The Shawshank Redemption?

My parents are moving to Arizona.

Did I tell you this?

My dad is currently working his new job with the Border Patrol and my mom has been waiting for the house in Montana to sell (anyone looking for a home in Great Falls, let me know).  She'll be making the trip down with the rental truck loaded to the brim in just a week and a half. 

I'm so happy for so many reasons.

First off, Montana is a two full-day drive from here.  And it seems that something goes wrong every time we drive from Arizona to Colorado (or vice versa).  And I like driving through Utah, but I'd like to stay for more than 11 hours as we sleep, so that's always difficult when we're on a tight schedule.  Having Mom and Dad only 2 1/2 hours away will be a welcome change.

The second reason is pure selfishness.  I left some things at Mom and Dad's and I'm looking forward to getting them back.  I left my music stand.  Emma needs this.  Her school has no music stands for the band kids, so she has to carry her music stand back and forth on the days she has band.  Not cool.  When I get my stand back, she'll just keep it at school and won't have to carry hers around anymore.  Mine is old and cheap.  If it gets lost or stolen, it won't matter.

I know, you're thinking, "But Shelly, that's not selfish!  That's being a good mother to your daughter!"  I know.  I know.  I rock the "Good Mom" role (excuse me while I laugh).  But that's not the selfish part.  The selfish part comes into play with wanting my 5 lb weights back.  I left them behind and tried using my bigger 8 lb weights, but they were too big.  The more weight you lift, the bigger the guns.  My mouth is big enough to compensate for small guns. 

So in the mean time, I'm pulling some "Prison Break"/"Lockup" substitute.  I've got 2 gallon jugs that I've half-filled with water and those are my current 5 lb weights.  Oh, I'm sexy.  I've got my exercise gear, my bodybugg, my cup of water, and my jug-weights.  Man, they suck. They're awkward, they are hard to stabilize, they're beginning to leak.

Remind me to never go to prison.  I don't care for their make-shift ways.

Anniversary Adventure

Last night we took the kids to see the view from South Mountain.  South Mountain sits south of Phoenix and from the summit you can see most of the Valley of the Sun.  It's quite phenomenal.

Behind the kids is the east side of the city of Phoenix.  I didn't appreciate it when we lived here so many years ago, but there is a certain beauty to the desert.  It's different than the mountains I love, but it has its own sense of enchantment.

The progression of the sun setting over the west end of Phoenix:

We wound our way to another lookout site and found the East Valley, where we live.  From what we can tell, the line of lights on the left is US Hwy 60.  Somewhere along the horizon on the right is where we live. 

Do you see us?



I think I'm starting to get used to this place.  Brown still is not my favorite color, but it's tolerable.  I even unpacked the four big boxes of junk in our bedroom yesterday.  I think that's my mind's way of acknowledging our year mark in Arizona.  That's right.  Our Year Mark. 

One year ago today I packed up my four children, all of our possessions, and along with my dad, began the journey to bring us from Montana to Arizona. 

A year!  I'm still wrapping my head around that.

New Drama (The Good Kind)

I am a sucker for crime dramas.  I grew up watching them.  Many LDS families gather together on Monday nights and enjoy lessons about the gospel, love, or faith.  My family watched two-hour Perry Mason TV movies.

Now it's Premiere Week and new series are coming on and hoping to survive.

So what do you get when you mix



Donnie Wahlberg



and



Tom Selleck


 in a new crime drama?

I'll tell you.  It's called Blue Bloods.   And it may just be my new favorite show. 

It's already programmed into the DVR.  Oh yeah.

The Newest Annoying Fad

There's a new fad in today's kids' world.

Silly Bandz

Who the heck figured this one out? I can just see the marketing meeting....

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm a moron. Let's convince kids to whine for a
bunch of rubber bands. They can twist them around their extremities and leave
them laying around for little brothers and sisters to swallow. What's that you
say? You think that may be dangerous? Well then we'll make the band narrow
enough so they'll just digest it in, like, seven years. No biggie. Cheap to
manufacture, so the more they lose, the more they'll buy. It's genius, I tell
you! Did I mention that I'm a moron?"

I think each generation has their own "thing" that annoys their parents. My brothers collected pogs. There were some sort of Pokemon cards in our house too. My parents hated the few Garbage Pail Kids cards someone had given me. I wasn't allowed to buy them, but somehow I ended up with a modest dozen or so.

(This was the least disturbing one I could find.)

Looking back now, those things were gross. Why did I keep them? I think it's because all kids like to collect things. As disgusting as those cards were, at least they didn't snap any little 2-year-olds on the wrist. Our house is now down one Silly Bandz.

The Third 11th Birthday Bash

I had a really wonderful birthday weekend. That's pretty much what it was: a weekend of PAR-TAY.

In case you wanted to be a part of the festivities (or want to relive them), here is the recap......

Wednesday

I share my birthday with my sister Tara. So we went and had lunch together. Of course, we brought Josh, Millie, and my nephews Brett and Ashton with us. We headed over to a local Mom-and-Pop place. It was pretty good food, but the service lacked. Because the waitress's flirting wasn't enough to warrant a decent tip from us, I'm not sure if we'll go back.

It was later that day that I couldn't take some respiratory problems I was having (full story HERE) and went to the ER. After the fact, Josh and I both admitted that we were so worried that I was about to discover that I had lung cancer or something horrible like that the day before my birthday. Luckily, I just needed some oxygen and more calories. I'm much better now.

Thursday

My actual birthday. It was a pretty nice and quiet day. Josh spent the morning making me a MOUNTAIN of a cake. Seriously. It was a double batch, complete with a homemade chocolate glaze. He called it, "Death By Chocolate." It nearly was. Seriously.

He also made me some chipotle chili lime fried chicken. It was very, very good.

We ate the cake (I got sick, remember the cake's name) and had some great frozen yogurt. It was a nice night. I had already opened my present (my new running shoes) so it was a nice and simple party.

Friday

Our date day. Josh grabbed his cousin's daughter to watch the kids before they ever even got home from school. He took me to Scottsdale and surprised me with a facial. While I was being massaged and cleansed, what was Josh doing? Sitting in the lobby watching a dumb Fred kid on iCarly. That's how much he loves me.

Then we went further into Scottsdale to a restaurant called Maggiano's Little Italy. Here's something you may not know about me. I have a major weakness. It is Italian food. It's a good thing I had a big reason to eat more calories. Because I think that dinner alone took care of my ketoacidosis. And it was a pleasure to allow it to heal me. Oh, was it good food. And you'd expect a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, to be expensive, but it really didn't cost much more than Olive Garden. But sooo much better. Mmm. I'm drooling just thinking about it. Mmmm....

Afterward, we went to see if any movies were playing, but there really wasn't anything out that sounded interesting. We grabbed a Redbox movie and relieved the babysitter early.

Saturday

Tara's SIL Carina invited Tara and me out for lunch for our birthday. I thought it was really sweet that they thought to invite me as well. We had a good lunch and checked out a new pottery painting place nearby. It was fun to hang out with the two of them.

Sunday

We had a nice BBQ at Tara's house. Carina and her husband Jershon came over, as well as my daddy. We had a delicious dinner, Carina made a yummy lemon bundt cake, and we rocked out to a little Beatles' Rockband.

There's a tradition in our family that the birthday person gets blasted with the Beatle's Birthday. This year it came in the form of Tara, Cody, Jershon, and me rocking to Rockband.

If you notice, most of my birthday revolved around some sort of meal or food. Yep. The food journal started again today!

Oh, I nearly forgot to explain the "Third 11th" comment. Josh called this birthday my third 11th. My first 11th I turned 11. My second 11th, I turned 22. Now, for my third 11th, I've turned 33. Isn't he clever?

I love you, Josh. Thanks for taking so much time, money, and effort to make it a special birthday bash weekend!!

A Tribute to Moms (and Mr Moms)

I think we've all been here at least once..... a day.

Going to the Dogs

Today we went to meet a dog that one of Josh's coworkers is trying to find a new home for. Unfortunately, she's come against some hardships and won't be able to keep him soon.

He's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Scooter and we all prepared to fall in love with him and bring him home.

Everyone but Millie, that is. He was a bit bigger than we expected. He stood muzzle to forehead to Millie and was a bit rambunctious (he's only a year old). Millie couldn't handle him. He scared her. A lot. She screamed and cried, which upset him and he wanted to protect her. His barking only caused her to shake to her core.

We really had hoped to have a new member of our family. But a Chessie isn't the right breed for us.

Maybe we'll find the right one some other time.

The Joys of Getting Older

It's going to be my birthday next week.

I have a lot of reminders all around me that I'm getting older.

I'm the oldest of my brothers and sisters.

I'm older than all my siblings-in-law.

I was one of the oldest in my graduating class, both high school and college.

And I'm three weeks older than my husband. He doesn't let me forget that.

So to make myself feel better, here are some I'm NOT older than:

Betty White

Sean Connery

Methuselah

The Acropolis in Athens, Greece

So, happy almost-birthday to me.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Football season has begun. Actually, for all I know it began a month ago. I really have no idea. But today was the first game for my nephew's Pop Warner team.

I enjoy going and supporting Cody. It's important to do that. He practices in full pads in Arizona. Have I mentioned how hot it is here? Plus, he's a good kid and I love him.

As we sat there trying to watch his game I realized that my passion for football has waned a bit. I used to love going to the football games in high school.

But today it was kind of hard to enjoy the game. Maybe it was because it was 108 degrees and we had no shade. Maybe it was because there was no score board or announcer telling me what was happening so I had to pay attention. Maybe it was because I had a cranky 20-month-old that was trying to roam around on bleachers and I was just waiting for her to fall and break her head.

I'm thinking a lot of the reason why I enjoyed football in high school had very little to do with the game itself. I think it was mostly because of the beefy, muscle-y players wearing tight pants.

But despite the lack of announcers or hot players, I still hope to be able to rally and support Cody throughout his season. Even if it will be from my house with a baby in her bed sleeping during naptime.

If I stand on my front porch and yell really loud, maybe he can still hear me.

GO EAGLES!!

The Can of WD

One of the most difficult things about Josh working the night shift is letting him sleep during the day. It used to kill me to leave him alone. I was up and working or playing and wanted him with me. We'd be under the same roof and it took all my strength to leave the poor man alone.

Over the years it's gotten easier to let him sleep. But there's something that continues to pull me into our room during the day. Sometimes it's a valid excuse of needing something from the room. Sometimes it's just that I prefer to use the master bathroom than any other bathroom. Sometimes I just plain want to be in the room with him, even if he is sleeping, and I'll read or put a movie on the laptop. It's weird to miss someone even when they're literally right in front of you.

But I've learned to resist the urge to wake him up early.

The bedroom door, however, has yet to learn to resist the same urge.

So today I went grocery shopping and made sure I grabbed a can of WD 40.

I didn't think much more about it until I was at the register. Did you know you have to be over 18 to buy WD 40? What the heck is this world coming to? I sprayed that stuff on the hinges of the bedroom door and it's really gross. Do people seriously inhale this stuff? Psychos!!!

Anyway, I slapped that gross stuff on the hinges and now the door will let Josh sleep.

And I can keep stalking him.

Millie the Extra Terrestrial

The other day Emma says to me,

"Look, Mom! E.T.!!"

Where do they come up with these things??

How's School?

It's nearly midterms at the kids' school. That's what happens when you start school at the beginning of August, I guess.

So far.....

Emma is loving her class and playing clarinet. She's having fun with her friends and is doing well in class. We've just got to get that girl's multiplication tables down!!

Abby says she hates school, but I volunteered in her class the last two mornings and she has friends and is very smart. I'm not sure what her deal is, except she needs to do her thing on her terms. Always.

Matt has had a little bit of a tough time settling. He's doing pretty well in class, but he's a quiet kid that other kids like to pick on for some reason. He just takes it until he finally hits a breaking point and gets angry. He's hit this point a couple of times this year and gotten into trouble for it. My problem is not getting any communication from the teacher. It's been upsetting me, but I'm really not a confrontational person, despite my angry letters to our neighbor's tree and other such things. The neighbor's tree can't talk back. So I'm trying to get over it. I let the teacher know what's going on and now I'm hoping she keeps everything in mind. He seems to be doing a lot better this week and I'm hoping the bullying has stopped.

Millie, however, seems to be loving the time home with Mommy and Daddy. It's pretty quiet during her nap time. I can easily get used to this!