Football season is here!

I just read Candace's blog all about the BYU season opener - (www.candacesalima.blogspot.com) I'm LOVING IT! I love cougar football (which is funny since I never went to BYU and I actually have a semi-negative view of going to school at BYU - but that's another story), but since getting married, football season is always a bit challenging for me - because what I want is to be parked in front of a TV somewhere for every game (or in the stadium) - but my husband doesn't like to watch sports. (He has issues with all the "good people" who lose complete control and all good sense when a game doesn't go the way they want... - and I have to admit, he is right about that. We've all seen and heard those people...)
Anyway - because we don't subscribe to cable, I spend game days glued to KSL radio. Given my druthers, I'd listen to the pre-game show, the game and the post game show. I try to be doing something "productive " at the same time, so that I don't get too many looks from my darling hubby. I try to contain myself somewhat if I don't like a call or a play.
Sometimes, right at the end of a close game, I'll run next door to catch the end of the game on my neighbors TV - but usually I just turn up my radio, move a little closer, and HOLD MY BREATH....

My plan is that once my kids are old enough that I don't have to be constantly taking care of them, (give me another 6-10 years), then I'll be able to leave everyone to their own devices and I'll be watching the games! Until then, I'll just have to be grateful that KSL radio has good sports casters who make the game as "visual" as it can be.

another "nothing to post" post

As I sat down to to post something on my blog today, this is what I was going to say: "well, the day's laundry is hanging out on the line, the menu is planned, the grocery shopping is done for the next week and a half, the fridge is cleaned out, and the groceries have been put away put away."

Then I starting thinking, "who in their right mind would care about that?" (besides maybe my husband, who will be glad to know he gets to eat for the next little while:) This of course led to my pondering why in the world I even have a blog, and what is the purpose of all this blogging that goes on every day all over the world, etc... (see what trouble happens when I forget myself and start to think? VERY DANGEROUS!)

What conclusions did I come to? I don't really know how this world wide blogging thing got started and caught on, but the reason I am hooked is that I actually do enjoy reading about the daily ins and outs of my friends lives. "boring" or not. I feel like I get to know and be a part of their lives - on my terms. By this, I am comparing it to when a friend may call because they just want to sit and chat about a whole lot of nothing - while what I really want to do is get my stuff done so I can either just relax or I can play with my kids. Reading peoples blogs, on the other hand, I get to read posts as I have time, I can choose to respond, or I can just smile and be happy to feel a part of what's going on.

Ya, Sometimes I wish I had more "intelligent" things to write, or more "interesting" things to report on, a more "entertaining" writing style or something... but the fact is, I am who I am, and my life is what it is. My life at times seems a bit mundane and not too interesting, but I am enjoying this stage I am in right now - exhausting though it may be - and I am looking forward to other stages that will follow. Blogging takes on a bit of a journalistic nature for me, so I figure blogging the 'boring' ins and outs of my days is fine. I am certain that there are many other people out there who are just as pleased as I am when they can say,

"The day's laundry is hanging out on the line, the menu is planned, the grocery shopping is done for the next week and a half, the fridge is cleaned out, and the groceries have been put away." Exciting - no. An accomplishment for me that I am proud of? You'd better believe it! GO ME!!!

Ya'll have a great day!

Sleep Deprivation and a house guest

All I want to do right now is take a nap! Trina woke up screaming in the middle of the night with her ear hurting. It was too late for our pediatrician's after hours clinic, and I wasn't convinced that it was serious enough to warrant a visit to the ER so we toughed it out. This morning , as soon as the office was open, I took her in - certain she'd have a blazing ear infection. (She is my ear infection kid) NOTHING! Her throat was a bit red, but nothing alarming. Our best guess is that she's caught the cold that Aaron and I are just getting over (we both had pretty bad sore throats) and that her throat is hurts and the pain is trans locating up into her ear.
She just feel asleep a little while ago (i dozed for a few seconds too, before Bryan decided that he needed to be snuggling right on top of me...) I put on a movie that I thought would help Bry go to sleep, but it didn't work. He'll probably do his "fall asleep just before it's time to go do afternoon carpool" trick. Oh well. I guess you just have to do what you have to do.

In other news, We'll be having a "house guest" move in sometime in the next day or two. A sister I visit teach really struggles with managing money, (and by that I pretty much mean that she is basically inept at) and other portions of her life too, for that matter. I'm not trying to be mean, just stating the facts as I see them. She decided the she has been "directed" (by inspiration) to move back down to Cedar City, where she lived before being inspired to move up here a little more than 2 years ago. Trouble is - she told her landlord she'd be out by the end of August (not 30 days notice) because she didn't want to have to pay Sept's rent. She did this - 1) not having a new place lined up in Cedar 2) not having a job lined up (she doesn't have a job up here right now either; she's been on unemployment for the past 3 or 4 months.) 3) having so many unpaid and late bills that she'd never be able to get new utilities set up in her name in another place without paying off some of these, and 4) absolutely NO MONEY to put towards moving costs, new apt deposit and rent etc...
See what I mean about now being real wise in money and life decisions?

Anyway, after much deliberation, Tim and I decide to offer her our extra bedroom in the basement for ONE month, on the condition that she allow me to oversee all finances so that we can hopefully get some of these past due bills taken care of, and give her another month to find a job and place to live in Cedar City. I am expecting it to be a rather challenging month, but I keep telling myself that I can do it. Should be an adventure.

Aaron's first week of school seemed to go well; he likes his teacher (so do I, I think she'll be really great for him this year).
Bryan turned 2 last week.
And basically, that's my life right now - in a nutshell.

What does your birthdate mean?

Your Birthdate: October 19 You are resilient, and no doubt your resilience has already been tested.
You've had some difficult experiences in your life, but you are wise from them.
Having had to grow up quickly, you tend to discount the advice of others.
You tend to be a loner, having learned that the only person you can depend on is yourself.

Your strength: Well developed stability and confidence

Your weakness: Suspicion of others

Your power color: Eggplant

Your power symbol: Spade

Your power month: October


Kind of a funny little thing. (got it from candacesalima.blogspot.com) I never expect much from these kinda things, but this one described me pretty well I thought. (question - what color IS eggplant??? Maybe I should find out and start using it more eh? And I'm really not sure what a spade would symbolize, but I enjoy gardening and flowers, so maybe that's it...) Maybe this explains my "emotional unavailability" issues eh? Now I can just tell Angel (my friend who brought it all up) that it's not my fault - it's just that I was born on Oct 19.

here's the link if you want it. www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbirthdatemeanquiz/

redwood vacation travel log

Saturday, after driving all day, we arrived at the KOA camp in Willits, California. All I have to say about this is that it is a VERY child/family friendly camp!

Sunday, we woke up early, so we packed up quickly and drove to Fort Bragg and went to church there - rather than hanging out in Willits and attending church THEN driving the hour to Fort Bragg. It was really nice to be in a ward that isn't 50% primary age children. it was nice to be able to hear and have quiet in the chapel. My kids were 1,000 times quieter than they are at home, and I think it's because in our home ward, it is always so noisy that they don't seem to hear that they are making noise. In the quiet of this other ward, they seemed to grasp that they needed to be quiet too. It was VERY nice! After church we drove to MacKerrich State Park, set up camp, then went beach exploring. We went first to Glass Beach(first picture with Trina), a former landfill, which after they had cleaned out as much of the junk as they could - it left behind lots and lots of pieces of broken glass. The ocean had done it's work and smoothed all the glass into pretty little clear colored "rocks." The beach was a rocky area, with lots of tide pools to explore. We found sea anemones, hermit crabs, and a few other sea things that I can't name. After Glass Beach, we went to a more family friendly (less rocky) beach called Pudding Beach. (picture with me and Bryan) The kids loved it. That night, back at the state park, we hiked out along a boardwalk trail to an overlook where we could see some sea lions.

Monday we drove North to the Avenue of the Giants. We stopped at chandelier tree - a drive through tree near Leggett. With our carrier on the roof - we didn't fit through the tree. BUMMER! I still think they should give a discount to cars that won't fit through the tree... I think that this was the day we went to Confusion Hill. There we went through "gravity house." The house is built on the angle of the slope, so everything is on a slant. (picture of the boys - and yes, I was doing my very best to hold the camera level) I have trouble with motion sickness and just looking into this house made me queasy! Walking through it (it wasn't that big) did me in and I had to sit and rest for a long time before I felt back to normal. We had planned to ride the miniature train also located at confusion hill, but since I wasn't feeling well after the gravity house, I sent Tim and the kids on the train ride and I took a nap in the van. We found our campground and after dinner we drove over to Meyers Flat, where there is another drive through tree. This one looked a little taller, so we decided to try it. it was a tight fit (The roof rack brushed the top) but as you can see in the photo, we got through it! They also had a great two story tree house that we all climbed up into. (the picture of a very cheesy me and all 3 kids was taken inside the tree up on the second level)

Tuesday we continued the trek North with a few stops here and there to hike around, or see roadside attractions. We camped at the Elk Prairie campground. It is called that for a good reason- we saw lots and lots of elk.

Wednesday we drove up to Crescent City to visit Ocean World, a small aquarium type attraction that, in my humble opinion, was NOT worth the money, but we did get to pet some live leopard sharks and see a short sea lion show. (and we got to take a picture of Tim and the kids being eaten by a shark) The kids thought it was fun. It was this day that we noticed our back tire was looking pretty low, and upon closer inspection, Tim found a nail (turned out to be a screw) in it. Luck was with us, because directly across the street from Ocean World was a tire repair shop. We got that taken care of, and went to spend the afternoon at the beach. (picture of Tim and Aaron in their big hole fortress) The kids loved the beach and would have been happy to go there everyday.

Thursday we woke up to wet everything. It had rained during the night and was still drizzling. (I thought it made for a pretty picture of our campsite, with the mist/clouds on the hills all around us.) We packed everything up wet, then drove along an 8 mile stretch of dirt road to get into Fern Canyon. (part of Golden Bluffs State Park.) We got there fairly early and there weren't too many people there yet. It was a BEAUTIFUL hike. (last two pictures) It ended up being shorter than I thought it would be, but that was okay with me, because it meant Trina was able to do the hike all by herself easily. If you zoom in on the photo of Bryan, you can see that he is holding rocks. he would have happily spent hours and hours picking up rocks and throwing them into the water. We finally put in him the backpack carrier so that we could keep going at a semi resonable pace (i.e. the almost 4 year old Katrina pace) After hiking, we went to one of the beaches in the area for a couple hours. After lunch it was time to wave goodbye to the ocean and head West. We drove to Whiskeytown - just outside Redding. What a beautiful lake.

Friday morning we spent a few hours at the lake beach until lunch time, then we loaded up and started the drive to Winnemucca. once again, I didn't do my figuring correctly - Google maps should take some responsibility here too - but regardless of who's fault it is, the hour count was off and we didn't get into Winnemucca until just after 10:00 pm! Luckily we were taking it easy on this final night of the trip and we were staying at the Winner's Hotel and Casino. (cheapest one at $42 per night) Even though it was so late - I filled up the tub with nice hot water and soaked and soaked! I was FILTHY! even after my long soak, there was still some dirt in the cracks of my hand and fingers that I couldn't get out.

Saturday the kids were so excited to watch TV! (we have a TV that we use to watch movies, but we live right on the east bench and we can't get any TV reception with paying for cable. Since I think most of what is on TV is trash - and since i know it is such a time waster, we don't pay for cable. SO - my kids are always amazed at TV - the whole thing is still a mystery for them - commercials, they can't "rewind it" or "watch it again." We let them watch cartoons until 9:30, then we hit the road again.

Finally - after way too many hours in the car - we were HOME!!!!

HOME SWEET HOME

I believe I've heard it said that you know it was a good vacation when you are glad to come home. It was a very nice vacation - and I am VERY glad to be home.

I will give you a brief (as if I could do anything in a "brief" manner) travel log in a day or two - - (I want to post some pictures with it, so I'm hoping Tm will be able to download the pictures without overheating (and thus crashing) the entire hard drive.) but suffice it to say that the coastal Redwoods are simply awe-inspiring. It was beautiful! My kids LOVED the ocean. The weather was cooperative and we made the trip safely. What more can you ask for???

Today I will be tackling Mt. Washmore (a flylady'ism meaning huge mountains of laundry) and taking Aaron over to his "meet the teacher and find your desk" day at school. He starts school tomorrow and I'm not real excited about getting him up and ready to go by 8:00 everyday. (Today he slept in until just before 10:00 am, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him sleep since I know he's fighting a cold - we all seemed to have caught one while on vacation, I'm feeling a bit stuffy and Bryan seems to have a mild cold as well.) I also need to go grocery shopping for the week. Luckily Tim made out a menu for me last night, so the planning portion is done - which makes the shopping job is immensely easier!

Wish us luck with the picture download - I'm excited to see the pictures and share some of them with you!

Later -

California - here we come!

Don't look at the time of the post - okay, look if you want. it's 11:00 PM and we are supposed to be leaving in 4 hours. (getting up at 2:30, leaving at 3:00. I've tried twice to go to sleep, but both times my brain kicked in and I remembered things I forgot to pack that were important enough that I thought I'd better get up and pack them while I was thinking about it.

While upstairs, I remembered that I have books that are due at the library today. Well - I'm not heading out to take them there NOW! - so I had to get online and renew them. Since I was online - I thought I'd check in and tell ya'll to have a great week and I'll post about our trip when we get back.

Can I just say - I am absolutely EXHAUSTED!!! I got up and 6:00 this morning and have been going crazy all day - and yet here it is after 11:00 and I still don't feel ready to go! Oh well. Tomorrow night I will be in California, relaxing by the KOA pool and life will be good again. Then it's off tot he beach and the redwoods I go.

Talk to ya'll in a week!

Planning Stress

Life is a bit crazy right now. We are supposed to leave for our family vacation Saturday morning. I've been trying to get everything planned out, and When I finally had an itinerary that I felt worked well, with two nights per campsite (to minimize the set up camp/take down camp woes), I got online to book the campsites - I was certain it would all be available since it's not a holiday, not a weekend, etc... NOT ONE SPOT was available for BOTH of the days I wanted. Can I just tell you how frustrating that was???!!!!

I did some more looking and planning and rearranging and got a vacation booked, but now we are back to our usual set up camp/take down camp everyday thing. I hate that! Oh well. I'm hoping Aaron is old enough now that he can be a bit more help, and Trina enjoys helping if I can figure out the best way to use her 3, almost 4, year old assistance.

We are going along the Northern California coast to visit the Redwoods. I am excited. It is beautiful country and has a perfect mixture of nature, trees, mountains, cliffs, beach and ocean. I should be a lot of fun, and fit within our budget.

Now my stress is to plan the menu - buy the supplies, do make ahead meal prep, make my packing list, and get everything ready to go. I'll just say this - I will be glad come Saturday when we are on the road and I can adopt the attitude of "anything I forgot we will just have to do without or buy along the way."

Well - I'm not getting anything done sitting here, and my list of things to do it PRETTY long today (I did get the lawn mowed already this morning, so one thing is crossed off:), so I'd better get crackin'

Later----

More "unavailability" issues

Right after I posted that last thing about being emotionally unavailable, our computer was taken over by my children. After a few hours of game playing, Aaron wanted to switch games and came to ask for help. The computer was pretty much non-responsive. I knew that it had been having some trouble overheating, so I suggested to Aaron that we shut it down and let it "rest" until dad got home. We shut it down, and the poor thing was DOA when Tim tried to turn it back on later that evening. SO - in addition to being "emotionally unavailable" - for the past 3 days I have been "technologically unavailable." (Truth be told - I think the second malady has been more troubling for me than the first)

It appeared that the hard drive totally crashed and burned. Tim tried his usual trick of switching in and out parts from the computer graveyard of parts downstairs, but to no avail. We were looking at having to buy a new computer - not a fun prospect since Tim is in the middle of purchasing yet another house for the "investment" portion of our life, and we need every penny (and then some) for the down payment. Tonight after fiddling with it for a while, he has apparently revived the poor beast (he has warned me that the machine is merely on life support though, and we should be prepared to say goodbye at any time. He has taken out basically every thing but the bare basics, so no game playing for the kids - just basically restoring Internet and email service to me so I don't go insane. I expect that for the next while Tim will be shopping the computer ads looking for "the deal" that is good enough to warrant spending the money. - until then - I will be as "available" as the computer will let me.