Treats and tired...

So we went walking again and it was a family ordeal, my mom, both sisters, my brother-in-law and all the boys went. I was determined, even though we had to wait for Norah, that I was going to do a fast 3.2 walk. I left them in the dust. Hunter, Nathan and Noah kept up with me on their scooters. I would have them race up to a bench so they could rest and I would catch up to them and we would start again. Zach stayed back with the slow pokes. Finally the ones I was with decided they would just wait on the bench. When H and I got back to the car everytime someone came in we would start cheering, it was like our own personal 5k walk race. It was great. After I had got all the boys up on the car and I had them yell out 3.2 instead of cheese, it was fun.My other wonderful accomplishment today was the cake I have been working on. I was determined to give a co-workers son a real cake for his birthday, he has some pretty severe allergies to eggs, dairy and nuts. I was pretty confident in this cake but I am really worried now that even with all the precautions taken he will have a reaction. I am so crossing my fingers that it does not happen. We will see tomorrow.I couldn't find little dinosaurs so they are just little lizards instead. I hope he likes it. It was the easiest cake to frost because it I didn't have to worry about smoothing anything out.

Life it not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Wasting time...

So I really should be working on the cake that I need to have done before Saturday but poor planning on my part and currently I am waiting for the dishwasher to get done so I can work on it. H is playing with a friend so I am taking advantage to listen to RFH marathon day and blog once more.

Okay so there are these apartment buildings across the street from our "driveway". Really there is no way to avoid these because it is the only exit way from my condo. Low and behold there is this group that I have dubbed "The Firepeople" (FP). Really have have no problem with people who are just wanting to enjoy the outdoors, and the fact that they smoke and drink have no weighing value on these guys. I call them the FP because they have a fire pit that they pull out and sit or stand around.

I have no problem with them except for the fact that they are ALWAYS outside. It is such a rare occasion if they are not outside. Usually they will stand around the pit, but they have camping chairs they pull out too to sit on. Well I think for special occasions they pull out the fancy stuff. The picture below is their version of top quality sitting for the pit.

It is office furniture or padded dining room chairs. They don't pull it out that often because I have only seen it once but seriously, what the heck is wrong with the regular camping chairs? They were setting this up all day and later that night there were more of them, like double the number of those that are normally there. I just had to show the hick version of comfy living. I just thought this was hilarious and I had told Mar about this once but I don't think I ever showed her the picture.

Those of you who are The Office fans may actually catch this one.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzy - Michael Scott

Failed attempt at cooking...

I really don't know why I keep appeasing to my sister. I am giving up some sleep just so I can blog about my failed attempt to make a homemade black bean soup. Not that it was horrible or anything just don't think it was a good idea to combine it with the what was suppose to be tacos but turned out to fajita tacos instead. Instead of pulling out the ground beef I pulled out the fajita meat to defrost. So I had some black beans to as part of the co-op share I had gotten so I wanted to try to use those with the tacos. I found a recipe on line and tried following it but when we put it in to blend it up it came out looking like a blue berry shake. H was weary about it anyway but looking at it I don't blame him for saying he was not going to try it.I did figure it got made it is getting eaten somehow. I took a scoop and I put it in the fajita meat and just used it as extra seasoning. I will choke down the rest for lunches and such. Hey I tried making something new failed miserably but tried. I can't tell the boy he can't give up before he even tries if I don't follow that example.

I miss you Big City soup, you did have the best black bean soup even though everyone at work thought I was eating crap, you filled my tummy with sustenance and nutrition.

Also shout out to the Jazz, you rock! Glad you got a win.

Remember when...

Those of you who have know Hunter best know he loves to play a remember when game. That game actually consists of something that has happened within a few minutes, hours or days at most. I laugh everytime this happens because he really starts out the conversation and you think it is going to be a trip down memory lane. But just this night we play kick ball and he just had to point out that remember when we played kick ball, that was fun right? I just had to get on and mention this because I laugh so hard everytime this happens. He had a blast and it was a different form of exercise for me.

Good night everyone. Treat yourself well, you only have one.

Big day for a little boy...

I know I can't always be there for the boy. He needs to venture out and do things on his own. I still worry but part of being a parent is allowing your child to spread their wings and fly. He is riding his bike by himself to school. I have the day off so I can help with their field Trip today. As he rode off down the street I felt the tears well up, it is crazy that I can't keep him under my arms all the time. He is excited that he gets to ride his bike home from school too. It makes me feel he will be driving in no time.

Worry is like a rocking chair, it's something we do but it doesn't get us anywhere.

Sister is still a tattle tale...

My baby sister is a pain, she tattles on everything. I am going to stop telling her things! She is seriously worse than an 8 year old, no wonder her and the boy don't get along!

My brush with fame story. So I always hear about how people I know end up meeting celebrities and such, I just wanted to brag about my encounter because I am a HUGE fan of Joel McHale (he is a man of worship only one below Shatner, but that is another story), I LOVE to watch The Soup on E! on Friday nights. It keeps me from having to watch a lot of stupid shows on tv and it makes fun of them in the long run. With that though I end up getting addicted to some because I think that the shows he makes fun of because I am thinking "really it can't be that stupidly funny" but trust me, he does not embellish any of the clips.

Any hoo, he came to do a stand up comedy show at Wiseguys in Ogden some time ago, I got to go and see. He was great, just as funny on stage as he is on tv. Well just to impress my son I showed him the picture I got with him, of course he just looked at it and thought why is she with some guy and wanting to show me? But then I turned on The Soup and told him to look at the picture again and boy did his eyes light up, I think I earned about 100,000 mommy brownie points with that look. He then had to know who he was and why I had a picture with him.

Just thought I would share it with everyone.

If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

To Good To Be True...

I told you I sucked at blogging. But I am back only because my baby sister was giving me some real crap because I was so far behind, but I really how often does she keep her's up to date???

H's party has come and gone, he returned on Easter Sunday from a visit with his dad. He was not liking after he got home that his spring break was spent with his dad, he asked if we could spend some more time together at home. It is hard when he puts these requests out, but I got him to get excited about school because he was celebrating his birthday the Monday back so we got on and found the pictures he wanted and we filled out the post all about him (really this kid could go on forever about himself, he is the one that has to have everything with his first and middle name on it and then asks why he can't find one with his last name anywhere). I was happy to hear that one of his favorites things to put on his list of his likes were school and homework. Bless his heart, he can definetly make me smile, but the next day we were arguing that he had to do his homework.

We celebrated his family party up in Ogden this year. He wanted a Jazz Bear cake this year, after some mis-communications between my sister and I (bad week for both of us) we pulled it off.

Yes there is a crack on the bottom that happened while transporting, so point out Mar Bear because I know you will be dying to. We started cooking and making this at 2 and were done by 8 so I say all is well. I had hid his DS and had him open all the presents, he opened them all and did not say one thing. I could tell by the look on his face he was missing something and he would not say one word about it. I finally had to ask him flat out if he was missing something that he had wanted, he continued to say no he was fine. After asking him again he had finally mentioned the DS which then it was given to him. I am glad he was going to be happy with what he was given, it shows he has taken in to consideration that you always can't have what you want in life, when given lemons you make lemonade. I am glad he had fun.

Some people are like slinkies: not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

Easter Egg Dive Fun...

So tomorrow the South Davis Recreation Center (SoDa Center, family dubbed), formerly the Bubble, is hosting its 2nd annual egg dive. I am excited, I can't wait, hopefully my sister will still allow me to help out (and if she reads this before tomorrow I can still help tonight too), even after I snapped her head off early.

The egg dive consists of the kids going after weighted down Easter eggs, which in turn get cashed into prizes!!! I enjoy these community sponsored events and because it is at the SoDa Center I get to help out because my baby sister works there. If she did not work there I am not sure how much I would be helping out but I would try to find something to do. It is nice to be able to give back to the community. I don't have all the money in the world and I don't have all the time I would like to give but I survive. So helping out makes me feel good.

Hunter's birthday party is coming up, we get to make his birthday cake tomorrow as well. Making cakes is a little side hobby I like to do, we like to make different types of cakes, most of the time you would not be able to get ones like we make in a store. I took a class and it was just a fun thing to do. Besides that I get to control the ingredients I put in and it makes it a little healthier as well as I can make it taste a little better. I infact will be making a cake for one of my co-worker/friend's little boy who is really allergic to milk, eggs and nuts. I want to make him a cake that he will look at and think WOW and even be able to eat. I have found a number of recipes I just need to start working out all the details.

I bought H a new Nintendo DS because his broke, he is borrowing mine currently so he can still play his games when I allow him to. Also as an added bonus when we went to the planetarium over the summer we bought a few items there that are still in the trunk of my car, I am wrapping those up to give to him too. My family does not need to buy or give him anything unless they can or want, just showing up to his party will be prize enough for him.

Can't wait for the egg dive and soon the party will be here.

Remember: Everyone seems normal, until you get to know them.

Bad Mood...

Okay, I am using this as a way to keep a journal so I am sorry I am going to vent about work for just a bit to get it out of my system and then I will blog about something more fun and positive because I want to have a better weekend that I did a week. Really no one needs to read this I just really needed to vent.

I normally LOVE where I work, I have worked at this company coming up on 9 years now. They have done good at treating me right and I have gotten along with many of those that I work with. My job is I pay their bills, so you know if you are behing on your bills you get phone calls looking for money. Some of those calls are nice and some are just down right mean. With us being a public company now we have to meet certain deadlines and send in report that show our financials. I must say I am really good at my job, I get things done, I don't complain, I usually way exceed any expectations that others may have of me. I have worked hard at what I do and I do it well. Lots of that comes from my parents being such hard workers in their life and part of that is because I want to make sure I take care of Hunter really well.

When I started I was making fairly good money, it was more than I was making at the pool and I was getting benefits. I know they pay exceptionally well considering I have no real education other than high school. When the situation arose I would work the overtime as necessary to get the job done. When we got bought out I don't think my then boss would have made it through it without me having the dedication I had to work well. He told me on more than one occassion how much I saved his sanity. I am quick to learn and he knew he didn't have to tell me to keep things confidential when the situation came round as well I as I anticipated what was needed and took care of it.

Well not too long after we sold our company I had to cut ties with my then vice president, it was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make because I tell you I loved this guy. He and I both cried when came time. The reason for taking the position I am in now was because I was promised a job title with a significant raise, it just would have been a better choice in the long run. I know I don't see eye to eye with my boss lady but I know deep down she really appreciates what I do and sees the same in me as my old VP. Well my new VP does not know anything about me other than I sit outside his office. In order to meet our deadlines I work late, I even come in on the weekends and really have gone above and beyond my call of duty but the title I am wanting would require such things. I really don't mind not having a raise, really just looking for some recognition as to what I do and how I sacrafice time away from Hunter in order to get it done.

There were four of us in our group, we are now down to three. To get what I need to done I have been working more than 40 a week, I would prefer to come in the weekends because at least I can bring the boy with me. I absorbed 90% of the other positions duties because I knew it had to get done. That was with the hope of us getting compensated with the salary we were no longer carrying. Well guess what they deleted the position from our group and decided that they would hire a boat load of other in the accounting group but not compensate us.

Normally I just let it be because I get paid what I get paid but you know what I feel like I have to work overtime just to keep my head above water. I am missing very important time with my son to make sure I keep the company up and running. I am just mad, mad, flaming mad right now. We got yelled out by our VP today by things that were so far out of our control and he even admitted but decided he could yell at us for the mistakes why not. I seriously just hunched at my desk all day, today was the first day in forever (even with as bad as it was with my nemesis) that I HATED my job. You name it we could not do it right this week, everything was wrong and it was our fault even if we had nothing to do with it. I almost cried, if he had been standing there at my cubicle I probably would have cried. Now he was standing at my boss lady's cubicle and she did break down and cry today. It took all my strength to keep from crying myself. But the thing was even though we were being blamed the VP even admitted it was not our fault. So why yell at us.

As I said, I am really annoyed and I am trying to put this all behind me because I want to have a good weekend and hopefully start fresh on Monday. I just neede to get it off my shoulders and hopefully me being mean to my sisters is forgiven because I know I snapped at them when I really shouldn't have.

Another year and cleaning...

I think I have been doing pretty good keeping updated lately, wish I could say the same about the exercise. But month end is done and I shouldn't have many excuses yet. This past weekend I did dodge our walk for cleaning H bedroom instead. When I say clean I mean got rid of old toys, rearranged furniture and finally hung up this organizer thing that I bought like over a year ago at Ikea. I totally forgot we had it bought, but found it while we were cleaning.

He also wanted a hamper for his dirty clothes, he asked if he could get one because he didn't want to put them in mine. I thought what the heck, sure why not if it gets him to put his dirty laundry in one place instead of all over I will get it. Well we get home that night and it is one of those foldable, meshy ones that just pop up, and we put it in his room. Well he got excited when it was time to put his clothes for the day into the hamper. I told him if he doesn't know which goes on what side he can ask I will help. Blue side dark clothes, white side light clothes. Well I guess that just did not fill it up fast enough (mind you one day), he decided that some pajama pants from his drawer were dirty. Then some shirts from his drawer were dirty. You name it it was dirty. So I had to pull mostly everything out. I remembered we still have laundry that I was trying to get through from the Vegas trip (I know I am really slow at cleaning my house) so I let him sort that out. But of course I got scolded on my clothes being in with his clothes and that was just not allowed. He also expressed that we would need to take turns on doing laundry so we didn't have to wash our clothes together. You think he was a teenager already.

His birthday is coming up, I can't believe he is going to be turning 8.

Grandpa, Mama and H in Pennsylvania. H is 18 months.





This one is my favorite from his first birthday party. You can see his really blue eyes, although they have turned to more of a green blue now.

This one we were just goofing around just a few months ago because his hair is not that short anymore.

Although I can't wait to see him make changes through out the next year I can't believe he has to grow up. Let the adventure continue.

Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.