Trying to Figure Out Life

 Does he look ready for Chinese or what?  Our school just started a Chinese Immersion program.  Tyler will be my first and only child eligible to participate.  I am pretty sure I am going to try for it, but once in awhile I start to doubt myself.  My other boys are doing just fine, so why should I switch it up?  Or why should he do it?  Chinese is not really useful at his age, or why should he not do it?  I don't know the answers.  

If you do, I would love to hear about them. 

One time I came into the kitchen and saw this, I thought it was hilarious.  He is probably playing angry birds, I am not sure.  Most of the time he makes me happy.  But last week when he was gone, one day I got really mad when I had to fix the washer by myself and couldn't figure out the right tools.  I was thinking, "dumb husband just needs to come home."  I might have even said it under my breath.  What is the use of being married when I have to do everything myself?  But that was Satan talking to me.  I love my husband a lot and when I said my prayers that night I told my Heavenly Father how grateful I was to have him and while it was hard to have him away, I was glad there was an end in sight and that I didn't have to be a single mom forever.  And then I had a lot of compassion for single mothers.  Now he is gone again.  So far, no throw up, no broken appliances, and no pinewood derbys.  We are doing just fine.  Until yesterday when he was in London and told me how hard it was to be there without me.  He talked about riding the tube and our favorite English word "picadilly,"  then I was sad and wanted to be there with him.  If only it were realistic for us all to join him.  I can't wait to take my boys to London someday and ride the tube, see the museums, and walk around the sights.  I guess that means Kirk will have to keep working because it will cost a lot of money.  

The last thing I can't figure out is why is it so hard to lose weight?  I think Satan talks a lot to us (women) concerning this.  The world obviously puts pressure on us to look a certain way.  We don't have to listen or adhere to what the world says, but we do it to ourselves.  Or at least I do it myself.  Some people have great genes and that is just it, the rest of us can't have them and it stinks.  I am fairly happy about the way that I look.  I would love to be thinner, prettier, etc, but I am learning to be happy with what I've got.  But the diet and work out talks are all around me.  I see it affecting women around me and it bothers me.  I think the world would be a lot better place if we could love ourselves and quit comparing.  The same goes for blogging.  Does anyone else wonder how there are so many "perfect" women out there who shop at Anthropologie, are a size 0, a professional writer, and photographer.  Sometimes I get annoyed.     

Good News/Bad News

Good News-we had in-n-out for dinner.  David wanted a double double, but I told him not until he was taller than me.
Bad News-David later left his burger in the hallway in the form of throw up, so glad he didn't get a double double


Good News-the carpets are super clean, I have been meaning to shampoo them
Bad News-I really hate cleaning up throw up and I didn't want to clean carpets in the middle of the night


Good News-I had a great Valentines Day despite Kirk being gone.  I went on a date with my kids.  We went and saw Gnomeo and Juliet and had heart shaped pizza for dinner, it really was a lot of fun
Bad News-I really missed Kirk tonight when I had to do all the clean up myself


Good News-I am not going to the gym tomorrow and can't wait to sleep in.
Bad News-It is 1:13 am.  So much for catching up on my sleep

Wordy Weekend

First of all, it is Valentines Day and my husband is working out of town.  That is a bummer, but it seems to happen to us a lot.  The first Valentines Day we celebrated together was back in high school.  My best friend Kim and I made dinner for Kirk and his friend.  We had heart shaped pasta and red jello cut with heart shaped cookie cutters.  I don't remember the rest, but I am sure we had dessert and something else.  We ate in my camping trailer, it was fun. They boys teased us forever about the "Utah" shaped jello.  The hearts didn't turn out so well.  Then Kirk went on a mission, then I decided to go on a mission and it had been a long time since we had been together for Valentines Day.  So one night before my mission he surprised me.  He made me dinner, well actually I am sure it was his mom, and we ate it in his trailer.  It was fun night.  Even though that wasn't really Valentines Day, I still remember it as being Valentines Day.  The next one we spent together was after we were married for just a couple of months.  I don't remember it.  I don't really remember any of the others either, I guess that is kind of sad.  But we grew up and moved to the city where going out is like the last thing you would want to do on the 14th and we don't a camping trailer, and I guess we aren't that creative anymore or more likely we are too tired to be creative.  I will remember this year though.  I didn't get anything for Kirk.  I knew he would be gone and I figured, oh well.  We planned to go out for a yummy dinner Saturday night, but guess what, apparently that is when the rest of the world was trying to celebrate and we ended up at Cafe Rio, which made us both happy anyways.  But just before we left, Kirk surprised me with a gift.

He had gone and bought this perfume for me.  Not only was I really excited because I love it, but I couldn't believe he remembered and then picked out the exact scent that I liked as well.  You see Jo Malone has a lot of scents.  When we were in London back in November I found her scents and was mesmerized and Kirk wasn't even with me.  They were all so yummy.  I picked out a few favorites.  More recently Kaitlin and I were at the Mac counter in Nordstrom and found ourselves sampling the yummy scents again and picking up a few samples, which is my favorite thing to do at department store perfume counters.  They are great for traveling and to try things out before you buy.  Anyway, I had found a new favorite and it was the Nectarine Blossom and Honey scent.  I didn't even mention this outing to Kirk.  When he gave me the gift, I figured Kaitlin must had told him about it, but she did not, he did it all on his own and picked out the exact same one that I would have.  Yes, he is a wonderful husband and I am so lucky and very undeserving this year.  I especially felt this as I had to listen to my family (siblings and mom) recount all my old boyfriends and dating experiences for the millionth time this weekend.  Did anybody else in my family ever date?  Can we please talk about them?  I should have planned better and got him something.  Any good ideas?

Sunday we had a great lesson in Relief Society about sacrifice.  The question was asked, "What sacrifices do you make?"  I had a hard time thinking of one.  In reality I guess I make a lot of sacrifices, but so many of them are simply habits, that they don't really feel like a sacrifice.  As I thought about this throughout the lesson, I realized I need to be better and saw there was a lot of room for improvement in my life.  Good grief I have been blessed with a lot, my life seems a little too easy at times.  And I think it is a huge problem.  I worry that in our world of instant gratification we will continue to see a lack of sacrifice.  Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven-I need to think of that more often.  

To top off the weekend, the grammys were on tv last night.  I love listening to music.  It cements memories for me and is the background for good times.  But the people who make that music are nut jobs.  I watched about 1 minute of eminem and rhianna sing a song that I listened to last summer.  They introduced eminem as having already won 2 awards, really?  Surely it couldn't be for his music.  The song was unrecognizable, probably a new fancy version, and then most of eminem's lyrics were silent because they were not appropriate.  And we won 2 awards, for reals?  I had to change the channel, it was too much.  So we channel surfed for awhile and then tuned back in near the end.  It was eminem accepting another award.  I couldn't believe it.  Who decides that stuff anyways?     

Curtains? Just Maybe

Last year I repainted the part of my house where I spend all of my time, the kitchen and family room.  I went from warm and intense colors to cool and light colors.  It was a big change and it has inspired me to get some help with decorating.  

This is my kitchen color, it is much more blue in real life.

This is the color in my family room.  The rooms are connected.

So for the first time since we have lived here, I am looking to get some curtains.  I am excited and think it will brighten and warm up my spaces.  Today I am leaning towards the green...it might be different tomorrow.

My Little Boys

My boys are big and tough and smelly and know everything there is to know about sports, but really they are just little boys in bodies that are starting to grow.  And I am so glad they are still little inside.  I love to see the twins (especially) get out their legos and play on the floor.  I know these days are limited, but I don't want to forget them.  I don't want them to grow up too fast!

While they were off track, there were lots of sleep overs too:)

Route 66

Maybe it's because my husband has been talking about it for over a year, maybe it's because we have been listening to the Beatles this week on the way to school, maybe it's because my kids are older, but I have got the itch to take my kids skiing, I've got it real bad.  When I was a teenager, I got skis for Christmas and even had a season pass.  We went to Elk Meadows to ski.  Most of the trails, maybe all of them, had the same names as the Beatle's songs.  There was one hill called Route 66 that I used to love to ski down.  It was a big steep hill that was groomed, I was never any good at moguls.  When you were at the top, you couldn't see the bottom.  It always scared me a little, but I always loved it.  And it always felt good to be at the bottom and look up at what I came down.  Then we would zoom down the trail to the lift again.  I used to love to ski and I went enough that I could ski most anything.  I am afraid it would be very different today.  I haven't been skiing since I had kids, that was over 10 years ago.  And I am sure I would not be so brave as I used to be, but I still want to go.  My twins are almost 10 years old and have never been.  It seems like the people who ski around here start a lot earlier than that.  And now I have 4 kids and I am thinking it might be nearly impossible to take them all at once.  I found a great little deal at Park City Mountain for first timers.  Now we just need to get basketball over with and set a date!  Any advice for taking kids skiing?

What I Know and Don't Know

Lately I have been feeling a little out of it.  I realized I know more about the Bachelor than I do about what is going on in Egypt.  That is probably NOT a good thing.  At the same time I don't really know how to fix it.  The Bachelor is way more entertaining than the nightly news, plus my husband hates the news and claims it makes you depressed.  So it is never on at home.  I get a little local news a couple times a week at the gym, but that is about it.  Most of the time I don't know what is going on locally either.  I really don't want to have to sit down and watch the nightly news, it seems like everyone has a different twist on it anyways.  If I DVR the news, I am sure I won't get back to it.  I catch little things here and there on msnbc.com, but that is it.  So I am wondering, how do you stay informed?  I have been thinking about subscribing to Newsweek or Time magazine.  I really don't want the paper in my driveway or online everyday, because honestly, I won't get to something everyday, but I might get to a magazine once in awhile.  So help me please, I have become an uniformed stay at home mom who is beginning to feel very uneducated.  Except earlier today when I visited with my neighbor, she spoke in portuguese and I understood her just fine.  It was awesome.