Longest day ever

It's funny how one things leads to another. First of all I've been sick for 5 days-sore throat, stuffy nose, etc.... Drew was in a parade with her gymnastics team today (Saturday). Fun. Lots of animals dressed in clothes. Weird. And the clowns, also weird. The parade route ended at Petsmart in Woodinville.

Drew wanted to go in and look at all of the rescue dogs. Harmless, or so I thought. Then I called Darren (who was taking an implant course) and asked him if he thought that George could use a sister dog. We have talked about it before many times. I guess the only way to really tell is to bring a dog home. So we found the perfect (or so it seems) dog for George. She is a smallish shephard mix dog named Holly. She came with the name and we decided to keep it since it's a cute name and we like people names for our animals. She is 9 months old and mostly trained. At least that's what her foster mom said. Am I a sucker or what? She just arrived here last week from death row for dogs in Oakland, seriously, death row. How appropriate that she's a Bay Area dog.

Then I took the girls to see Alice in Wonderland. I'm not sure if it was the Sudafed or what but that was a very trippy movie. And of course I popped off a veneer while eating an m&m. So as Darren and I were going up to the office this evening to re-cement my veneer we decided to stop at Walmart to get a dog crate. As we began to walk toward the store I felt in my pocket for my veneer and it wasn't there. We scoured the car, searched my pants pockets and looked in the parking lot. How appropriate that I so to Walmart with a peg tooth. I looked like I fit right in with all the other freaks at Walmart. I even went back up this evening with a powerful flashlight and looked again. No luck. No tooth. Luckily I'm married to my dentist. He doesn't seem all that excited to make me a new tooth and I don't blame him. Maybe I'll just stick with my new hillbilly look.

So that was my very very long day.

Good night.

Crazy Hair Day

Friday was Woodin Elementary's much anticipated crazy hair day. Drew set her alarm clock for 6:50am to make sure that we would have enough time to craft her hair into something spectacular. She was jealous of Gillian's bangs because I was able to make them stick straight up and Drew's hair was too long. I'm sure that my brother Rob would have known how to make it happen. He had some gravity defying hair in high school. She was upset that she couldn't have her hair cut just for the day and I found it ridiculous that I was reasoning with someone who is 10 and should know better. Sometimes you just can't have it all. Her hair still turned out pretty darn crazy if I do say so myself. She was sulking quite a bit before school because of her jealousy over Gillian's bangs. Speaking of bangs, I have yet to take a good picture of my bangs. I think that I like them for now. Will post a picture soon. They hide forehead wrinkles. Now, if only I could have bangs around my mouth.

29

This past Sunday I turned 41. It sounds kind of old to me and it made me think about how my grandmother (Dera) used to say on each of her birthdays that she was 29. I knew that 29 was pretty old but I knew that she wasn't 29. I get it now. Denial. I can't possibly be 41! In my mind I'm in my 20's and when I see other 40 year olds I think that they look older than me. DENIAL! I think that it's all a state of mind. I refuse to feel old, even when my body aches and tells me that I'm about 70 years old. Maybe not 70, but certainly not a spry 20 something year old.

So well, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu

We sold the Suburban yesterday to make way for the new Denali. And by new I mean a 2007 GMC Yukon Denali. We've had 7 great years with my sweet Suburban. It had 160,000 miles on it and a nice worn-in interior. My favorite part was the sock I put over the armrest to save my arm from getting scratched up by the cracked leather. We were very lucky with this vehicle, no major problems. So we decided not to push our luck as lots of little things started acting up and our mechanic said it was probably time to look for something newer. I was sad to see it go but I am enjoying the new car and all of the gadgets that go with it.

Being 10 years old is serious business

My sweet middle child Drew is very intense. She is the peacemaker of the family, and the overachiever.

Let me start by listing the kids extracurricular activities:

Gavin

-just trying to get through 8th grade.

-sometimes plays his bass guitar.

-scouts

Gillian

-gymnastics

Drew

-safety patrol

-gymnastics

-track

-math club

-orchestra

-choir

-guitar

-drama club

-activity days

Today was especially difficult for her because she started at 7am catching the bus to the junior high for orchestra. After school she did safety patrol, math club, drama club and then informed me at 6:30pm that she needed to be at the Northshore Performing Arts center for a concert for orchestra (she plays violin.) She had forgotten about it and we barely made it in time. By this evening she was frantically trying to do her homework. I told her to just go to bed and do it in the morning. She was in tears as I saw her smuggling her homework into her room under her robe. She can't bear the thought of not finishing her homework. She also has a hard time passing up an opportunity to do something new. I wish I could spread some of her determination to Gavin. I think that she and I are going to have to have a discussion about thinning out her schedule.

Charades

For Family Home Evening tonight I read a story about a squirrel family. It was about preparedness. Mama squirrel told her two kid squirrels to gather as many nuts as they could because there was a snow storm coming. One kid gathered lots of nuts and the other one played and didn't gather any. Sure enough the snow came and the one that didn't gather any had to rely on his mom and brother to feed him and he felt ashamed that he hadn't done what he was told. My kids said that they got the point of the story. They all said that they should listen to mom and always be prepared. That led to a brief discussion about what to do in case of an emergency at our home. If there is a fire, flood, earthquake, etc... Gillian did not like the direction of this discussion at all and she said that it really freaks her out. (She is currently asleep in my bed right now (11pm) just in case there is a fire). Then she perked up after the discussion and said that for an activity she would like to play charades. I said that the charades should have something to do with preparedness or a church type of something. So we started youngest to oldest and here's what we got...

Gillian- acted out reading the scriptures.

Drew- acted out helping an old lady who had fallen.

Gavin- acted out killing zombies, first with a machine gun, then with his Gerber LMF 2 knife.

Me- acted out planting seeds for a garden.

Darren- stood up and mimicked the way I've been limping around with my sore hip and back.

I'm pretty sure that the girls in this family were the only ones that really got the meaning of our Family Home Evening activity tonight.

Satan on Sunday mornings

Now that church starts at 9:00am our lives are sorta crazy on Sunday morning. I think that Satan sends his little helpers to my house to keep us from getting to church on time. They whisper in Gillian's ear that none of her dresses or skirts are acceptable to wear today. She demands that I find her a new dress right away. Darren is ready to go and takes Gavin to church on time as I battle with Gillian who is now in hysterics and beyond any rational behavior. Then, standing there in a dress that I talked her into wearing, she said she really needed a nap. It was 9:00am, Drew was waiting patiently. So I tell Gill that if she is still tired after Sacrament meeting I will take her home for a nap. I was secretly hoping that she would take me up on it, but as soon as she saw her little friend after the meeting she happily scurried off to Primary. Bummer, no nap for me. And this seems to happen every Sunday. Same kid, same fashion drama.