A Birthday Recap and After

  No matter how old you get, you have to have a shot of yourself on your birthday with your candles all aglow, right?  Even if they are haphazardly stuck into a pecan pie.  When we took Will into the doctor the other day, he measured in at 6 feet 2 inches, and I have a feeling he may still have an inch or two to go. So, at the age of sixteen, Will has officially claimed the title of my littlest boy AND my biggest boy.  It's a good thing his brothers aren't the jealous types.

Looking at him in that picture, I can tell he doesn't feel good.  I think we may need to have a birthday do-over.  He is supposed to be ordained a priest in church tomorrow, if he is feeling up to it, He is feeling better, but coughing more.  We might have to postpone everything one more week.

 And this is what I did today, complete this time with before and after shots:

B.G. -(before grout, just in case you couldn't tell)

 A.G. (after grout)

Being a tile setter's daughter, I am a little obsessed with this project, and a little insanely proud of myself for doing this.  So proud that I have decided to tile the OTHER end of the room as well!  We are going to do about 12 feet at the entrance of the room to give us space to put up a table and have dinners down there and do art projects and other messy stuff.   That is a project for next weekend perhaps.  I am also a little more appreciative and proud  of all the work my dad did over the years to support his family.  Doing a little one time tile job in your basement is fun.  He did tile every day,  for probably close to 50 years, which was not as much fun.  I wish I knew how many square feet of tile he has installed in his lifetime. Miles and miles and miles I am sure.  Enough to give us all a great life.  Thanks Dad, for all that hard work all those years!

Please, Only One Crisis at a Time

Poor Will was sick on his sixteenth birthday,  AND he had to go to school.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner that night, and he got pecan pie and Boston Cream pie, but he didn't feel up to much celebrating.   I took some pictures, I'll have to dig them up later.  And the worst part is,  he has been sick ever since.

So sick that he finally got me out of work early today.  He went to school today-it's end of the term, and he felt like he couldn't miss any  more days- and just got sicker and sicker as the day went on.  He spent the last half of the day in the sick room.  I wish he would have called me earlier.  I had no idea he was so bad off.  Mom guilt-ouch-, but as soon as I got the word,  I headed out of work and got him to the instacare.  Diagnosis:FLU.  One of the two kids in our family to get a flu shot, and he STILL gets the flu. What's up with that?

Any how,  we got back from the doctor about 6:30.  I was getting potentially life-changing text messages coming in.  The kitchen smelled like a campfire, which I found out later was from Duncan using the microwave as a timer, only on cook instead of time. Will felt awful and only wanted to go to bed, but he was worried about all the school  assignments he was now not going to be able to make up tomorrow, and how bad his grades were.  Dinner was nowhere in sight. So I simultaneously hopped on line to look at his grades and email his teachers to beg for mercy while starting some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.    Just then, Olivia appeared in the kitchen to tell me the toilet was clogged. The sandwiches were burning,  there  was a ton of laundry calling my name, Olivia needed help with her homework, AND she still had reading to do, and I had to make a run to the store for some things for Will.  Duncan has been playing non-stop video games nearly all day every day because there is no one around to tell him to stop.  Audrey just kind of cheerfully goes about doing her thing, being a goofball, and helping out where she can, but I think she is getting ignored too.  I left a pile of things at work that I will have to find time to do tomorrow,  and the house is sinking under the lack of attention we pay to it these days.

Am I sinking or swimming here?  Most days, it's hard to tell.

A Sledding Party, A Birthday and a Will's Eye View of Home Improvement

The end of December Brian and his girlfriend Quyen came to visit for a few days.  Brian's goals for his trip were three:  eat at In-N-Out Burger, which they don't have in Chicago, eat the best pizza in Salt Lake, and go sledding.

We accomplished all three.

In-n-Out was easy.  We stopped there on the way home from getting them from the airport.

For the pizza, we went to The Pie.  It's debatable if The Pie is the best pizza in Salt Lake, but it's the most famous.  And it was pretty tasty too.  Of course it doesn't compare to Chicago Pizza, but, hey we aren't imitators.  We have our own style of pizza out here in the wild wild west.

For his last wish, we headed up one Sunday afternoon to Big Cottonwood canyon for what turned out to be  a small series of unfortunate events, with a few sled runs in between.

First off, the hills were treacherous, not from being too steep, but from some dumbhead digging big jumps all over the place.  Not fun little bumps, but more like huge caverns that you had to be going pretty fast to even get out of, and then it would send you flying and crashing the rest of the way down.

This picture was taken right before Audrey sacrificed herself for her little sister.  They slid right into some trees and Audrey turned the sled and bailed off and crashed and saved Olivia from sure hysteria.  Her second run down, Audrey hit the bumps, went flying, and cracked her tailbone.  So she was out after that.

And then, we had epic equipement failures.  The only sleds we had were the blow up kind, and we popped all four of them  So that pretty much put a dent in the fun.

Which was probably okay, because we had started out pretty late, and it was freezing cold, and starting to get dark.  And we got some GREAT pictures, so it was all worth it in the end.

I love how you can see Quyen peeking over Brian's shoulder.  It was her first experience sledding and she was a great sport.  We love Quyen.  Sweetest girl ever.

And then, on January 9, Duncan turned the big 19.  And here is what I love about Duncan:  The morning of his birthday, he was up at six a.m. with the rest of us,  and as excited to open his birthday breakfast presents as he was when he was nine years old.  And he made sure to get up early so that everybody could be there to get in on breakfast on his special day. 

Later on, we went to In-n-Out (again) and met up with Mitch for dinner.  Then it was home for cake and ice cream and more presents.  He said he got everything he wanted this year.

I really love all these kids.

And then, today, my folks came over for more birthday stuff, and to help us put some tile in the family room downstairs.  Yes, you read that right- work on the family room has resumed once again, after a year long hiatus and many many delays.   Will had the camera while we were working, and this is what he documented:

The Before Shot.

What Duncan did:

What Olivia did:

A compelling shot of a bucked of water.

The pros, down on our hands and knees:

Another professional:

What Hokey did:

Just look at that form:

And the true professional, who saved the day once again:

And the finished project:




Oh. Well, apparently Will lost interest before we were finished.  And I still have to grout it, so really, it isn't finished yet.  But it's still exciting!!!  Home improvement brings me great joy.

Sugar Less

So Alisa and I are doing a sugar shut out.  We have pledged to eat no treats until Easter. That is three and a half months of no Milky Way Midnights, no brownies, no French pastries, no ice cream. No birthday cake for me this week, when Duncan and Will celebrate.  No free macaroons for Alisa.  Not even Nutella.  Instead we are just going to eat oranges and revel in our sainthood.

Last year, we gave up chocolate for Lent.  That seemed really, really hard.  So far this year, the no treats thing is working pretty well.  It seems easier to give up everything sweet than to just say no to chocolate.  Fewer cravings I think.   Also, I have learned I don't do well with moderation.  I am an all or nothing kind of girl.  If I can't eat the entire package of Oreos, then it's easier for me to have none.  I can't let something sit in my pantry.  Knowing something is in there drives me crazy and I pick at it all day until it's gone and then my family comes home and complains about not getting their fair share. UNLESS  I have made a solemn vow with my daughter to not eat any of it, and then I eat none.  I even totally skipped the brownies Audrey made on Sunday, and guess what?  The entire pan was STILL gone by the end of the night.  Can't blame me for that one.  I don't think this has helped me cut down on calories at all though.  It seems like I just make up for them by eating more crackers and cheese, white bread, and chips and salsa. So my  next step might have to be eliminating white flour.  Who knows, maybe I'll be total paleo by the end of the year.  Yeah, right.

By default, the kids are eating less sugar too, but I'm not sure they have realized it yet. Maybe they are still subsisting on the stash they got for Christmas. At any rate, if you come to my house, please don't bring me a treat.  Well, you could bring ice cream maybe.  I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. Unless it has almonds and chocolate in it. Bring gummy bears instead.  Or skittles.  I hate gummy bears and skittles.

Welcome to This Year

So far, 2014 is shaping up great!! We had a quiet little New Years  Eve last night at Home with Em and Norrie.  Then we slept all morning and laid around watching Netflix until we suddenly remembered we had to pick up Audrey in Heber.  So we  grabbed some lunch at In-n-Out, and headed up over the summit.  Came back with our girl in tow, got ALL of Christmas packed away, and had pizza for dinner (thanks again Em).

And now, the holidays are really over.  All of the people who don't live here have gone home and all of the people who do live here are back home.   It is off to school and work tomorrow for all of us.  We even got the outside Christmas lights down.

Some people say they wish it could be Christmas every day.  I wish it could be New Year's Day every day.  Christmas is still fresh in your brain. Your Christmas toys are still new. Life feels slow and relaxed after the mad dash to Christmas.  You have a whole fresh year ahead of you that you haven't messed up yet.  And on New Years, nobody expects you to do much of anything.  No dinners to cook, no decorating, no presents.  I think New Years is my new favorite holiday.