Coming Back?

I've been thinking about starting up the blog again. It's been a while since I've posted anything and an even longer while since I posted regularly. Honestly, I don't know if I have much to say right now. A quick update would be: I'm in month 8 of my medical assisting program. I regularly let people stick needles in my arm just for the heck of it. I hope soon to stick needles in their arms just for the heck of it. I should be there soon. Just have to memorize the order, color and purpose of the blood tubes and twenty other quick and easy steps. Easy??? Last week we went to Arches National Park for the first time and stayed in Moab. I could post some pictures of that. All I can say is it was beautiful- the Delicate Arch is even more majestic in person than in photos, walking up a mountain of sand looks super strange but is actually fun, and polenta lasagna is more tasty than it sounds. I've also come to the conclusion that I have big, Mormon teeth. There, I said it. It's true. They aren't quite white enough for Mormon teeth though. Though that may be an unnatural state of whiteness.

That Folk Singing Sci-Fi Geek Was Pretty Cool

It may come as a surprise to you that I. LOVE. MUSIC. Okay, maybe not. When I was a young mom I was going through a slight postpartum cuckoo phase. I was conflicted, what kind of mom was I that I didn't want to listen to Raffi or Barney sing in my car whilst towing little ones about. But I felt my life was no longer my own and music was the only thing I could still control. The only thing that was still all mine. And in all seriousness, I don't think your kids care what kind of music it is and it won't stunt them cerebrally if they don't sing The Wheels on the Bus while driving about suburban Utah. So I had my music to sooth my troubled soul. Well that and Phil Hartman making me laugh on News Radio. (Laughter is right up there with music too.) I seriously mourned that guy's death a little when his wife tragically shot him.

Not to say I didn't give the kids a good dose of kiddie songs. Isabella had a Barney dinosaur that was about two feet tall with arms that moved as he sang. The three of us (me, Isabella and Barney) could belt out a medley of top 40 toddler hits like no one else. There was also my own medley to all three of my kids when they were babies of You are My Sunshine, Carpenters, Close to You and Beetles, Obladi Oblada. I could so rock that medley. So clearly, my kids were in good hands musically speaking.

Now it is so cool to see my girls enjoying their instruments. Zoe makes a great tormented pianist. She reminds me sometimes of that Muppet pianist on Sesame Street who always freaked out and banged his head against the piano when he couldn't get it right. (I kind of loved that guy.) But eventually she does get it and she is really enjoying it. Isabella gave up piano and moved on to guitar. I can't tell you how proud I was to hear her tell me after class the other day that her teacher said she was the winner of the best chord playing for Smells Like Teen Spirit. (Or how thrilled I was to find a teacher who teaches songs from musicians like Nirvana, Green Day and Bob Dylan.) Okay, she's only been in this class for a month but a mom can still be proud. I am more than a little jealous she is taking this class. Someday I'll make time to get back to learning the guitar.


So I love music, all around my house, in my car; I wonder when the day will come that my kids shame me enough into getting me to stop singing along. It was easier when they couldn't sit in the front seat. Now I'm getting a little self conscious, and I feel I should share the radio every once in a while. Not a fan of hip hop and the other music they play on that station but I can share (a little). I love seeing my favorite artists play in person too. I'd go to a concert every month if I could but that's not really practical. Last weekend Brent and I went to see They Might Be Giants again. They are just so much fun. Not quite the musical genius Ben Folds is but tons of fun and lyrics that are like goofy, profound poetry. I asked Brent if he minds me dragging him to these things. His reply was, I don't want to go out when I'm at home, then I get there and have a good time, then after about an hour I'm done and tired of standing. Well at least there is room for compromise in there somewhere. He was pleasantly surprised last week because Jonathon Coulton was the opening act. I said, who is Jonathon Coulton? Oh, he played some songs on John Hodgman's book on tape, he replies. Aaaa-hah! Now it makes sense. Well, no it doesn't really because a book on tape doesn't usually have a musical guest. Anyway, he turned out to be sort of a folk singing sci-fi geek sort of performer. How can that not be entertaining?





Funny how a song can sound beautiful, disturbing and funny all at once.

Halloween 2011

The Zombie

The Mime

The Rock Star

Something Reeeeally Important To Blog About

I don't like cake pops. To put it frankly, they are disgusting and they creep me out. The thought of eating a piece of cake that has been rolled around in someone's hands into a circle and then covered in fondant is not appealing to me in the least. (Fondant is a whole 'nother disgusting ball of wax all by itself.) It reminds me of how little kids like to take the crust off a piece of Wonder bread and roll it in a ball and eat it. Yes, I did this as a kid. It's not the only questionable thing I did as a child. Then I saw some cake pops in my current issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food. They used a circular cookie cutter, then covered it with chocolate. I can get behind that cake pop. I don't judge you for enjoying a cake pop or enjoying making cake pops. That is your decision and yours alone to make.

I'm not really into the whole fancy cake/cupcake thing anyway. Cupcakes are so 2008 anyway. Pie is the new cupcake, I hear. I'm not sure what the new pie is. For me a cake isn't about being pretty or exotic or being motorized in some crazy fashion. It's about finding a way to get frosting into your body so you don't have to sit there with a tub of Betty Crocker Supreme. I watch some of those cake shows on TV occasionally . But I wouldn't eat anything they make. Take Ace of Cakes, for instance. Do you really want to eat a cake decorated by a graphic artist who thinks he or she is making an edible work of art? I have my doubts about the cleanliness of those places. Way too many power tools involved and wood and cardboard...and rice crispy treats masquerading as cake under that fondant. Not right at all.

Twenty Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago today Brent and I started dating. Ah, so young! So bright eyed and hopeful. Well, I would be if my eyes weren't closed.

Those Who Can....

....paint or draw or something like that. Those who can't get a Charley Harper art book and cut out a bunch of pictures, mod podge it onto poster board and frame it. This allowed me to finally finish this family room of ours. Well this and discovering after the kids rearranged the furniture to make a movie theater one day that I still had room to exercise at the far end of the room. This and that and some strategically placed sock monkeys placed at the far end to balance out the other wall since I couldn't put anything big on the wall over there since Brent and Noah discovered that empty space I will now use for exercising is also good for a fun game of hand ball with a red rubber ball too.

A Brief Summary of Summer

Summer was here! And now it's almost gone. It was a good summer.Thank you summer, we really needed (well wanted) a good summer. What did we do? We...

Had a week of cold and rain. Had swim lessons, with beautiful weather (not too hot, not too cold) I might add. We took lots of bike rides to the other side of town. Stopped for a few icees at the gas station along the way.

The kids ran the Run for Congo 5K run at Wheeler farm, half of it anyway. I helped out with kids activities (heel spur came back, no running for me.) Brent cheered us on. Followed it with a ride on Trax, exploring the SLC Library and visiting a park from my teen years.

We had girl's camp for Isabella (she had fun!); 11 year old scout day camp with Brent as leader; cub scout day camp, a first for Noah (and me as a parent volunteer).

Next up was a week off for Brent with some local fun. (We WILL NOT call this a staycation.) We rode the Heber Valley Railroad- got robbed by some train robbers, it was terrifying! We went to Lagoon. It ended up being the worst Lagoon trip in years. I got a small purse stolen. It didn't have anything in it but $25 but it was a cute little handy purse and I'd had it since 1990-something. I yelled at a girl running a ride. I think the purse theft was karma for my bad behavior. Then we got our stuff locked in the Lagoona Beach lockers and had to get a security guard to break our stuff free. The kids had fun though! Then the drive in of course, you have to hit the drive in once a summer.

Then there was the actual real vacation. We went to Lake Tahoe! Ah, beautiful Lake Tahoe! There was kayaking and playing in the water and on the beach, a sailboat ride, and horseback riding. The girls LOVED that. They'd never been on horses before so it was pretty great. My horse kept getting sassy and had to be separated from Zoe's horse.We stayed in a condo and did not eat at or from a restaurant once! Well, except for sundaes at the McDonald's drive up, but I don't think that counts.



Next I went on my own little adventure. I went to Seattle to visit and old, old, old, old friend. Okay, not old, because we're not old dangit (regardless of what my foot and back try to tell me). I spent three days there. It was great hanging out and seeing the sights. Did I ever tell you how much I love Seattle? Well I do. I belong in the Northwest somewhere. My friend Becky lives in a suburban forest. Huge trees everywhere. Paths that literally take you through the woods. I felt like Little Red Riding Hood. It was magical, I tell ya.


While I was off enjoying the cool weather and the water and the trees Brent took the kids camping with Grandma Cathy at a lake. I hear they had fun, not as much fun as I had, but fun still.


Then summer was almost over and it was time to get ready for school again. I signed up for a new program at a different school which I will talk about more later, I'm excited. I had to get four shots though. I wasn't sure which was worse, enduring the pain of the shots or realizing how much it must have hurt my kids to get all of those shots when they were little. Okay, my own pain was probably a little worse than my empathy for the kids. Back to school shopping with the kids went really well and I didn't even want to shoot myself in the head numerous times. A small miracle.


So there you have it. Summer 2011 in a nutshell. You were good to us summer. Thank you.

First Day of School 2011

School is back again! Summer went by so fast. My kids are growing up so fast. Isabella is in 8th grade, Zoe is in 6th and Noah is in 3rd.

Oh Yeah, That Birthday

Oh, blog. What will it take to get me to post more on you?

I'm wondering what I should do. Whenever I answer the phone people think I'm a teenager. Now they think I am my daughter. Should I start smoking? That ought to give me a nice husky voice. Like Natalie Merchant in her later albums. I don't care for those later albums. Smoking is so 1980s though.

I never even blogged about my fortieth birthday spectacular. (I finally got it in my head, just in time, that there is no "U" in forty. I still reject the spelling on a certain level, but I'm slowly accepting it.) What did I do? After telling 39 it could "suck it" and 39 saying to me, "Right back at ya, babe!" I decided I better show 40 a good time. It's been so long I've nearly forgotten. The original plan was to hike to the top of a nearby mountain. It sounded like a good plan for turning forty but then I discovered, especially in a year as wet as this one, that I would likely be hiking through waste deep snow halfway up the mountain. First, our weekend getaway plans (for Brent and me) got postponed. So on Sunday, my birthday, we just drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon and watched the rushing creek and hiked around a bit. It was a beautiful day, I remember. Brent volunteered to make me a gluten free cheesecake which was delicious. The kids made me birthday videos on the ipad! I wish they were on you tube so I could post them here. The next weekend we had our getaway to the city (it was also our anniversary weekend-16 years!- so that worked out great.) We wandered around, saw some art, saw a movie, ate a reeeaally good hamburger and just had fun being together.

But the best part of the birthday extravaganza was the Tuesday after my birthday. This wasn't planned for months or a year or more like some had planned for this. Two weeks before my birthday I thought, nothing exciting is going on the weekend of my birthday, so why not buy myself some tickets to U2, dang it! And so I did. Invited Isabella to come along with me. I can't say I'm a U2 superfan but of course I like U2. And being the music lover I am I think I know more of their songs than the average non U2 superfan. All I can say is it was one amazing concert! The best show I've ever seen, maybe even! I think I knew all but maybe two of the songs and I think I love that Bono and his humanitarian loving ways just a little bit.

So it was a great birthday extravaganza, I have to say. And it's not even done yet. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm on month 3 of Chalean Extreme (a three month workout program). Lifting heavy weights. My muscles are huge! You should see them! I kid guys, but my arms are looking decent and I've lost the beginnings of armulite. You know, cellulite on the upper arms. So, there's that too. And in July the fun continues when I go to Seattle (oh Seattle, how I've missed you!) to celebrate with a dear old friend who will also turn forty. So we will be having a great time celebrating our forty year old awesomeness together.

Isabella had a great time at the concert playing videographer:

Happy Birthday To Me!

A Brief Religious Interlude (or what I learned from Jon Huntsman)

Over in primary land I am able to feel the spirit and never hear religion mixed with politics. It is a blessing. To be honest though, my ward is pretty good about steering clear of that. From what I remember anyway. The internets are a different story however. I know, don't go seeking it out if you don't want to read that. You don't have to go there. So true, so true. But I'm a glutton for punishment, among other things, occasionally. Today I went to a blog and there was a little fundraising for Mitt going on. Dear old Mitt. The fundraising was going on so "America can get it's dignity back". Uggg. I hate that. "We have a president I don't agree with, he's not my guy, so of course our country has lost it's dignity." (Not an actual quote, just my guessing what is going on in these heads.) Why so vitriolic? I still say there is good in everyone. Why does it always have to turn so hateful? I'm being a little sensitive today, I know. Nursing an annoying, sinus bothering cold.

Anyway, That's not even what I was going to write about. Mormons are in a bit of an uproar because potential presidential candidate and former Utah governor, Jon Huntsman, is unable to clearly define his Mormonism. I really don't care about Jon Huntsman's Mormonism. I liked him as a governor. Solidly moderate he seemed. He seemed friendly on the environment. I liked that. But as far as his religion goes, a lot of Mormons aren't happy he didn't boldly bear his testimony. Or at least renounce the church. "You're either in or you're out!" they say. Now I understand people who like to comment on newspaper articles and threads and facebook statuses (stati?) on the internet are often more opinionated that the average person. So there's bound to be a lot of "You're either in or you're out!" "There is no such thing as gray! It's all black and white!" I don't believe that. I hate black and white. You should see the walls in my house, nothing black and white there. The ceilings are white though.

I don't mind that Jon Huntsman, for whatever reason, can't be completely black or white or straight with a reporter (he has time to do that anyway, why bother getting too personal on a subject that is very personal to some people before you've even thrown your hat into the ring officially). And I don't believe "you're either in or you're out". Is that what stake missionaries say? Do they go talk to the inactive family down the street, develop a report, get them interested in coming back to church and then, BAMM! "You know, Brother and Sister Jones, we really would love to see you at church (even though you haven't been in ten years). Please come this Sunday at 11. But remember, once you get there, you are either in the church, OR YOU'RE OUT! NO EXCUSES! If you ever have a question or doubt, don't bother coming back until it's gone. So we'll see ya Sunday, k?" And I don't believe the church feels this black and white about things either. They know we are all on our own path in our spirituality. If such a black and white stance was the case I would not be in the primary presidency. I was married in a church. I haven't been through the temple. My own spirituality is very personal so I don't get into it much. But if it was that black and white I don't think they would have called me to the primary presidency. This isn't about me. The whole black and white thing has long bugged me. The world is a beautiful place for all it's colors and shades of each color. I believe in God and Jesus Christ and I believe they know that too.