Tribal Name

I had this funny thought occur to me last night. What would be your tribal name? I could think of several for our family. Here are some:

Family Tribal Names
1. The Holy-Monkeys
2. The Heathens

Zen
1. Kills-With-Farts
2. Works-Like-a-Dog
3. Addicted-to-WOW (World of Warcraft, you newbie)

Becky
1. Cleans-Butts
2. Hoarder-of-Craft-Supplies
3. Chief-Cook-and-Bottle-Washer

Gil
1. Kills-With-Farts-II
2. Purveyor-of-Insults
3. Computer-is-Crack

Dani
1. Queen-of-Distractedness
2. Embarrassed-by-Parents
3. Chief-Slob

Connor
1. Lives-on-Strawberry-Milk
2. Loves-Red-Blankie
3. Has-No-Fear

Emma
1. Foofie-Loo-Hoo/Sassy-Loo-Hoo
2. Bunny
3. Nee-Nee
4. Deet-Deet
5. Baby-Alligator

I ran across this funny website, Rum And Monkey, it has all kinds of funny widgets/surveys you can add to your stuff. A lot of it's pretty irreverant, and some of it's downright raunchy, but I know you want to look anyway:

For instance, I put Becky Allred in this elf name generator, and out came: Flecktop Horsebeard.
What's yours?
Powered by Rum and Monkey.

Help me think of some more funny ones for us, or offer up some for your family!

Time Log - Ice Show Rehearsal Day

I think I may split these blog posts into pieces (that's ONE way of meeting my 365 posts for the year, in fact, it's probably cheating.) I just feel like they're mostly for me, and they are probably boring. Plus, I want to split my posts thematically, anyway. But, still be on the lookout for pictures. Because I'm sure there will still be days when it makes more sense to blog pics and details of my day together.

Time Log -

8 am - rolled out of bed, helped kids, exercised, made french toast breakfast for everyone
12 pm or so - showered, dressed, dropped books off at library, picked up Gil, ran to Wal-Mart, back home, spent the afternoon organizing some things in my craftroom, got eBay package ready, fixed Mackay's binky clip, ran to the post office with two minutes to spare (whew!), back in the craftroom
5:50 pm - Mom, it was flashback-time as I drove Gil out to Green River, about 15 min away, so he could go to a play at the high school there. It made me appreciate all the times you chauffered me around in high school as I was involved with theater there. In fact, the memories of your service are what tipped the scales in motivating me to drive Gil out there when I really didn't want to. I was kind of griping the whole way, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't do it.

Then, I drove back to Rock Springs to go to the ice show dress rehearsal with Dani. I actually hired a sitter for the first time in years, I think. It was Becca Allred, one of the teenage daughters of the other Allreds in our ward. Then, when I got home, I watched tv on my laptop, and now I'm posting and going to bed.

Food Log - 2 french toast for breakfast, orange juice, a mini pizza at the ice rink, an apple cider at the ice rink, one bowl of mac n cheese at home after the ice rink, then two bowls of ice cream.

Way too much daydreaming all day

End Post #54, 2009

Runnin' Around

Okay, I'm getting fed up with the it-takes-me-an-hour-to-remember-what-I-did-today-minute-by-minute posts, so I'll just provide a paragraph summary, then see if I can move on to something more meaningful, or at least more interesting. Nobody needs to know I did my lifetime-2013th load of laundry. Whatever.

Mostly had a Soccer-Mom-Run-Everyone-Around type of day. Got up around 7:30-7:50, hung out with Foofie, snoozed on the couch, then by 9:30, I was up. I cleaned the house, 'cause it was trashed, did laundry, put Foofie down for a nap by 11:30 or so. Played cars with Connor, then I exercised. Naughty-Foo only napped about an hour, and by one, I was running out of time to get ready for Dani's doctor appt. I wanted to have cookies for the kids when they got home from school, so I quickly made a batch of oatmeal cookies, showered, and dressed. I picked Dani up from school, and of course, we were late. If Dani's the Queen of Distractedness, I'm the Queen of Lateness. Just constantly trying to fit too much into too little time. Anyway, Dani does indeed have an ear infection, so we tripped on over to Wal-Mart, picked up medicine and groceries and headed home. I ran Gil up to the College, where he has started taking voice and acting lessons. He's seriously into the whole drama thing, and is even thinking about taking on a part-time job to pay for it, since money is tight once again at our house. Then, I came back, goofed a little, then we all headed back out to Dani's Parent/Teacher Conference. She has much-improved since last quarter. She's very smart, but lacking in follow-through. Her teacher and I made a bigger effort to get her to remember to do her homework, and her grades really came up this quarter. She stayed to help out with the Book Fair. Then, when the little kids and I got back to the house, we had a nice surprise. Zen was home! He got to come back from the field for one night. Yeay! Later, he rounded up the older kids (whew!). I took a nap between 6:30 and 7:10. Then, I helped Dani with her iceshow costume. The show theme is Things That Fly, and her group are eagles. I'm just glad the costume is done. And my group is just wearing all black (Yes! less sewing to do this year!). Then, I just goofed off the rest of the night. And after getting Emma and Connor ready for bed, I pretty much hung up my hat.

Okay, that was not a very short paragraph. Oh, well. I'm just going to bed, and see what tomorrow brings.

Grace

It's 1 am, and I feel like writing another post, for some reason. Something I keep meaning to get to, but never do, so I'll do it now before it slips through the cracks.

For some reason, mostly just the passing of time and the experience it brings, I appreciate the perfection and grace of babies more than I ever have before. I find myself in spots throughout the day, just looking at Emma, and I'm in awe, like I can't store enough of her away in my memories, tiny fragile little bubbles, that come into being, only to float away and pop out of existence. I love how she moves, the sweetness of it, as if the world sings with every breath that she takes. I love the way she smells, the whole perfume of it, her laundry soap, baby powder, sour milk, her skin, everything that makes her unique. It's bittersweet because I know it won't last. We have to leave our infant perfection behind and determinedly march forward in order to reach for the more meaningful perfection of fire-hewn exaltation.

But I pause now, to breath in a few more tiny moments of grace:

Emma's top teeth popped all at once, the two on the side coming in even before the two in the front.
Emma's 9-month-old pics, 17 Mar 09



I love watching her feet, tiny, sweet, graceful and beautiful.

Is It That Time of the Month Already?

Yesterday was a hint of things to come, maybe. Because today was so completely useless that I'm not even bothering with the usual time log. The only thing that saves it from being a complete waste was the fact that I got up, exercised, and showered. I've had plenty of days where I didn't even do that. And hey, I went to my Scout Meeting tonight, also not a waste. But the rest sucked. I made sure the kids were fed, but that's about it. I totally blew off the day, goofin' off. The house wasn't clean to begin with, but now it's totally trashed. Emma was in bed by 8pm, but I finally told Gil to go to bed at 9:30pm, Dani had already fallen asleep on the couch with an earache, might be at the doctor's office tomorrow. Anyway, I was useless, and Gil came downstairs at 10:30pm, complaining that Connor was still awake (I'd told Gil earlier to leave him alone and let him finish his movie), the house was messy, and it all really bugged him, and would I please fix it? One of my nicknames for him is Anal Child, a term of affection if ever I've heard one.

Oh, and the Food Log, you can just forget that, because once I started eating after I exercised, I pretty much didn't stop. I just had to be shoving something in my mouth practically all day. I couldn't even remember half of what I ate, if I wanted to. Which got me thinking, either I'm pregnant (perish the thought), or it's that time of the month. I usually have a day or two of ravenous appetite preceding Mother Nature's visit. So, I guess we'll see what happens in the next few days. TMI?

Just a Kitchen Slave Today

Time Log -
7:00 am - woke up, wanted to go back to sleep, just lay in bed, and finally got up. Talked to Zen, then helped Emma, and got Dani off to school, watched a little Twilight with Zen. Puttered around the house, doing this and that.
9:40 am - exercised, Gazelle 31+ min. resistance #2, 1.20 miles, 145.1 cal. I got a new monitor for my Gazelle, when the old one broke, and the new one gives me more calories burned, which is nice, but it still doesn't factor in the resistance level, so I always feel like I did more calories than it said.
10:15 am - Upstairs, helped Emma & Connor, did various things. Ate breakfast. Zen and I went over our budget. We lost about $2000 of income when I had to quit daycare, so we've been going in the hole every month. That's why I've GOT to get this eBay store running like I need it to. I also did research on banana cookies before I went shopping.
12:30 pm - went shopping to get ingredients for this new potato goulash stew Gil wanted me to make. Then, I spent the rest of the day standing in the kitchen cooking banana cookies, cutting up a seven-pound pork loin roast to make the goulash, and to have extra meat to freeze for later meals. Also made rolls. Sometime in the afternoon I did some brief things in my craftroom.
5:45 pm - done prepping all the food. Came downstairs to my craftroom to work on some things while dinner finished cooking
6:45 pm - served dinner, came back to my craftroom & watched Supernatural
8:15 pm - went upstairs to grab my coat for ice show practice, and Dani showed me this pic she just took:

Kids sleep in the funniest positions sometimes.

Went to ice show practice, then came home, read scriptures with the fam, put Emma to bed (she woke up while I was gone), and got everyone else in bed.
10 pm - finish blog post, watch Supernatural & go to bed

Food Log -
10:50 am - Malt O'Meal cooked with frozen strawberries
12:00 pm - 1 mini Baby Bell cheese, about 1/5 to 1/4 bag of tortilla chips
3 pm - about 6 cookies, then I snitched pieces of fried pork trimmings while I made the stew, 1 light vanilla yogurt
5:45 pm - one bowl of peppermint ice cream, a few more cookies
7 pm - two bowls of stew, 2 rolls, a few more cookies
10 pm - more cookies, a glass of milk

Hungry Hungry Hippos

A new background for your viewing pleasure!

Katy, have I always been misspelling your name, or did I just have a brain cramp yesterday? I'm glad you got some scrapbooking done. Jenn, don't worry about Coal. He's a good dog, and gassiness is all part of the fun package. Ask Sue. It's just an excuse to tell our favorite kind of jokes.

Time Log -
8:15 am - wake up, get dressed to exercise, talk to Emma & Zen
8:50 am - exercise 20 min on Gazelle, reistance #2, I was running late, or I would have done more, showered & dressed
9:45 pm - arrived at podiatrist dr. appt for my foot, he gave me a steroid shot in my right heel, it feels so much better, but that's mostly the numbness for now.
10:30 pm - back home, fed Emma, then I ate breakfast, balanced my checkbook, did the bills, went through a big stack of mail, sorting things for the shredder, filed papers. Zen also had a dr appt. this morning, just general health stuff, and he volunteerd to take Connor. But he had to bribe him to get him out the door. He told Connor he would take him to Wal-Mart, and buy him Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Connor saw it on a commercial, and told us he wanted it. Now, I generally don't buy my kids candy or toys at the store, EVER, except for birthdays and Christmas, because I'm not plunking down a gazillion dollars everytime we go shopping. There has to be a clear pattern of non-spoiling, or the whining at the store increased exponentially. As if shopping with kids wasn't hard enough! So, Daddy was a pushover today, and bought Connor a toy. They had fun setting it up together:


If he wasn't feeding the hippos, he was trapping his blue Lightning McQueen. Once in a while, he would tell the hippos, "Don't eat Lightning, eat the food." Never mind that Lightning was Hippo lunch by his own decree.

1:20 pm - down on my computer, checking email, started my blog post for the day to get a head start
2:05 pm - after valiantly trying to stay awake, my eyes just kept drooping shut, and I gave up and took a nap. Zen is home until Thursday, so I have the luxury of doing that.
3:20 pm - kids came home from school, so I kicked myself out of bed and started prepping my eBay orders to ship
4:55 pm - ran to the post office
5:05 pm - came back, and started cooking dinner. Played Hungry, Hungry Hippos with Connor for the tenth time, at least. Zen told me the hippos tend to break easily. I have a feeling this game will break sooner rather than later, and may not entirely be Connor's fault. That's all I will say about that.
6:00 pm - doing my follow-up emailing for eBay orders, then started a Supernatural episode.
7:00 pm - eat dinner, then I drove Dani to ice show practice. Came back, and watched some more of Supernatural. Then I gave Emma a bath, and put her to bed.
8:25 pm - left to pick up Dani
8:45 pm - back home, and we read scriptures. Now I'm sitting at my computer bringing my post up to date.
9:25 pm - stop and read Connor a story.
9:40 pm - work on a new blog background, because it's fun.
12:25 am - done dinking around, I'll go to bed after I finish my Supernatural episode, about 10 min. At least I improved on my blog-post finish, which was done by about 10:20, for all intents and purposes.

Food Log -

10:40 am - bowl of Malt O' Meal cooked with frozen Strawberries, 1 stick of a Kit Kat bar, two bites of Hershey's Cookie white choc bar, 1/3 of cheese baby puffs (like rice puffs, almost no calories)
1 pm - about 12 cracked wheat crackers, about 1 cup pineapple lowfat cottage cheese, two scoops peppermint ice cream
5:50 pm - ate two plain lasagne noodles w/a big spoonful of filling on each
7:00 pm - one serving of lasagne, one piece garlic bread, one serving salad w/ranch dressing, one 12 oz. glass choc milk

End Post #49, 2009