Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone

May your day be bright,
May toys last at least an hour before they break
May your garbage can be large enough to hold all the wrapping paper and boxes

But most of all

May the spirit of our Lord, Jesus Christ, bless your home and radiate this day!

Ten reasons why going to the mall (alone) the Saturday before Christmas is more relaxing than being a stay-at-home mom

10) Even if you have to park in the furthest parking spot, it’s so easy to walk through the parking lot when you don’t have to push a stroller, hold a child’s hand or herd your family towards the entrance.

9) You can eat food that you a) don’t have to cook and b) don’t have to clean up.

8) Standing in long lines gives you an opportunity to take a few deep breaths, think about whatever you want to think about without having someone fight or tell you that they want everything around you.

7) If you want to sit, you can sit… for however long you want, and when you want to go you can go without trying to find children that have run off.

6) You can walk past Build-A-Bear without pausing, nonetheless needing to make up excuses as to why you’re not going in there.

5) You can go to the bathroom, by yourself and take as long or as short as you want, and no child with an extremely loud voice will be there to make commentary on your performance.

4) You can go into a clothing store and look at the clothes, without worrying what shirts are being pulled off the hanger while you’re not paying attention.

3) You can easily weave in and out of small crowds of people, because you’re not pushing a clunky stroller.

2) You can look around at everything around you and not worry about having to clean anything.

1) If you see someone you know you can stop and have a real conversation, (well as real as you can in the mall) without someone tugging on your hand and announcing that you are talking too long.

This post stems from my Saturday experience. I needed to go to the mall for one quick errand, so my husband graciously came home from work earlier to watch the kids so I wouldn’t have to haul them there. Upon returning he asked me if it was crazy, and I realized, I was more relaxed then I had been for the past several days. Either my life is too stressful or I must really love last minute shopping madness.

Christmas Cheer

So I just had to write about how impressed I have been with people’s kindness as I’ve been out shopping. It is a crazy time. The stores are packed, the parking lots are worse, and it is beyond difficult to go shopping with kids. Well the other day I was at Costco, trying to load up my car with both groceries and kids and just as I was putting my last item in my car an elderly lady came up to me. She was taking her empty cart to the cart return and kindly asked if she could return mine as well, since I had my hands full.

I thought, I should be helping her, not the other way around. But very gratefully I accepted her help, just in time to watch Sarah run behind a car that was about to back up. I was terrified, but to my relief the car didn’t back up. The driver had been watching me and was waiting until all my kids were safely in the car to pull away. I thanked him and he explained that usually he was in my position and that he didn’t mind waiting, and then he wished me a Merry Christmas.

I was so impressed and surprised. I guess I shouldn’t be, it is the holiday season, but I think sometimes it’s so easy for us to get into such a rush, moving from store to store, that we forget about these small acts of kindness. Both of these strangers were so kind to me, giving me a little extra help, and setting an example to me that it’s not nearly as important to rush around getting everything “done” as it is to sit back and truly enjoy the spirit of the season. I hope I can be more kind and service orientated at this wonderful Christmas season.

I really don't mean to spoil my kids... I don't, I don't, I don't!

Am I the only one out there who feels the pressure of giving all my kids an “equal” Christmas. And what I mean by that is that at Christmas, this crazy, shopping snow-ball effect can happen unless I’m really careful. I’m always good at the beginning. I make up a list of what I’m getting for the kids and a set budget. But then, as I’m out and about I see something that I just “have” to get for one of the kids. Or one of the kids just has to “have” something. Now, I don’t get my kids everything they ask for, (good heavens I would buy all of Wal-Mart for Sarah if I did) I think I’m reasonable. But I admit that there are a few occasions that I will buy them that extra gift.

That’s when the trouble begins.

Suddenly I feel like—well I bought Sarah this, I really should buy Janae something.

But the something for Janae is so much, that then I feel I need to spend the same amount on Sarah, but to spend that same amount I end up buying Sarah three extra gifts and then I’m feeling that poor Janae won’t have nearly as much to open on Christmas morning as Sarah will because Janae doesn’t understand that her gifts cost more, so I really should get her that necklace, but Sarah will want that necklace too, so I’ll buy it for both of them and then get Janae another something else….

You see!! It’s a huge snowball effect. I’m trying to dramatize it a bit, but as crazy as it sounds it really does happen to me. It’s almost as if my sense of budget goes completely out the window at the holidays, and the million commercials on TV and the way all the presents are displayed at Wal-Mart and the mall doesn’t help!

So then I get home, realize what I’ve done, that my budget has tripled, that my kids have way toooo many gifts and I start going through them to try to figure out what I can give to them for their birthday, or take back and then I discover a whole new set of gifts that I had bought two months earlier that I had forgotten about… and everything starts all over again.

I might be alone in this mental balancing act. I hope not, but anyone else suffering from the same holiday mental craziness, these are some things I have found that help a little.

1)Set a budget and stick to it. (Oh, I can set a budget. No problem. It’s the sticking to it that gets me every time.)

2)Before I buy a gift I ask myself, will they love this, or in one week after Christmas—after that excited look on their face fades away—will it be wonderful or will it be junk. It’s amazing how much stuff is really just “junk” disguised as a cool gift.

3)Um, ok, so two is all I’ve got. Maybe that’s why I still struggle with it. Any other ideas on how to control over shopping for kids would be greatly appreciated.

Tonight I’ll be sorting the “junk” from the gifts, trying to integrate what I’ve spent into money, and stressing over how much wrapping I still have to do. Hey that’s number three! Before I buy a gift I need to ask myself.. is it worth having to wrap another gift?

Now I need to balance the whole spouse gift giving thoughts. You know. The, well if I spent this much on my husband for Christmas, and he won’t spend that much on me, it’s ok for me to buy this for me for Christmas. Right?

The little tooth that could

60 mph
14 hours in the car
7 different potty breaks
3 screaming kids
All for a five hour root canal

That pretty much sums up my weekend.

Two months ago, at a routine dental check up my dentist notice something “strange” with one of my teeth. He told me he thought it was a bad cavity, possibly a root canal.

No problem.

I’ve had a root canal before and more cavities then I can count. (I have horrible teeth)

So he opens the tooth up. Yup, it needs a root canal. But something was wrong. It wouldn’t stop bleeding. Several times he explained it was the worst tooth he had ever dealt with before. After an hour of working on it, he put medicine in it, put me on an antibiotic and told me to come back in a few weeks to see if he could work on it again.

After that I called my mother to see if my father had ever experienced anything like this before. Come to find out my uncle, (her brother) is an endodontist. (This happens a lot with my mother. There are things that happen in her family, like someone having a baby or getting married or being an endodontist that she never tells me about until years after the fact. My aunt once had a baby and I didn’t even know I had a cousin until she was six months old) Anyway, so I tried to call my uncle, who lives in Boise, to talk to him about it. But I couldn’t get through because his family was in Disneyworld. (Oh, the pains of being an endodontist.)

I went back to my dentist. Again he opened up the tooth, and proceeded to clean it out. Unfortunately, after two hours, he decided it was too much and that he needed to refer me to an endodontist. Good thing I had talked to my mom, because I knew which endodontist I wanted to go see.

So on Friday morning I loaded the car, prepared to haul my kids up to Boise so I could get me tooth drilled. I wasn’t thrilled about dragging three small children in my old van, but I felt this would be best because: one, even after gas and food it would be cheaper, and two, it’s always nice to have family treat you with a medical problem, rather than a stranger. Well, then my sweet father-in-law called me. After much thought and prayer he felt that I shouldn’t drive alone and offered to drive me—in his car no less.

It was so much easier having the company, having another adult and being able to be with my kids. What wasn’t the most exciting part of the trip was the speed my father –in-law drives. Oh he is a wonderful man, a very righteous man, a very safe and courteous driver. And I’m not nearly as safe. I must admit, when the speed limit is 75mph I imterpert that to mean 80 mph and sometimes I have found myself getting up to 90mph before. Not my father-in-law. Especially once it got dark. 60mph up and 60mph back. Though I did see the speedometer creep above 70 a few times, (usually when Hyrum cried) I will admit that it was a great lesson in patience. With all the potty breaks and our speed, Boise took over 7 hours. Not my best time. But we got there safe.

Saturday morning, my uncle opened up my tooth, (the third time for this poor tooth) explained that it has something called root absorption, where the gum has basically started attacking the tooth and eaten a hole through it. Then, using a microscope he spent two hours carefully cleaning out my tooth. Yes, two hours. But I did get to watch all of princess bride during that time. So all in all I’ve spent five hours in the dentist chair for this tooth, and I still get to go back to my dentist to get a crown on it. Fun stuff.

But, the tooth is saved!

Yeah!!

And so, I’m 29 years old and I’ve had 2 root canals, 6 crowns, over 30 cavities, two oral gum grafting surgeries, and braces. Hmmm, I would be so rich if my mouth would behave itself.

And then there’s my husband. He never flosses, (I floss ever night) will sometimes go a year without seeing the dentist, (I go every six months) and has only ever had one teeny tiny cavity. Maybe there is something to that fluoride in the water in California. It makes you wonder.

Oh Edward!

So is there anyone else out there as obsessive as I am that, after discovering who was being cast as Edward, grabbed their copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and watched every scene with him in it? No? That’s ok. I admit, I’m a little crazy.

But for anyone doubting Robert Pattinson as Edward, check out the goblet of fire. It helped convince me. Well, in some ways. I feel that it would be impossible to really cast the perfect Edward that will appease everyone but I do think Robert will do a good job. The moment that convinced me was at the Yule ball scene. Cedric is dancing with Cho and he looks down at her with this heart stopping—adoring look! After seeing that look, I thought, yes he can be Edward. I hope they have him use his British accent, because that is oh so nice.

Another bonus is apparently he is a fan of Mrs. Meyer and has read all three books. Any actor that reads Twilight gets a star on my list.

Wrappin' around the Christmas Tree

I have always loved wrapping Christmas presents. When I was a little girl I would always beg my mother to let me wrap all the presents, (or at least as many as I could) However, now that I am older, I find the task more and more overwhelming each year. I still enjoy it. In fact my favorite things to do at Christmas time is picking out the perfect wrapping paper with ribbon to match. But trying to find time—when the kids aren’t around, when the house is clean enough to wrap, when I’m coherent enough to know that I won’t cut myself with the scissors—becomes harder and harder each year. Seven years ago, I would have all my gifts wrapped within a week of buying them. This year, I have five gifts wrapped so far. Yup! Five whole gifts. I mean I guess that’s better than four and a heck of a lot better then zero. Still, it’s taken me two weeks to get those five presents wrapped and it’s a little scary to think I only have two weeks left to get the rest of them wrapped and looking beautiful.

There is another phenomenon that happens each year with wrapping. I always have such high ambitions to decorate each present perfectly. I will take the wrapped gift and pull out yards of expensive ribbon, carefully winding it around the presents, meticulously tying big beautiful bows and writing the name as elegantly as I can. That last for the first five gifts. (I think I’ve reached my limit with doing that) Then I notice I will just wrap the ribbon around the gift once and tie the ribbon in a knot. That will go for maybe the next ten gifts. By the end of wrapping I’m so tired and sick of the presents I just stick one of those store bought bows on, quickly jot down the name and toss it under the tree. So now you’ll know at what stage I was in during my wrapping by how highly decorated your present is. Another sad thing is all my pretty presents always end up at the bottom under the tree, and the quickly wrapped ones on top.

Every year I tell myself next year will be different—that I won’t care as much, that I’ll just stick a bow on all the presents. But it hasn’t happened yet.

Lots of Love for Shannon Hale

I just finished Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale. So this book just solidified my opinion of Shannon Hale as being one of my all time favorite writers. Why do I love her. Because her books are everything I’ve ever wanted in a fairy tale, told in novel form. And her novels are short, and easy to read. There isn’t too much to think about when you read them. There are good people and bad people and you always love the main character. Yes I love a good thick book that makes you think about what’s wrong and right, I love a novel that is intense and you have to slowly digest over a period of time. But every now and then I want a book that I can just sit back, drink it up, giggle and fall in love in just a few short hours. Shannon Hale’s books do that for me. She also writes so beautifully, and lyrical. If I could imitate any writer it would defiantly be her. She writes the way I wish I could write, and she writes story’s I wish to write. No wonder I love her. Her book, Austenland was like that as well. Fun, easy, and completely romantic. Like chocolate. If there ever was a book I could compare to chocolate, it would be one of Shannon Hale’s.

The blogging world

Now that I've entered this blogging world I am amazed at how many people around me blog. I feel like I've stepped into this new and exciting realm. It's strange, you would think that someone like me, who loves to write, who loves computers, would have blogged long before now.

Well, here I am.

Now the tricky part. Keeping up on things. Is there anyone out there that can walk me through the process of adding friends onto my blog list, or adding pictures or music.

Thanks again to everyone taking the time to check this out!

Weeding in Winter

It’s December and I had to weed my yard today. What’s up with that? Of course part of it is my fault, the fact that I have waited two months to do that last bit of yard work before winter, might have a small part to play. However, no one in Utah Valley should have to weed in December, because our yards should be three feet deep with snow.

It has been one of the warmest winter/fall seasons ever. My roses kept blooming all through November, and until this last weekend when we finally got some snow I was wondering if we would get any snow at all for Christmas. My grandfather told me that when he was younger, on the week of Thanksgiving, he and his brothers would always go ice skating on Utah lake. I remembered this as I was out doing grocery shopping the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was 70 degrees outside and I thought, “Well, we could go swimming at Utah Lake if nothing else.”

Which brings me to another thought I often think about. Global warming. Is this warm winter an effect of G.W., if it is, is there really stuff in our power that we can do? Is it really as bad as everyone says? I think the problem for me with G.W. is it just seems so big that I don’t really feel there is much I can do. Sure, I can recycle, turn lights off, drive as little as possible. And I’m a firm believer in doing what we can. But will those small things make a difference? I know it’s by small and simple things that great things come to past. I see this all the time, but it’s still hard to remember, to really feel that the small things I do can have an impact on a global scale, both negative and positive. I feel that way with elections. What I say—what I want, doesn’t really matter. And yet, even though I feel that way I don’t really believe it. It’s strange how so often our logical and our emotional sides can contradict. What we know, and what we feel can be so different. I know I can make a difference, I know I can get what I want by doing small and simple things so even though I feel insignificant, that what I am doing won’t make a difference, I know it can, and that is why I keep doing it.

Just like me weeds. They are so small, encroaching across my flowers like innocent foliage. But if I don’t do something simple, like pull them out now, they will overcome the yard. So first I will overcome them!

I have a blog

Well, I deceided to at least get a blog.

For now.

I don't intend to do much. I think. I guess we'll see what happens. If nothing else it sure beats keeping a journal. :)

Fun stuff