Obsessions

Alysa

Every Friday Brian stops at the gas station and picks up a copy of the Las Vegas Weekly - a free publication for locals highlighting community politics, events, concerts, etc. Of course, the magazine is also loaded with advertisements for all the Vegas night clubs, most of which feature a picture of a hot girl in a bikini. Every time Brian brings one of these home, we get to hear a weekend long rant from Alysa telling us how those girls in bikinis are disrespecting their bodies. While all three of my girls are overly conscientious about modesty, Alysa is borderline obsessive about it. Tonight, however, I got a really good laugh when I walked down stairs and saw her intently coloring at the table. I went over to see what it was she was so absorbed in, because Alysa is rarely able to focus on one thing for more than ten seconds. She had the Las Vegas Weekly open in front of her, and was coloring clothes on all the bikini girls because she "just couldn't stand to look at these half naked girls all weekend". I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard in my life! Way to go Captain Modesty! Here's to hoping she has that same attitude when she is a teenager!!!

Adalyn

At the beginning of the school year, Ady's GATE (gifted and talented) class learned about Ivy League Colleges. And so, began her obsession with Harvard. She has decided that Harvard is the ONLY college for her. I explained to her that Harvard is an incredibly hard school to get into, and that it is incredibly expensive. I explained that she would not get accepted with anything less than straight A's. Then I added that if she REALLY wanted to go there, I would do whatever I had to to make it possible but, she would have to save her money and help out as much as she could. I really was expecting the whole thing to blow over in a few days. No, it hasn't. Five months later, she has saved up $25 from her Birthday and Christmas money (she did allow herself a little "fun" money) to go toward her Harvard education fund and spends at least 45 minutes a night studying so that she can be sure to get straight A's - even if she doesn't have any homework. What can I say? The girl is extremely motivated. Knowing her, she will take my promise to the extreme, pursue a double doctorate degree, and put me $200,000 in debt. But, I'm not complaining. I could be dealing with much bigger issues than her getting annoyed with me for interrupting her study time.

Brylee

Brylee has some big plans for her future. The other two girls are dead set on becoming teachers (yes, Ady wants a Harvard degree to be a 3rd grade teacher), but Brylee has a much different goal. She wants to be a ballerina, marry a doctor, and have six babies. She makes it very clear that she wants to marry a doctor because he will be able to take good care of her babies, especially while she is working (as a ballerina). I'm not sure how being a career ballerina after having six kids will work out for her, but I am all for the doctor marriage!

Wrestling

Austin is a Freshman in high school this year. Following the family tradition, he decided to join the wrestling team. He had been doing great at it! He made the Varsity team - as a Freshman, and has won several of his matches.

Two weekends ago, we went to Cedar City to watch him wrestle. It was a two day meet - eight matches over Friday and Saturday. We got up SUPER early Saturday morning to make the three hour drive and be there by 9:00 AM. We were pushing it to make it on time. Once we got the the high school, we practically ran to the gym hoping we didn't miss it - only to find out, Austin was sick and wasn't wrestling.

He felt really bad, because he really wanted us to see him wrestle. The coach gave him permission to go home with Reed and Josie but he wanted to stay and see if he felt better later. We got him some medicine, and had him lay down and by the time his next match came around, he felt better. He ended up wrestling the next three matches!

The girls loved it - especially Brylee! She kept yelling, "Go Austin! You can do it!" or "Take him down Austin!" at the top of her lungs.

We are so proud of Austin and how well he is doing! I can't wait until we get to watch him again! I just wish that we lived closer...

Brian's Birthday

Brian's 32nd birthday was on January 14th. He had been wanting this cool new golf driver for a couple of months, and talked about it with his golfing buddies non-stop. I don't golf, so I have no idea what is so cool about it, but I hopped the van and drove across town to get it for him anyway.

It was not a fun journey. First of all, the golf store that carried the driver was all the way across town. I hate driving across town, especially with two little kids in the car. Then, I took the wrong exit, and got lost. Luckily I have a navigation system on my cell phone, so all I had to do is pull over and look up the directions. When I finally found the store, I realized that it would probably take me all day to find the stupid club. But, for the first time ever, luck was with me and the golf club had just went on sale and was in a special display right next to the door. On the way home I almost got into a wreck (not my fault!) and took the wrong exit again. But I made it - with the club!

I was so excited to give Brian his present that I couldn't wait. I gave it to him that night. He was super excited about it! I was quite proud of myself, until Brian asked for the receipt. Apparently, it was a left handed golf club so he had to exchange it. I think I still deserve credit for trying!

Brylee wanted to get Brian a present that was just from her. She thought about it forever and finally decided that she wanted to buy him his own pillow, with his name on it, so that he would stop stealing her new one that she got for Christmas. So we headed to Walmart, and got a pillow, pillowcase, and some iron on transfer computer paper. Brylee was even nice enough to let the pillow be a gift from "all the kids".

Town Square

A few weeks ago, Brian got a service call to fix some drains at a restaurant at the Town Square shopping center in Las Vegas. Brian came home from the job all excited, because they had a cute playground in the center of Town Square and he really wanted to take the girls. So that weekend we loaded up the car and headed across town. The playground is really cute, but it is small and because it was the weekend it was pretty packed - but the girls had fun!

Afterwards, we drove down the strip, to the outlet mall. The girls each had $10 that they got for Christmas from Brian's parents and it was burning a hole in their pocket. They each ended up getting a couple of pairs of sunglasses, which they were super excited about! Brian found some dumb cell phone attachment that he couldn't live without.

It was really nice just to get out, and enjoy the nice warm weather before it got cold again!

New Year's Eve

This year, we had all six kids at our house, over New Year's so we told them that they could have their own New Year's Eve party at home. I though it would be fun if they chose a bunch of movies, got some snacks & pop, we could heat the pool so they could go swimming, and they could bang pots and pans and light sparklers at midnight.

First I asked them what kind of snacks they wanted. Taylor said, "Steak". Michael said, "Lobster". I was expecting something more along the lines of popcorn and m&m's. I am pretty sure that I did ask them what snacks they wanted. Needless to say, they didn't get steak & lobster. They got popcorn, candy, pop, chips & dip.

Next, I asked them what movies they wanted. Their top two choices were, Drag Me To Hell and the Inglorious Basterds. Apparently, we have two completely different lines of thinking. I said, "No way!" They brought out their favorite argument: "but our mom would let us watch it!" I wasn't buying. So, I told them I was going to send their mom an email asking her. They were adamant that she would be completely fine with those two movies, until I hit the send button on the email. The second they saw that I wasn't bluffing and I really did send their mom an email, their story changed. We ended up getting, G-Force, Up, District 9, and Year One.

Brian and I must be getting really old. We ended up falling asleep WAY before midnight. The kids stayed up and watched their movies, but were disappointed that they didn't get to light sparklers. So we did it the next night.

It wasn't a really exciting night, but I was happy with that. I am just grateful to spend time with all the kids before they all get to be teenagers and are too cool to hang out with their parents!

A normal day...

A completely average day in our house:

• Alysa informed me that at 8:30 she still had 7 pages of homework due that morning (school starts at 9:00). Last night she told me she was done.
• Ady starts freaking out at Alysa because she was worried that Alysa was going to make them late for school. Seriously - full on anxiety attack.
• As we are getting ready to leave Ady starts freaking out because she can't find her backpack anywhere. She set it on the stairs only a few minutes earlier so someone else must have moved it. We found it in the bathroom. She yells at Alysa for hiding it. I tell her that it is quite possible she took it in there when she went to the bathroom a few seconds earlier. She isn't convinced.
• Brylee started crying because she didn't want to get out of bed. How is she ever going to be able to go to school this fall???
• Drove all the way across town to the golf store with two small children to buy the perfect present for Brian. I took the wrong exit twice, got lost once, almost got in a wreck (not my fault!), but made it home in time to get the kids from school.
• Alysa informed me that my singing voice is ALMOST as good as hers.
• Ady informed me that, in her opinion (her exact words), she is smarter than me when I was her age a LONG time ago.
• Brylee told me that she loves me more than ice cream.
• Found out the club I went to hell and back for is left handed - to my credit it said it was right handed. I know nothing about golf, so I assumed it was.
• Yelled at the girls for having a "clothes fight" with all the clean clothes that were suppose to be folding.
• AFTER cutting up all the veggies for chicken soup, I discovered that I had no chicken in the freezer.
• Brian calls and says he is going to be home late because he got an emergency service call. Good thing the veggie soup was ready a half hour before he called.
• Alysa and Ady, together, google "how to stop fighting with your sister". Really? If they can stop fighting long enough to google it together, then why can't they just stop fighting, period?
• At bedtime Alysa informs me that her toothbrush has been missing for a week, so she has been sharing with Ady. Gross!!!
• I am out cold by 9:00.

Dang! How is it possible for our lives to be so exciting, and unexciting at the same time???

Happy New Year!

Well, I guess that it is the time of year to review how I did on last years resolutions, and make some new ones for this year.

First the review... I really had only a couple of goals last year year. One was to maintain the weight that I lost in 2008. I have done really well with that one. I have managed to stay between 130 - 135 lbs. I didn't keep up with running 3x a week, like I wanted too. When I did really stick to running, I got down to 125 lbs. but, found that for my height (5'8") that was a little to thin. It made me tired all the time.
My second big goal was to read 24 books during 2009. I didn't quite reach that one. But I did pretty well - I read 18!

New goals for this year:

1) Get into shape. I really need to get back into exercising at least 3x a week. I am thinking of doing 2x a week of cardio (running, walking, or biking) and 1x a week of strength training/toning (weights or pilates or yoga). I really need a kick in my butt to get me going on this goal, since I am seriously lacking the motivation.

2) Go back to school. I always said that I was going to go back and finish my teaching degree as soon a all the kids are in school. Well, Brylee starts kindergarten this year (Sad! She is getting so BIG!). So it is time to go back. I am just going to start out part time through CSN taking online courses. I want to have my associates complete (I only need two classes), all my credits that I need to retake (my maths are too old for UNLV's teaching program requirements), and all my prerequisites done by fall of 2011 so that when Bry is in school full time, I can start the teaching program full time. I should be teaching on an internship by fall of 2012! woohoo!

3) Grow my hair back out. Yeah. I got a little crazy and whacked it all off last year, only to find it is nearly impossible to find a decent hairdresser, in Vegas, on my budget. So I am just going to grow it back out. I am shooting for a chin length, choppy bob with side swept bangs.

4) Read 12 books for pleasure. I am cutting back my goal this year, because realistically, with school I will be pretty busy.

5) Take a vacation with Brian. We probably won't be able to afford to go somewhere elaborate, but even if we could talk our parents into watching the kids for a weekend while we escape to SLC and stay with some friends, it would be nice. It's been so long since we have been able to do anything alone together.

6) Go to see the Beatles Love show. Yes, tickets are expensive. That is why I have never gone. I have a hard time spending money on me. But, even if I just save all the random change I find laying around, with all the locals discounts, that would pay for my ticket. I want to be able to do this one selfish thing for me... and not feel guilty about it! :)

7) Do something as a family at least once a week. Even if it is just sitting down and watching a movie, we need to have a family night.

So, that gives me quite a bit of stuff to work on!

Here's hoping for a great year for everyone!!!

Christmas 2009

We stayed at home, in Las Vegas, this Christmas. I cooked a big turkey dinner, on Christmas Eve. After it was all cleaned up, the girls got to open one present - pajamas. Then we watched "The Santa Clause 3". They ended up going to bed around 9:00.

The next morning Alysa woke me up at 5:30. The tv was on, showing "A Christmas Story". I told her, "Finish watching the movie and then I'll get up." She said, "But mom, I've already watched it two times!!!" Apparently, she had been up since 2:30 AM!

Maren and Matt joined us Christmas morning from Kansas via webcam! We set the laptop in the corner, where she could see and hear everything. The girls loved showing their presents off to them!

Taylor and Michael joined us on Sunday, and on Monday my mom and Kirk came to visit with Austin in tow! I think that everyone got what they wanted, and had fun! Overall, it was a great Christmas!!!