She wouldn't have belonged

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to come and visit David and Arbras home. It is beautiful, full of all the wonderful things that any woman would want. Stainless steal appliances in a gorgous kitchen, 5 fridges and 3 freezers, a spacious food storage room, a nook for the grandkids to play, a bose surround sound hooked up on both tvs, new car, 3 car garage, beautiful view, and decorated to the nines, with seasonal decorations galore that are stored in her massive yet organized storage room. Crafty little displays of fall, hay, and wagons and little picket fences, plush lether furnature, $400 mounted fish....Just a stunning home, full of all things beautiful.
She wouldn't have belonged, she wouldn't have known what to do with all this space, she never could have decorated it, she couldn't have ever let herself go financially to spend money on such tomfoolery. NONE of this mattered to her! She would have been uncomfortable in such a place and she would feel so wrong about putting her money into things rather then people. If she ever had a dime, she would have given it away. This is not for her. I see my father in law, a changed man, a man whom is now ruled by the woman in his life. A man who has learned to bite his tounge, and eat his words. He is much more tender and carries a completely different spirit. It is quite unfortunate that mom missed out on that aspect of this life. However I am sure that she knew that side of him, and that is why she put up with so much garbage. She knew the real him, and she had to pass away for him to drop down his walls and let others in to see him for who he is. As for Arbra, I know she will love my children, and for that I am greatful. I have concluded that she is a common woman, who struggles with the same stuggles as anyother woman who is learning and growing and trying to be more like the savior. Her only vice is that she is following a woman who wasn't common, and who rarely struggled to be Christ like. Shirley was someone who I aspire to be like, Arbra is on the same plane as I am, she is learning, and growing. She comes across as quite materialistic, but any woman when compared to Shirley is (including myself). Really it is quite a shame that she never knew mom, for she is a wonderful example of a woman who serves God. I am sure that as Arbra grows the Lord will let her meet a woman like mom, so that she too can see what is truely important.
In short, She is nice enough, I need to try not to pick out her flaws, for we all have so many. I am at peace, and I am suprised. I cried a few tears as I rocked in moms chair, but she is not here..... this is not her home.... She will forever be in my heart, and i will ALWAYS aspire to be like her. I miss her love.

Time to face the music

This morning, I am suffering from much anxiety as today is the day when I meet the "other woman". David (Brent's Dad)has been married nearly 2 years, Brent's mom passed around 2 and a half years ago. I have never met Arbra, and quite honestly, I am very very scared. I am going tonight to stay the night at their home. (I really think I am going to vomit) I am so nervous. I see the necessity of a grandmother for my children, and I want them to have the most normal life possible, but this woman and I have butted heads in the past and I have some really difficult feelings to deal with. I resent the fact that this after noon, I am on my way up the canyon to see their newly built home. My dear mother lived in this old house, with no dishwasher, no storage space, heating and cooling that worked if you tweaked it just right, a kitchen that was built in 1950, (metal cupboards and all), a garbage disposal that backed up on a regular basis which landed her in the "crawl space" digging threw sewage. She had toilets that refused to flush down poop, toilets that backed up all the time, a wood kitchen floor that was never sealed and to her embarrassment was never ever clean because it was full of dirt that wouldn't come out of the woodwork. She wore dresses from 1970, t-shirts and pants with holes, sewed her garments back together again, tailored her families clothes, and watched her family go deeper and deeper in debt and she finagled every last penny around trying to be wise about her money.
I feel so much resentment about the fact that she lived like that and this woman has the house, the dishwasher, the clothes, and the dream!! I know that mom doesn't care, I know that she would tell me that it is okay, and none of that matters, but I am just so upset about it and I can't imagine going there and being able to not show those emotions. It is going to be a rough 24hrs. Coming back to SLC has been a little difficult, but so far I haven't been to the East side, so it hasn't been too bad, but soon I am going to have to go over there and realize that she is gone. Maybe today I need to go to her old house and her grave and take a little closure before I meet this woman. I don't know.... AND to top it all off, I have to go with her to women's conference tonight! ummmm, don't know if I like that idea. :-(

Now I am going to get really mean!

No Baby YET!!! Yesterday we did the second round of Blue and Black cohosh, and nothing! I also took her on a brisk walk which was nice and hilly! We had her running up and down her basement stairs throughout the day. I believe all total she did 25 laps on the stairs. Now it is 7:30 am on friday morning and nothing! Today I shall make her eat Thai food.....lots and lots of Thai food. More stairs, and another brisk yet LONGER walk!!! My little neice has met her match, she may be stubborn, but I am more stubborn then her!!! :-) We are having fun though, Tori has truely enjoyed her visits to see her Auntie Anne in the hospital. She absolutly loves her, and asked all day yetsterday when we were going to go and see her. Does anyone have any more ideas? or posibly a really long, pokey crotchet hook????? I'll Keep ya posted.....

The Push is on.

So I am in Utah right now, waiting for my little sister (in law) to have her baby. She is due tommorow, but we were all so so sure that she would go very early!! I can't believe how big she is, she looks so terribly uncomfortable, I feel so bad for her. Not too bad though cuz I am determind to get this wee one out of there, and home before I have to go back to Maryland. Today I made her lift my 55 lbs suitcase into her trunk, and also my 40 lb one! She did very well after I held her purse for her. She had an ultra sound today and found out that the baby really isn't as big as they orrigonally thought, but she is for sure due to have this baby! I spent some time cleaning up and helping out around the house while they were gone. When she returned we headed over to visit Anne (brents other sister) in the hospital. They finally figured out that she that swimming pool desease that has been going around in Utah. Unfortunatly though, since she is handicapped, she ended up with quite the bum rash / infection from the diareah, and is still in the hospital because now she is on iv anitbiotics. Poor thing. Her room is however on the 5th floor of the hospital and apparently the main floor where one enters is called A, so I made Andrea climb 6 flights of stairs. HE HE. Then we went back down the 6 flights, and up another flight into the parking garage. Then I took her to the grocery store where I made her hold onto the cart while I pushed it really really fast!! Now she has had a warm tub and now we will move on to some pressure point massage and a pedicure, so that her feet look cute for the day. :-) Which btw I have decided is TONIGHT! I will keep you posted, my post tommorow better include a weight and time, or elce it will be all the ways I tortured her.... sorry for my "creative spelling" but i can't get their mac to spell check this for me. :-)

SCATTERGORIES

*Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... *they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
What is your name? Christie Cook (maiden name) (double points)
4 letter word: Cock (as in a rooster... Double points)
Vehicle: Chevrolet Corvette Convertible (triple points)
TV Show: Charles in Charge (double points)
City: Coal Creek (Colorado)
Boy Name: Charles
Girl Name: Carly
Alcoholic drink: Chardonnay
Occupation: Chef de cuisine (double points)
Something you wear: Cashmere
Celebrity: Charisma Carpentar (double points)
Food: Chillie Cheese Enchiladas (double points)
Something found in a bathroom: Charmin
Reason for Being Late: Children
Cartoon Character: Chuckie Cheese
Something You Shout: COME ON!!!

I had to do this cuz I love Mendys competitive nature. :-) HE HE. I was suppose to go to bed, but I wanted to see how many doubles I could come up with. Keep watching for Mendys Do Over. :-) LOL!!

Field Trip Prep

Today I went out to a special 2 hour class on how to help with a very special field trip for Liza's class. I knew that I was going to a place with water, so I took my camera. We had the coolest experiences, I learned more tonight then I have learned in many many years. I am so excited for the field trip and the opportunity to go back. I got to see the basics of fishing with a net, crabbing, oysters, and micro organisms. It was SO cool. I am so glad that I got to go. Thank you Jeri for being a superstar and watching my kiddos for so long. (it was an hr drive there and an hr drive home too) I tried my hand at scenery, I don't think I had a high enough f stop, but here's a couple shots anyway... I will do a much better post when I go with the kids in October.
This is a shell of a "blue crab" we pulled up a trap and found a Large crab and this smaller empty shell. Apparently he (and I learned how to tell if it's a he or she) grew out of his shell right there in the trap. It was cool, the big crabs shell was still really soft and we got to poke him a bit. It was really neat. I just loved the colors on this guys claw.

This and That

So much has been going on lately that I just have a lot of things that I needed to write down. Last week Liza had her first moral dilemma, she was invited to a birthday/sleepover on a sat to Sunday. She has had Sunday invites before, but nothing that was Saturday night to Sunday morning. She has always been so quick to say, "oh, your party is on Sunday, I can't come on Sundays that is the day that I go to church." I thought it would be the same, but when we told her that she was old enough to make that decision, she had a really hard time. At one point she was asking me if we would still love her if she chooses to go, and what would Heavenly Father do if she chooses to not keep the Sabbath day holy. We assured her that she would always be loved, and advised her to pray about what would be the right thing to do. She was so torn, it was sad, but good to see her struggle with with a real life application to her years of primary. She cried because she knew what was right, and she really wanted to find a way to make what she wanted right. After much trouble, she decided, on her own to go to the party until midnight, and then come home to sleep and be with her family on Sunday. I was so proud of her and happy to know that when she prayed about it, the spirit whispered to her, and she heard it. :-) On Saturday as we walked her up to the neighbors for the party, Tori wanted to carry the gift and then Alex said to Liza, "Here Liza, I'll carry your bag, cuz you're a girl." They then had a whole conversation about how a boy is to carry a purse. Alex has watched closely and noted that a boy isn't supposed to put a purse on his shoulder, he carried the pink purse on his fore arm to be sure that it was not mistaken as HIS purse. LOL!!! So funny.

On Saturday we got a phone call from Brent's Dad telling us that Brent's Grandmother passed away. She has been ill for quite some time, and was ready to go, it makes it a bit easier to let them go when that is the case. I know that I will miss her SO SO much as she always patted my back and told me what a great mommy I am. She would even talk to other family members about what a great mom I was. (boy did I have her fooled eh?) She will be dearly missed and I really wish that I could have seen her one more time. I am going to Utah on Sept 26th so I missed her by about 11 days! What are the odds? I loved her like she was one of my own grandmas. She made awesome bread, and yummy yummy cookies, which we had to sit at the nook and eat them while she poured milk and stood on the other side of the counter talking to us. She would feed you till you blew up, she loved to feed her guests, and was always asking if you were hungry. I remember once when I was there I had some stomach problems and I was warned by family members not to tell Grandma or she would try to give you and enema, apparently they cure everything. (AHHH) She did see me wince once and she said "what's wrong Chris, does your stomach hurt? Are you hungry honey?" I quickly replied that I wasn't hungry, and it didn't hurt that bad. I was offered her advise on enemas, but I didn't get one! Thank Heavens. Grandma had a lot of funny phrases, that I want to write down and post for my journal, I'll have to do a post called Grandmas Wisdom. We spent the next 2 days tring to get Brent time off work, and leave from the army and an airline ticket. Brent is set to leave tomorrow for the funeral on Thursday.

We got word today that Brent's Downs Syndrome sister (who is 32) was take to the hospital today. She is living in a home since mom passed away and they took her in because she was in pain. Anne has a very high pain threshold and has rarely complained about pain, so I am worried about her. She has a very limited vocabulary, and wouldn' t be able to tell you too much about how she is feeling. I am sure that if they asked her if she was pooping she would just giggle at the word poop. She is a funny girl, but that sure doesn't help when you are trying to diagnose someone. They ran test all day today and all they can guess is Pneumonia, but she is complaining of abdominal pain, and that wouldn't be where you would feel pneumonia, I don't know if they are going to let her go with that diagnosis or not.

Today while I was running around doing homework stuff with kids, Tori did something so cute, I really wish I would have gotten out my camera to catch the moment. She spread out a blanket and propped her baby up on the blanket and then got our her camera and started shooting pictures from all angles, and levels, it was so funny to see her getting low and then standing up, and switching side to side. So Cute!!! I wonder where she has seen that done before. :-)

Once Upon a Time.....

Once upon a time there was a girl from Canada who went to Ricks College in search of an American Husband..... oops, I mean, and education. (Yeah, that's what I was after) She left home at the ripe old age of 17. After being played by all the wheelers that attended Ricks and also by post Calgary missionaries (via phone and mail) She stumbled upon a young returned missionary. He looked nothing like the man of her dreams, but he was everything like the man of her dreams. A considerate, funny, musician from a good LDS family. Returned Missionary who spoke french, played hockey, loved Chocolate, ferrets and the Calgary Flames. What more could she want. (this pic is from high school, but I LOVE his 'hockey hair', see hockey players grow a mullet so that their helmet doesn't chafe their neck). He treated her like a princess and his every move was sincere. He took her to meet his parents, and they were wonderful to her as well. She was a member of their family from the first day that she walked through the door. He was friends with 2 of her roommates who also played the French Horn, and one of which apparently liked him but never told anyone until they were together and she came unglued (but that's another story). He asked them to invite her to his concerts so that he could woo her through classical music, but she was smitten by his impeccable manners and love of his family instead. He knew that he loved her almost straight away, but it wasn't until later that she trusted him enough to really feel the same way. Upon meeting her parents he was immediately accepted with only one issue being brought to hand.... her mother couldn't believe that she would marry someone who doesn't dance. Oh how she loves to dance, and oh how he hates it. (He is REALLY good at dancing but claims to feel foolish) Her mother really hit home to her one summer night when she said, "Christie you be nice to him, I have never seen a man look at a woman with so much love." (if you know my mom, you know that this is not something she would just throw out there if she wasn't positive) They were engaged about 4 months after they met and were married 3 months later. He proposed because she told him that if there wasn't a ring on her finger by X date, they were moving on. (it's only a 2 year college you know! Time was a waisting) On December 30th 1994 the two were sealed in the SLC Temple. It was a cold, but beautiful day.She taught him how to snowboard, he taught her how to relax a bit and the story goes on...

The road has been long so far with undergrad, moving every 2 years or less, joining the military, going though medical school, 4 children, family victories and tragedies. They hold on, pressing forward together, lucky to have their best friend by their side.

And always wishing we had more time to be together and maybe even dance..... Even though sometimes he drives her crazy doing things that ALL men do, and even though sometimes she is a little (or a lot) rough on him, he is her one true love, the love of her life, her everything, and she would not know what to do with out her hero.....And even though she nags and drives him nuts with her obsessive personality, he loves her and tries so so hard to please her. And always tells her that she is beautiful and that he loves her.

There is such thing as true love, you really can marry your best friend, and sometimes, things really do last forever.

You may think that I'm talking foolish. You've heard that I'm wild & I'm free. You may wonder how I can promise you now, This love that I'm feeling for you always will be. You're not this time that I'm killing, I'm no longer one of those guys. As sure as I live this love that I give, Is gonna be yours till the day that I die -- oh baby, I'm gonna love you forever, forever & ever amen. As long as old men sit & talk about the weather As long as old women sit & talk about old men. If you wonder how long Ill be faithful, I'll be happy to tell you again, I'm gonna love you forever & ever, forever & ever amen. They say that time takes its toll on a body, Makes the young girls brown hair turn grey. But honey, I don't care, I'm not in love with your hair, And if it all fell out well Id love you anyway. They say that time can play tricks on a memory. And people forget things that they knew. But it's easy to see it's happening to me. I've already forgotten every woman but you --- oh baby...Just listen to how this song ends, I'm gonna love you forever & ever, forever & ever, Forever & ever, forever & ever, amen.

Flashback Friday

About 3 years ago I was flipping through a magazine and smelled the most wonderful smell. I immediately got on the Internet to look up this perfume, and the romance began. I do this quite often, I will find something that I love, that is out of our budget and I will research it, follow it around, visit it at the store and circle around it until it goes on sale. Sometimes this is quite a long process, but I will watch it until the price tag fits my budget. Months later at a post Christmas clearance sale, I finally had my perfume. Several months later I was getting ready one morning and had put on my perfume and then did my hair, I caught a whiff of myself and had an instant memory of my Great Grandmother. (She lived until I was about 6) I knew that it was associated with the smell. I actually pictured myself in her bedroom sniffing her perfume bottles. I figured that there must have been some undertones in the perfume that was similar to hers, like sandalwood or something. A few weeks later while talking to my Grandma (her daughter) on the phone, I told her about this experience and said that it must have some of the same smells in it. Grandma asked me what the name of the perfume was, I told her "Shalimar" . She laughed and then told me that that was my Great Grandmas perfume! She said that Grandma used to bring it back from England when she would go home to visit family. My Grandma was surprised to see it here in the states. I wore it to the family reunion a few months later, it was fun to tell the story to everyone and have them take a whiff. I am amazed at the sense of smell and the brains ability to connect moments to memories. ;-)

LOL!!

So after some thought about a comment last night about googling ex boyfriends. I thought, hey, it has always proven to be interesting to see what this character is up to..... He was my first love, and broke my heart 4 years later. I wrote him on his mission, supported his dreams to be a "rock star." and now look where he is..... LOL How crazy! This guy was a real scammer. He could wheel 5 or more women at the same time and none of us would suspect the other. He wheeled poor little french girls on his mission. A lot of girls joined the church because he told them he would come back after his mission and get them, and marry them and take them to Canada. While I knew him he went by his given name, and also a stage name. This you tube post is him using his given name, but one person who comments on him says that he is a rip off artist and that he has 2 other aliases, one of which checks out on the net, as being him for sure. He also went by another name when I was first married which was the name he used when he bungee jumped in a straight jacket, and was doing magic shows. At last count he was divorced twice, but some photos show him with a third wife. AHHHHH!!!!! "Sometimes I Thank God For Unanswered Prayers!!" What a nut!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S68XlFnsOnY&mode=related&search=

Four in the Morning

So, it is 4am, and I am finally done sorting through all the CRAP in my kitchen. Today I dumped the drawers of Kiddie Krafts, workbooks, play dough, and all the like all in the middle of my kitchen floor. 2 Kitchen catchers of trash, one full paper recycling box and 52 pencils later, I have finally finished! It looks so good and will be such an efficient work space now. I look forward to finalizing this de junking that has hit my home. I have my 1/2 of the bedroom and the basement left! I am starting to feel like I just may conquer! Hooray, had to share the victory!!! Now I must renew library books on line, I sure hope that doesn't take long!

List Fun

I was tagged by Jann to play this little list game so here it goes...

Jobs I've held:
Baby sitter
Sales Associate for Wilson's (a retail office supply store)
Cleaned Dental instruments and rooms(3hrs/day all through high school)
A maid/ helper for an ornery old lady
Sales Associate and Assistant Manager for Clair's Hallmark
Preschool Teacher for Children's Discovery
Toddler Room Teacher Bright Horizons
Preschool Teacher for Bright Horizons
Sales Associate for Northern Reflections
Assistant Director of Daycare
Mom (and all the crazy things that entails)
Discovery Toys Consultant
Water Aerobics Instructor

My Guilty Pleasures:
1. Staying up far far far too late.
2. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. MMMM
3. Ice cream any kind will do.
4. Massages (by anyone, but guilt associated with spending much moola on a really good one!)

Places I have lived:
1. Calgary, Alberta (3 houses)
2. Rexburg, Idaho (3 apartments)
3. Salt lake City, Utah (5 apartments)
4. Philadelphia, PA
5. Des Moines, IA
6. Toledo, Oh
7. Columbia, MD

What were likely the 1st things you thought when you saw your significant other for the first time?:
He was on a date with my roommate... "Humm, interesting... a red head in a purple suit and a bow tie."

Places I’ve Been on Vacation (in the U.S.):
1. Orlando, Fl
2. SLC, Ut
3. Jackson Hole, WY
4. Anaheim, CA
5. MT Rushmore, SD
6. Las Vegas, NV
7. Redwood national park, CA
8. Great Falls, MT
9. Pennsylvanian Dutch Counrty, PA
10. Nauvoo, IL
11. Niagra Falls, NY
12. Palmyra, NY
13. Winter Quarters, NB
14. Williamsburg, VA
15. Logan, Ut
16. Boston, MA
17. New York, NY

Places I've Been (out of U.S.)
1.Peach Orchard, British Columbia
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Banff, Alberta
Waterton, Alberta
Lethbridge, Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Niagra Falls, Ontario
Montreal, Quebec
(shes, I am sure there are more..)

Favorite Foods:
1. Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Phish Food Ice cream
4. Anything with Alfredo sauce on it
5. Perfect Peaches
6. My Dads BBQ T bone stake! Yumm, Alberta Beef!
Um, did I mention Chocolate?

Websites I Visit Daily:
Yahoo Mail
Various Blogs
My Family.com
Gmail

Nicknames I’ve been called:
1.Chris- mostly my dad and sister. I do love that my dad calls me this.
2.Chrissy - Loved that my Great Grandpa called me this when I was little, a guy that was like a brother to us when I was a teen, and Brent's Grandma.
3.Little Cookie- My maiden name is Cook. My sister was cookie to a teacher in jr. high. Hence, little cookie.
4.Meat Head- Didn't like this one much, my mother called me this, but not in the rude way... I was always honored to be meat head because my poor sister got "fat head" and I didn't want to be called that. It was also much better then "Little sh%$" which seemed to be another little nickname we got. (gee that paints a bad picture of my mom, she really wasn't abusive..:-))
5. Kitty Kay- My middle name is Kay and my sister made this one up, which then evolved to
6. Kitty
7. Kit (most of my sister and I's mutual friends.
8. Heman (brings back tons of high school memories when I hung out with Sherah, and Wonder Woman)
9. Christie Agetha (high school silliness)
10. Honey, sweetheart, and mother.


I Tag Jeri, Christina, and Tricia.

I've NEVER EVER laughed so hard!!!!

On Friday Night Brent and I went to see BRIAN REGAN live in Baltimore! I laughed so hard that my face hurt. I laughed so hard that I cried. I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. I laughed so hard that I actually had chest pain! It was SO incredibly funny. He is a SUPER clean comic who just makes fun of every day life. If you have never heard of him, check him out on his website http://www.brianregan.com/ If you have heard him, he has a TON of new material. We had heard everything he has done up until this past 2 months and he told jokes for 25 minuets before he even said any of his old ones. It was SO much fun. Afterwards we went to Cheesecake factory with the Tidwells and the Hansens and we all laughed and joked and pulled one liners from the show while we ate yummy cheese cake. What a fabulous night!!!

Tracy tagged me to play this game of sevens:

A. List 7 habits/quirks/facts about yourself.

B. Tag 7 people to do the same.

C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag whoever wants to do it.



1. I love to count things, I do it with out even thinking about it. Like stairs and stuff.

2. Brent was my first and only boyfriend who lasted more then a month.

3. I am obsessed with Coats, I love jackets and sweaters and the like. It makes me sad to live somewhere with such a short coat season. (my favorite is one with sheared beaver on the neck, but it rarely gets that cold around here.)

4. I started snowboarding when I was 15 and have not skied since, and never will. I wish I could pick it back up and have my whole family be a little boarding family.

5. Despite the fact that I was bucked off a horse in 5th grade, and ended up in the hospital, I love horses, and all animals! I would live on a farm if someone would figure a way to make it so there wasn't so much dust and dirt, and also make sure that I was with in 10 minuets of a Target and Mall.

6. I am the one who "initiates" around here!! (TMI, but we all have to throw a little something to the readers! ;-) )

7. I teach water aerobics, I love teaching water aerobics and I've made it a goal to show the world that it IS exercise! So join me at the gym, I have guest passes! :-)


Okay, I tag Tricia, Sallie, Andrea, Jeri (I am sure that you have been tagged already so now you're double tagged), Christina (who I am sure has been tagged as well), Rachel, and Kristen!

Piano Prelude No.20 Chopin.

From Jenni and Cami)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense.


NO CHEATING!
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? Heartbreak Town (dixie chicks) Okay maybe a little.

WHAT'S YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE? We're the Safety Kids (hummm, okay)

WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK OF YOU? Lazy Days (Enya) :-( I hope not.

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?Dearest Children God Is With You.

WHAT DO STRANGERS THINK OF YOU? Babas Lullaby (Mickey Farkas) Okay. maybe cuz I have so many kids?

WHAT DO YOUR EXES THINK OF YOU? Positive/Negative person. (Mickey Farkas) I guess that is a complement. MickeyFarkas is a children's Album that I LOVE!!!

HOW IS YOUR LOVE LIFE? I Sing the Mighty Power of God (Mormon Tab)

HOW WILL YOUR LOVE LIFE BE IN THE FUTURE? You leave me weak (Toby Keith) Here's to hoping :-)

WILL YOU GET MARRIED? Once upon a dream. Sleeping Beauty

WILL YOU HAVE KIDS? Dog Barking (Brian Regan) Not a song, a little comedy stint, but kind of applicable to having kids... :-)

ARE YOU GOOD AT SCHOOL? Come Softy To me (The fleetwoods) This is that oldies song that goes (dum dum, dumba do dumby dumba dum, dum dum, dumba do dumby ditty dum......) Oh dear!

WILL YOU BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE? Rhythm of the night (Corona)

WHAT SONG SHOULD THEY PLAY ON YOUR BIRTHDAY? Over and Over (Nelly and Tim McGraw) Aw, that sucks. I'm already feeling so old.

WHAT SONG SHOULD THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Overture/Hannibat from the Phantom.

THE SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR LIFE? Consider the Lilies (Mormon Tab.) I Love this one....

YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIEND ARE....? I don't understand you. (They might be giants) If this is referring to Brent.... HA HA HA!

HAPPY TIMES: Tequila (the Champs)

SAD TIMES: Your Woman (One nation)

EVERY DAY: Wild Women Do (Natalie Cole) HA HA HA, Totally!

FOR TOMORROW: Whole day off (Oingo Boingo) Gee, I wish.

FOR YOU: The Other side of Me (Hanna Montana)

WHAT DOES NEXT YEAR HAVE IN STORE FOR ME? Canon (pachelbel) Hummm, kind of slow, but I could take a slow nice year..

WHAT DO I SAY WHEN LIFE GETS TOO HARD? Chains of Love (Erasure)

WHAT SONG WILL I DANCE TO AT MY WEDDING? Stick to the Status Quo (highschool musical) :-)

WHAT DO YOU WANT AS A CAREER? The Kind of Fool Love Makes (Kenny Rogers) A match maker... I could do that. :-)

YOUR FAVORITE SAYING? You might Think (the cars) "you might think I'm crazy...."

THE SONG THAT YOU'LL PUT AS YOUR SUBJECT? Piano Prelude no 20 Chopin

Dads Vacation

Because the new residents come into the hospital in the summer, after they are done Medical School, Brent does not get summers to take vacation. He has to be at the hospital training newbees. This year he opted to take some vacation time over Labor day weekend. We had a wonderful trip to The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA. WE had a BLAST!!!! It was so worth every penny to go. It was just a quick little 2 day vacation, but so so so much fun! I couldn't believe how much we had to do. The Kids just swam and swam and swam. WE arrived at about 2pm on Monday afternoon, I was a little worried that we would be running into a whole lot of labor day holidayers, but we didn't. We got our little wrist bands and headed into the nearly empty pools.

We played our hearts out until about 7pm when we decided to go and grab a bite to eat. The kids absolutely loved everything about this park. I think that the majority would rule that the "Family Slide" was the favorite. We could sit in a raft type thing, all together and slide down this enormous slide. They loved it! One time we went down this slide and our little raft deal got stuck at the end of the slide, you should have seen the panic on Alex's face!!! Boy did I wish I had my camera then! He was so worried that someone was going to come behind us and CRASH us. !!! It was so funny to see the panic and see him try to stand up and get out of the boat. He has always been a little high strung (can't imagine where he gets that from ;-) ) . They also have a fabulous wave pool that doesn't get any deeper then 4 ft at the deepest point. It was perfect for my kids, they LOVED that wave pool.

At one point on day 2 sweet baby Katie took a nap on Brent's chest while floating on 4 or 5 sets of waves! They just sat out there and rocked on the waves (that is how few people were there) If you have ever been to a wave pool with the waves on, this is no place for napping. But it was so peaceful out there, Tori almost fell asleep on me! On with the story though, so we went to IHOP, my kids favorite, for Chocolate Chip Smilie Face Pancakes! They loved it!! We then hobbled out bellies back over to the hotel and Brent stayed with Katie while I took the kids BACK to the park.

At this point it was dark outside, but they keep the water park open until 10pm. The kids were begging to go on the "Family Slide" again, so up we went. We were very SURPRISED when we found out that this water slide was lit by sunlight!!!!!!! AHHH, we went down in pitch black, the kids were terrified!! LOL, I was even a little upset. ;-( When we got to the bottom, I reassured them that there would be sun again in the morning and that the slide would no longer be dark inside.

At this point we stuck to the lovely 2 slides that were open on top and stayed indoors. They were a little quick for Tori at first, but she ended up LOVING them, and the best part is, that they landed in 6 inches of water in a little trough type thing. It was really cool to know that they were relatively safe climbing up that climbing apparatus (in picture #1) and then sliding down into little pools of water that was monitored by their own personal life guard. I then took Tori and Alex to our cool Hotel room to watch some TV so that Liza could take daddy on the Tornado at night. She was a crazy girl and just climbed and climbed stairs both days.

And any one who knows Liza would believe that we still had trouble getting that stinker fart to go to bed!!! She has SO much energy! What a nut. Anyway, after much excitement over our cool hotel room that had a little Kids Cabin in it, with their own personal TV and bunk bed, they finally slept. Oh yeah, and I forgot, on the way to take the younger two back to the room, the kids stopped in the lobby and watched a little bed time story that was told by these animated character things in the lobby. They quite enjoyed that, and i quite enjoyed sitting by the warm fire in my bathing suit while they watched.

The next morning the kids heard me say that the water park opened at 8:30 and every minuet past 8:30 was time being lost!!!! We were back in the water having a grand old time by 9 am!!! I packed us some Yummy POP TARTS for Breakfast. Yes Yes, I know, Super MOM!! :-) They ran and played and climbed and slid until noon. Tori discovered that she liked the slides where she could double with us on the tube and slide down together. It was very fun to go down with her. One time she said to me on the stairs "Okay mom, this time, you're not aloud to talk, just me. You have to be quiet okay?" I agreed and waited in great anticipation for what would be said. She said all the things that I would normally say "Here we go, down a hill, whoa big corner, through the wall, weeeeee, see that was fun!!" It was so cute.

Brent's favorite part was the wave rider, a body surfing thing, it was really cool. His goal for the trip was to get up to his knees, he did it eventually. I did it a couple times and just ended up getting tossed up in the air, flipped over and landed at the top of the wave on my butt! It was rather fun though, especially the time that the kids came and watched Brent and Liza and I. The lazy river was also a hit, especially with Alex, he quite liked the pace of that thing. He did not like the big slides where we doubled with him on the tube. He stuck to the river and the slides off the climbing thing.

We left at about noon and went to Sonic (yes there is one right there!!! YUM) and had a yummy yummy lunch, and then headed BACK, yes, back to the water park!!! On our way back to the water we got side tracked by the hotel doing "free Milk and Cookies" with a movie. We went and got a yummy little treat and then made way for the water where we played until 4 pm, when I finally pulled them out of there by their hair!!! We had such a wonderful time, the life guards were starting to know my kids, we never waited in line for more then 2 or 3 people! Even that didn't happen very often. We didn't get to take Katie on Anything because she was just too little, so that was kind of the down side, one of us always had to be with her. After spending the better part of 26 hours in there though, Brent and I were so pooped, we decided that we both needed to take the breaks that we got by sticking with Katie off and on. (we're just getting too old.) That night I couldn't sleep, I kept feeling like I was still moving on the slides. :-) It was so fun! I highly recommend it!

Sunday Morning

Sometimes when i dress my kids up on Sunday morning, I just have to take a picture. I think they just look too cute all dressed up. Alex looked cute this Sunday, so upon bribing him with a cookie, he posed for a few shots. We are babysitting the Maughns dog, so that is the puppy pictured.