get a new one. He went to Smith's Marketplace because it was close. He was looking at the choices and Melissa was begging for the soft cushy pink one or the clear one that looked like it had water and fish in it. THANKFULLY, he resisted her pleadings and went for the normal cheap plastic seat. But they were all gone. He looked above the shelves (he's 6'6" - he can do that) and it just so happened that there was one box up there. He said it looked like the same one as the display, so he took it to the cashier to buy it. She rang it up - and said it would be 4 cents. Yep, that's not a typo - four cents! She then decided that must be a mistake so she called the manager over. The manager found that it was a discontinued model and they weren't even supposed to have any left in inventory - yet there it was. They had to charge something for it and since it rang up at 4 cents - that's how much they had to give it to him for. So he paid the 4 cents and brought the toilet seat home.

When he told me - I could hardly believe it. I was laughing pretty hard until I saw the receipt. Then I laughed even harder. Not only did it cost just 4 cents - but he actually SAVED 3 CENTS! This was so great I just had to share the best deal of the year so far (and it's not even my Christmas left overs at 90% off)!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

My wish is that this year be better than last year for everyone.

My resolution is to love more and holler less.

I pray for more serenety.

I will try to make more happy memories and will try to worry less.

Time is short and so precious, may we all savor it more this new year!

Love to all!

Zoo Lights!

I won tickets to Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo from the radio!

I had been listening to KOSY 106.5 during the holidays in my car and at work because they played all Christmas all the time during November and December. Well, one day they were talking about how they had a bunch of different versions of "White Christmas" and wondered how many versions there were. Immediately they received tons of calls from people telling how many they had heard, naming their favorite version, how many they had, etc. So the morning DJ decided to make a game out of it. He put together a version of the song cut from 12 different artists and put it on the radio and website to see how many their listeners could guess. As soon as I got to work I started working on it and soon my whole office was helping. Well, we only got 9 out of 12, but it was a lot of fun.

The station was so inundated with calls from people trying to guess and then telling them how much fun it was, that they decided to do it again the next week. I was listening again (it was in the morning on my way to work at 7 am) and quickly had my office helping again. The cut off time was 8:30 and this time there were 15 artist singing "Winter Wonderland". We had all but 1, so I emailed in and got the reply that I was tied for 1st. We still had time, and so we kept trying to figure out the one artist we were missing. Just as time was running out, my boss figured out that it was one of the same artists that had stumped us before. I quickly emailed again with the complete list, but I got it sent at 8:30 on the dot. We hoped that I had made it, but unfortunately someone else beat me to it and my email was received one minute late.

They mentioned my name on the radio as an "almost winner" just missing the deadline, but as the only other person to get all the artists. Then they decided to give me something anyway - two packages of 4 tickets to Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo!

You can listen and try to guess too (if you don't look at the answers) on KOSY's Fisher & Peggy blog http://www.kosy.com/pages/mornings.html?page=2, the one titled "Another Mish Mash Holiday Song!" and two pages previous titled "Who Hasn't Sung "White Christmas?" By the way, if you go to Wikipedia and search those songs it has a list of an amazing number of artists who have recorded those songs - and their lists are not even complete!

We went to the zoo on Monday night for family night and it was really fun. Unfortunately I didn't take my camcorder, but there is a pretty good video on youtube showing what it's like - http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=69bKDXIHHO4&feature=related. My favorite part was the representation of the 12 days of Christmas in lights choreographed to the music at the bird show stadium. We all sang along (Anthony and Jeremy sang several different versions and had the crowd around us laughing). It was the perfect day to go, no snow, no wind and it wasn't even too awfully cold. We had a lot of fun.