Happy Birthday Ashlee

Miss Ashlee celebrated her birthday with us on Saturday and the whole family was lucky enough to be invited. We went to Pizza Factory and Fat Cats Bowling. Tommy made little best friends with Ashlee's boyfriend, Jake, it was so cute! I have been really good lately about remembering my camera, but I forgot that night. Fortunately, Ashlee remembered hers so when she has the time (which, right now, is quite a joke) I'll have her email some over and I'll get them posted.

I think Ashlee is just my good luck charm, because my first game I bowled a 128 and my second game I had a 121 (those are amazing scores for me).

Sunday we got a bunch of the Save the Dates out, but I know there are many more to go. We haven't even gotten to Eric's extended family nor mine on my dad's side. I get the feeling I will be buying more of the cards.

I have been super busy at work... I think that will be the case for awhile until I get the hang of what I'm doing. I've learned probably about half of what I need so I'm pretty inept and slow still. Poor Ash has been swamped in recording, end of the month and all. I feel bad that she took over at such a busy time, I keep telling her it's not always so bad... I just hope it mellows out soon or she's going to quit on me.

This morning I popped up at 3:45 and could not go back to sleep! I layed there until 4:20 then I called Eric and talked to him for awhile. I finally gave up and got up at like 5:45 and made a Starbucks stop on my way in. I am already starting to feel tired so let's see how this day goes.....

Save the Date

We finally went and got our pictures done on Saturday for our "Save the Date"cards; hopefully everyone gets the humor in being in front of the 7-11, otherwise it's kind of ghetto. We drove around forever trying to find a Sev with a low sign, but couldn't find one (of course, now I've seen one since then); so we settled for this. My dad kept trying to get us to sit down and pose in front of the gas pumps, but there was no talking me into that.

This whole week I have been slammed busy and then yesterday I finally got to start training... after more than 8 hours, the only thing I really learned was how to FedEx.... yeah..... so I'm hoping today sits a little better with me 'cause now I'm really only getting a week before they are wanting to turn me loose.

Tommy is working on another book, he just finished Star Wars Cookbook 3 and now he's on to number 4. He also wants to do a cookbooks for Jurassic Park, Kung Fu Panda, Indiana Jones and I think there were a couple others as well.

Syrena is doing well, for the past few days her hormones have been on the low down and I've been enjoying her sweet side again. Lovin' it!

Eric is back in school and so far so good. His last class wasn't really up his alley and this one is, so he's excited about that. I can't wait until he finally is able to get that degree and start working in the field he so strongly desires to be in.

Well I got here early to help Ashlee out so I guess I'd better stop goofing around and get to work

Tommy's Theater Book

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Tommy is obsessing about making movies. He made us a "Theater Book" full of all of his movie ideas. This thing is 53 pages long... most of them are War Heroes and the sequels...15 of them and Animals 101 and the 18 sequels for that one. Here is the front cover:

"Revenge of the Evil"

"Reprise of Darkness"

Ticket to Revenge of the Evil, premiers the day where I see you.

Mom, Eric Animals 101 is PG-13 for mild injuries, bloody violence and swearing (someone must have told him about languages). Each episode is 2 hours 15 minutes.

Mom, Eric War Heroes is PG-13 for mild blood (and then an illustration of blood), swearing and for strong violence. 2 hours 15 minutes. I love the guys fighting at the bottom.

Devastating week.

A Big Day at the Mountains.

The Biggest War on the Planet.

War Heroes 11

Destroying Treasure

Villians (steal- he forgot a word) things like treasures but heroes will put them back.

There are many many more, like I said, 53 pages of them. I will keep this book always, I hope he gets to make each and every one of his movies!

In other news, I was given a promotion at work. I will be an Escrow Assistant. It does mean more money (although I have no idea how much), but TONS more pressure and responsibility. I will be on the phone all freakin' day (you all know how much I love the phone) and have people yelling at me. Not to mention I know nothing about Escrow so it will be tons of learning. They will be training me for two months! Two months! All I know is that it must really be a lot to take two months to learn. I am so ready to move on from the Recorder position though and this is my opportunity. It's really cool that the company is giving me this chance because it would be much easier for them to hire someone with Escrow experience and just train them on our computer system. The pluses: I get to work with Brian (good looking and a sweetheart), I get to be on the warm side of the office, I will probably get my own office and a pay raise.... the minuses: phone all day long, people mad at me (which I don't deal well with), tons to learn, and lots of pressure. I'm excited though... However, I will not have time to sit on the computer blogging all day like I do now; but maybe I can afford the Internet at home! Wish me luck!

Syrena's Field Trip

I got to go with Syrena on her field trip to the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life. I have been to many many dino museums and thus far, this one is my favorite. We've gone about 4 or 5 times, but it's way fun. We got to see a movie in 3-D, here is a pic of us waiting .... blurry... of course. I really need a new camera.



Here is Syrena about to become Raptor lunch....

This is why I love this museum so much, this huge sand and water table. As you all know, I am nothing but an enlarged child so this is right up my alley. I usually dive right in and the kids have to pull me away, but I have a gnarly cut on my finger and I didn't want sand in it... also there wasn't much room as you can see.

Here she is checking out the diplodocus skeleton... no, no - the picture isn't blurry - Syrena is and her surroundings are just blurry.

This is my favorite exhibit... I love sharks 'n stuff. I used to want to be an Ichthyologist when I grew up and go in the shark cages in the ocean and swim with sharks...

I guess it was hungry...

The whole thing was pretty rush rush, so here she is at the very end, hurriedly digging for some fossils.

We had a great time, but there was a little dramatic scene at the very end. I practically had to wedge her off of me and throw her on the bus kicking and screaming. Ahhh, motherhood. However, I would like to leave us all knowing how sweet, thoughtful and generous she is. She fooled Ben into thinking she didn't have a lunch so he would make one for her which she then brought to me. Also, her school let the kids have bagels that morning as a snack so she made one for me and smuggled it in the extra lunch. What a little sweetheart! It was an amazingly tasty bagel, I could definitely taste the love it was made with. (Sorry for ending that with a preposition, you will all have to get over it)

1st Skiing Adventure of the Season/Year

Due to time and financial constraints, I haven't been up skiing yet this season. Thanks to Tommy graciously taking skiing lessons through the National Ability Center though, I was able to get up with him to Park City Mountain Resort on Saturday. Parking up there is a nightmare, so even though the lesson wasn't until 11:45, we got there at 10:30. We were able to find parking no problem but that left me with an anxious 8 year old to entertain during the long wait. Fortunately, he was just happy and excited and was perfectly behaved the whole time. Here we are waiting:

While waiting we also ran into my old friend and mentor, Kris Vipond. She was the director at the preschool I used to teach at, Total Energy. This woman is amazing! She can walk into a room of screaming angry children, no matter the age, and instantly captivate them. She was an inspirational motivation to me throughout my Early Childhood teaching career. It's people like her that drive that industry continually to better things. I now know so many important things about Early Childhood Development... it was a very fulfilling career field - except for financially. I'm certainly far from making the big bucks, but I'm rolling in the dough compared to most of the measly salaries offered by preschools. It's an under-paid, under-appreciated job that really needs more attention. I could obviously go on and on... Anyway, it was really sweet to see her again.

When we hit the slopes we took a couple of practice runs, but were soon up on the mountain doing some real skiing. He is so amazing! Look at him go here, he's leaning forward to get some momentum....

Just doing the run itself wasn't enough for him, he had to keep going up on the sides and skiing down...

It was lots of fun, he's getting so good! Won't be long before he's better than me, and I'm thankful that his lessons get me out on the slopes too.

On Sunday I FINALLY! finished Eric's blanket. I have been crocheting this thing since October. Here he is snuggling into it...


And here his on the bed with it.

Now that it is done, I might make on for the kitties because they love it so much. Tomorrow I get to go on Syrena's field trip. I am looking forward to spending some time with her... she has been quite sassy lately (damn you teenage hormone changes!) and I think this will be a great experience for both of us.

Payback

So to thank Eric for coming to my rescue, I planned out dinner, dessert and an activity. Every night I come home and go "What should we have for dinner." He just woke up and doesn't care anyway so after arduous searching, I'll come up with some ideas and he'll grudgingly pick one. I thought it would be nice to just decide and make it for him this time. So I got stuff for really nice turkey and avocado sandwiches (got some Jennie-O sun dried tomato turkey from the deli) and fresh pineapple. Then I got him a big piece of cheesecake. We always talk about "sideways 8" because that's the sign for infinity (which is how long our love will last) so I took the number 8 candle we have from Tommy's birthday, flipped it sideways and sang, "My infinite love to you..." Cheesy, but it was fun...

Then we watched the movie that Santa brought him, "The Man with the Screaming Brain." A Bruce Campbell movie, Eric's all time favorite actor. It was... better than I thought it would be.

Here's to love!

Eric Saves My Day...

So I nearly had a meltdown today that would have had some serious consequences.. those being that I would have been grouchy all day long, irritable with all. The kids were good this morning at home, but the instant we all stepped foot into the car, that brother/sister gene kicked in and it was fighting tooth and nail. Also, we were running late (surprise!) and traffic was tight. So I'm yelling at the kids (stop saying that, you can share with your sister, don't hit each other, etc.) which is always super effective and trying to navigate icy roads and getting mad at all the other drivers. We missed the bus so I had to take the kids to the school and Park City is not timely with plowing their roads and Tommy left his gloves at home. I finally get the kids dropped off and when I pull into the parking lot, Eric calls. He asked me if I had made muffins, I said I had, and he asked where I had left them. I said on the counter under the towel... he asks, "The towel on the floor I guess...." Doesn't take a genius to figure out where they could have gone - hmmmm, perhaps the very big dog whose head fits right over the counter and has a very long history of stealing food from the counter and table might possibly have something to do with it. Oh man!!! I was so mad at him!!! I told Eric I felt like I was going to cry I was so upset, this was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I asked him to call me back at my desk in a minute. Well about 20 minutes went by and I didn't hear from him, tried the house and got the answering machine - I figured he'd gone to bed and forgotten about me - my foul mood worsened. Instead, in moments, I felt his strong yet gentle arms wrap around me. He said it sounded like I needed a hug so he jumped in the car and came to my rescue. After a Soy Peppermint Mocha from Star Bucks and many more hugs and kisses we parted ways. What an amazing man I have! It was exactly what I needed, now instead of a shitty day I had a great one! I was inspired to plan out a great dinner with him and a Valentine's Day surprise. I love being in love.....

Movies from Tommy's Perspective

I know I already posted today, but wanted to get this latest Tommyism down. He's been OBSESSING lately about getting a camcorder (he was disappointed when Santa didn't bring one this year). He has been going on about this for about a month now so every time I talk to him on the phone or when I have him, he is telling me about his new ideas for what kind of movies he's going to make. The other night he told me that he was going to make mostly PG-13 movies and that I needed to warn Eric that there will be violence and some languages.... he went on to say he wasn't sure which language though; probably Spanish. Made me laugh because when he sees those ratings and they say "Rated PG-13 for some violence and language" he doesn't realize that's swearing, he thinks it's literally language.

How To Tell If Your Dog Is On Steriods

That's right, I felt it was time to address this issue. Some say you can tell by their violent mood swings, others say it's the deepening of their bark. I think the following pictures best demonstrate how to know:

This is Peanut's Bed....

This is Peanut's bed on drugs... any questions?

First Snowshoeing Adventure of '09 and GO UTES!!!!!

So I want to start off by saying GO UTES!!! They played and amazing game in the Sugar Bowl against No. 4 rated Alabama - the famed Crimson Tide who was ranked No. 1 in the BCS for several weeks during the season. The Utes not only won, but absolutely kicked their asses. Thank God because the NFL has been such a bummer for Eric and me this year. Thanks for leaving us with good feelings towards football guys!


On Saturday we went snowshoeing for the first time this year up Millcreek canyon. They close the road up to Dog Lake and groom it for snowshoeing/cross county skiing and on odd days you can take dogs up there without leashes. It was cold, but when you're exercising, it's perfect.


I just thought this looked really pretty, the water running through the frozen land.



And just look at this! Gorgeous blue sky, snow covered trees and a handsome fiance with your sweet doggies. Could it have been any more perfect of a day?

Here we are... I don't know what it is about the camera that makes Eric's eyes want to be closed, but this is as good as it gets.

Unfortunately, I have to report that our little Nanuk is really getting older. We only went up about 1 mile... maybe... and he was suffering big time. By the time we got down, he was barely moving. I felt so bad for him. Just small walks with him... sad. We better enjoy any kind of outdoor activity with him because those days are numbered.

Happy New Year!

This year for New Year's the plan was we were going to Eric's work (he had to work...) to watch the fireworks for First Night from the 6th floor. However, Peanut felt this whole event was over rated and would much rather spend the night running around and making me try to find her. Little shit. I finally found her but the time I made to the ESA (Eric had long since left for work so as not to be late), the fireworks were already going. It wasn't too late to share a midnight kiss with the one I love though....



Last night we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and you know what? It really is a wonderful life. I am looking forward to a new year... I know many terrific things lie ahead; the wedding for one. My New Year's resolutions: Cut back on spending, I really do spend much too much and be nice to myself. I say all kinds of horrendous things to myself and it's doing no one any good, least of all me. Here goes!