Pyles of Clutter

Sheesh.

Argh.  So I made a pact with myself that I need to blog more regularly, but the problem is that I feel like I should be putting pictures with my posts.  And the problem with that is I generally download all my pictures on my laptop, which is in my bedroom, and do everything else on my computer in our "study" room.  No pictures on that computer.  So.  I'm on the study computer.  No pictures today.

Remember how I said the weather was mild and that our walks have been fairly pleasant.  No so much this morning.  It was raining, raining, raining this morning, and I got drenched.  Good news is that it was fairly mild in temperature, but unless it's 80^ outside, rain is still cold.  And I was cold this morning.  Picture to come.

Remember how lunch can be and is, utter chaos most of the time.  Well, today was one of those days.  With my rain soaked body trembling uncontrollably, I spent way too much time in the hot shower, and then too much time snuggling under a blanket on the couch, until I was LATE getting everything started.  Fridays are usually the day I do some kind of fancy cookie, and so I really should have got onto that sooner.  All I can say is thank goodness I had planned haystacks because that only takes a minute. 

*sidenote: Easton was so happy.  He loves haystacks.  Bryce is such a hoot!  He was analyzing people by how they make their haystacks; layer everything, or mix it all together?  The girls were busy giving the boys the lecture of why it is important to keep your assigned seats, and not to steal aforementioned seats.  And of course, we must all sign out before you go to the bathroom.  I love lunch conversations!  *back to the original story.

SO. I was a little rushed getting lunch together and so when the kids were eating, I was still finishing things up, cleaning the kitchen mess, putting stuff away, etc.  SO after they left, I just felt a little like, the locusts had come and gone.  It really just dazed me for a few minutes.  Somedays, it's just all I can do.  Today was one of those days.  Picture to come.

One of the best presents I've gotten is an under the counter DVD player for my kitchen.  I watch all kinds of movies on there.  Today, I watched BBC's Miss Marple, The Body In the Library.  This is not the first one in this series that I have watched.  I love these shows!  Yesterday, I watched "The Grapes of Wrath."  I may have to read that book, because I gotta believe there's something more to that then the movie depicted.  Some times, classic movie just equals boring, black and white movie.  Before that I watched the movie, "August Rush"  which is a fairly new movie.  Loved the music in it.  Oh, and before that, I watched a truly horrific version of The Chronicles of Narnia.  They were produced by BBC, and they were very simplistic.  But I also just felt like they were so boring, capturing none of the emotions of the books.  Don't rent them.  *shudder*   But before that, I rented two very delightful movies, "Penelope" and "Miss Potter".  I loved them both, and hope to find them to buy.  So very delightful! 

Hello, my name is Susan and I'm a Farmville addict.  This is for my addicted friends, Anita and Darla.  Did you see that you can grow flowers now?!!!  I'm so excited!  I planted a little patch of Daffodils this morning and I can hardly wait to see how they grow.  Fun times.  (Yes, I know.  I need a life.  I'm working on it.)

Yahoo!!  Megan made a district time last night at her swim meet!  It's been an uphill struggle but finally, finally at the last meet of the season, Megan got the time she needed to qualify for districts in swim.  It's been a long haul this year.  Every year, they up the time that you need to qualify; her freshman year she needed 7:29 in her 500 meter swim, and this year, she needed a 6:33.  Crazy!  But she did it!  Yahoo!

And that's it for me.

In the pictures...

Documenting a little of our life here:

So it was wicked cold here for about a week, and now the weather is back to mild, with bouts of rain.  So far, I only got soaked on my walk one day.  Nice.  I'm hoping for the mild weather for a couple more weeks.  Tessa and I in the morning, on our way to school.

Our lovely Megan went to Homecoming last week.  Oh people, she looked so beautiful.  It made me a little sad, to see her look so grown up.  But I was also very happy that she had such a fun date.  Yea for Megan!

Not that I don't LOVE doing it, but I'm almost done with another month of lunch!  Yahoo!  2 down, 7 to go...  The lunch crew:

When Terry, Zoey and Tessa were gone to Utah, Meg and I went out to lunch at Michael's Bistro.  Hmmm.  I'm going to have to go again, to get a good feel for it.  Not super impressed the first time.  Anyone else have an opinion?  Meg and I self portrait...

Drill team is going very well for Zoey!  The routines have been great and I think Zoey has been doing terrific!  The early start is still a little hard for her, but she is making it.  She hasn't been late yet.  Yea for Zoey, and yea for carpooling!  

Zoey's first performance....

33 days left.  But who's counting....

See you in the pictures...

Love,

me
 
 
 
 

Long awaited pictures.

Disclaimer:  Remember that I got these pictures with no explanations, no who is that, or what is going on or anything.  So just enjoy the pictures, wordless version.

Apparently, you can never leave Moses Lake behind!

Moses Lake boys...

Judging by the date, AJ is on his way to Panaca

A little goat clean up.

Ha!

 

It DOES snow in Nevada!  This is Panaca.

This is AJ and Elder Cruzate, but I don't know who the third boy is

Seriously?  A hammock?

 

This is a pair of pants, must be at 18 month mark.

 

Do I look fat in these pants?

The strip in the background

Wait!  He was a basketball player!

One of many...

 

Typical missionary's life.

 

Serving the Lord.  
 

   
  
  

Just some stuff.

I should be starting lunch right now, but I don't want to.  It's not urgent though.  On the menu for today, grilled cheese and tuna sandwiches (not together) and tomato soup.  Yesterday, I made White Chicken Chili (may I say Yum) and I was so proud of myself for being on top of things enough to soak my beans over night.  Yea me.  And because it was cold, cold, cold outside, it was eaten, every drop.  I like it when that happens.  This week, we are having all hot foods, just the way the schedule worked out.  I make up my menu a month in advance and it does NOT change.  It's the only way I can keep it all together.   Enough about lunch.

*sigh*  I'm tired today, and it is gloomy outside.  You know what that means.  Curled and cozy, reading a book.  That's what I'm struggling to combat today.  I have a list that is STILL a mile long, and some of the things are becoming down right imperative that I get done.  (Right Jane?  Who is still waiting for the last CJ!) (Yikes!)  I didn't get much done over the weekend, which is both annoying and exciting for me.  Annoying because it was a 3 1/2 day weekend (we got out early on Thursday) and only Meg and I were home, so I should have been able to really get moving on stuff.  But I didn't.  Which brings me to the excited part where I just toddled around the house, not really doing anything, until a wild hair grabbed me and I did something like totally change my bedroom, which requires lots of cleaning.  Or decide that I'm tired of hearing all the stuff that is rattling around the INSIDE of my couches, so I took off the bottom cover and cleaned all the stuff out.  I found toys, socks, candy wrappers, pens, pencils, popcorn, and even a secret admirer note.  Funny.  And now my couches don't rattle anymore when I move them to mop underneath.  So I was totally excited and satisfied with the stuff I DID do, but so annoyed that I didn't get more off my list.  Humph.

As mentioned before, Terry, Tessa, and Zoey went down to Utah to visit the kiddies.  They had a really great time, and came back TIRED.  Terry and Tess are combating colds, and I've been keeping Megan dosed with medicine to try and keep hers under control for three more weeks.  That's about when swim season ends.  Terry apparently saw a lot of sports events, choosing to go to Tyson's soccer game (snort) (we will not be talking about that and anyone that knows Tyson or has seen his facebook lately will know why we won't be talking about it.)  (Oh Tyson.  I love you.)  but also going to see quite a few of my cousin, Laura's, kids games.  He saw Robbie's football game, Lindsey's soccer game, and someone else's game too, but not sure which one of them it was.  Funny.  He just can't get rid of it.  Zoey and Tess had a really fun sleepover at Lilly's dorm, which may or may not have added to the mystic of college.  I'm not sure.  And then they had breakfast at the infamous Blue Plate Diner that was featured on Terry's favorite show, Diners, Drive In's and Dives.  Or the triple D show.  But Terry's favorite part of the trip was when he walked with Lilly around campus, bought some ice cream, and just talked about what was going on in her life.  I love that.  So sweet.  I'm glad they had a lot of fun, and I hope that Lilly isn't suffering for it. 

I got a million pictures from AJ on Saturday!!  You have no idea how exciting this is to me!  I haven't got pictures from him in over a year. He is a stinker.  Hopefully later today, I can put some up on here, so everyone can see them.  I love that boy.

Have I mentioned it's cold outside?  Yep.  It is.  We have turned on the heater, and I'm starting to look like the snowmen when I go out walking, I have so many layers on.  Two shirts, two pairs of pants, hat, gloves, jacket.  Brrr.

I realize that I'm jumping the gun lately, but I'm really getting into Christmas music.  It's just so soothing to my jangled nerves.  So between that, and listening to conference talks again, (yea for the internet!), I'm feeling much calmer these days.

And that's it for me.

For you Megan!

In honor of Megan and her 182 days left (or something like that), I have changed my blog banner to the city scape of Paris.  Yea for Megan!!

Little here, little there

I have no business blogging right now.  None at all!  My list of things to do rivals my Christmas wish list in length, and yet, here I sit. 

So here goes my story of the day.  Right now, as we speak (er, type), I am baking brownies for lunch.  The unfortunate thing is that they are smelling like they are burning.  But they are not.  The problem comes from the fact that my oven is dirty and there is stuff on the bottom that is burning.  Still.  I made Shepherd's Pie on Monday, but the dish I usually make it in was being used for something else so I made it in another dish that the sides are not very high.  Bummer.  It overflowed.  I foresee some oven cleaning in my not so distant future.

Story #2-- Pets.  We have had our fish tank now for two years.  Incredible, isn't it, that I would put up with it for that long?  But the truth of the matter is that I like living things around me, so I have a cat.  And fish.  And lots of house plants.  And I still want a bird but have conceded the fact that a dog has to come first.  Bummer.  Back to the fish.  So our fish were getting old, you know, grey beards and all that, and had started to die off on us.  Now, I'm a little suspicious of the dying because it happened when I was gone to Utah, and Terry said he couldn't find the dead bodies.  One night they just disappeared out of the fish tank.  I'm hoping they didn't commit suicide and jump out.  I'm also hoping that Sarafina, rotten cat, didn't somehow get up there and dig them out and eat them.  But really, where did they go?  I'm still wondering.  Terry has not been ruled out as a suspect.  At any rate, it was time to either let the others die or replenish the fish neighborhood.  I bought some fish.  I bought some new neon tetras (so colorful!) and some Mickey Mouse Mollies.  The MMM's are so cute!  Problem, one has died already!  Ugh!  Now I remember that I hate getting new fish.  Really.

Story #3--  I have come to the conclusion that no matter how much you exercise, you will always still hurt afterwards.  I have been walking now for over a year, and still when I get up, I walk like a grandma until I get myself all loosened up.  I'm so tired of it, but can see that unless I quit exercising (which if you read my post from yesterday, you will see is NOT a possiblity.  Stupid Twinkie.) I will always be all stiff when I stand up.  Bummer.

Story #4-- Terry, Zoey, and Tessa will be going down to Utah tomorrow!  They are going down to visit the kiddies, set up AJ's apartment contract and generally just visit.  Megan, poor thing, has swim practice and work, so she and I will be staying home.  I'm actually a little bit glad, because it takes so much out of me to drive down there, and also to have the emotional good bye.  And my month is packed.  And my next month is packed.  And the month after that!  I think you get the picture.  But I will miss getting to see Lilly, Tyson, Brad and Rob, Auntie Pam and crew, and well, everyone else.  The list could go on and on.  Seriously, we should just move there.  Humph.

Story #5-- Hopefully, it is true, but I think my blog stalker is gone and so I can happily say, ONLY 48 MORE DAYS UNTIL AJ COMES HOME!!!!!  You can not imagine how excited I am to have him home and know that never again (knock on wood) will our family be separate like that.  But I also have to say that I wouldn't have wanted him anywhere else for the last two years.  Hopefully, he's learned a thing or two about himself, about Christ, about service.  My heart is aching for these last days to go by quickly.

Story #6-- Sarafina, after a good scolding last night, let me sleep all the way until 5:00 a.m.  Thank goodness.  He is still in the dog, or cat, house though.  We'll see how tonight goes. 

And that is all for me.  Maybe.

Love,
me

I've got something else!

I know, I know, crazy.  Me posting twice in one day, but it seems I have more to say.  Go figure.

Did I happen to mention that I'm making lunch for the freshman kids again?  Well, in case I didn't, I am.  It is Zoey's freshman year, and I make lunch for my freshman and her friends during the school year.  Funny thing is (and this is really an irritant to Zoey), I'm also making lunch for a bunch of Megan's friends, who know the joy of lunch at the Pyles.  That brings our total to somewhere between 12-17 kids everyday for lunch. 

Today, I thought I would be ambitious and make some caramel for dipping apples into.  I started it out, using Miss Jane's recipe, and then went on to other things for lunch, because, you know, it cooks FOREVER....  Well, I had made my cookies, then made the wraps we were having for lunch, then went back to check on the caramel.  STILL not done.  Cleared off the table, put out the food, drinks, plates and such, went back to check on caramel.  STILL not done.  Cleaned up the lunch making mess, swept floors, changed laundry around (stinkin' cat last night!), checked caramel.  NOT DONE.  At this point, I pretty much gave up on caramel for lunch, since the kids would be there in five minutes, and it wasn't getting done, so I put the apples away.  There's always tomorrow.

And now the real point of my story.   

SOMEONE STOP ME BEFORE I EAT ALL THAT CARAMEL!!!

Holy smokes, I could just eat it by the spoonfuls until it was all gone.  I LOVE home made caramel in any form!!  I pretty much licked the pan clean, without any remorse. 

At least not today. 

I'm sure that will come tomorrow when I get on the scale and it does not say a good number for me.  Someone save me from myself.  I mean, truly, I've got some kind of weirdness going on because yesterday, and I'm thoroughly ashamed of myself for this, I ate.....  a TWINKIE!!  A TWINKIE!!  Could it get anymore disgusting!?!?  They aren't even any good!  Generally for the last year, I have abstained from any kind of processed sugar, such as candy, doughnuts, baked good.... twinkies. 

Oh my heavens above. 

What is wrong with me!?

Seriously, if I'm going to waste calories, I would HOPE that I would waste them on something worth having like, say, homemade oreos.  But no.  I ate a twinkie. 

Gross. 

Stinkin' cat.

Okay, the cat doesn't really stink, but I'm just a little uptight with him(/her)(remember the girl name) today.  If I wasn't so attached to him, he would definitely be an all outside cat.  Sheesh. 

It's getting a might *chilly* here in our neck of the woods, and that means that Sarafina is not liking the outside at night.  He has decided that sleeping indoors is much better but is so used to prowling all night, that he stays awake instead of sleeping.  So last night, do NOT ask me why, he decides that there is something *behind* the washing machine that he must have! Now I know for a fact that there is NOTHING behind there because a couple of weeks ago, my washing machine broke and we had to pull it out to fix it, hence causing me to go into a flurry to clean the mess that has been there for who knows how long.  (That is a whole other blog post, the domino effect of broken appliances.)  (And I realize that there could be a mouse behind the washer, but I'm refusing to acknowledge it, nor do I really want to know it's there.  If it is.  *shudder*) 

Ahem.  Back to the story. 

SO Sarafina, gets himself behind the washer, but then when he tries to get himself out of behind the washer, he can't quite jump high enough to get back onto the top and there's no other way to get out from behind there.  Suffice to say, there was a lot of jumping and bumping going on before I could drag myself out of bed to go see WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE!@!  When I figured out first, where the cat was, and second, that he was stuck, I really just wanted to leave him there, but I couldn't do it.  Mainly because I knew he was not going to give up.  Well, as the story goes, he then proceeded to wake me up two more times, before it was time for me to really get up, and so I've been up basically since 4:00 in the morning, which isn't all that early for Neighbor Jane, but I must say, it's pretty early for me.  Yuck.  And then to add insult to injury, when I let Sarafina back in the house, (yes, I made him go out for awhile so I could get 15 minutes of peace!) he promptly went to his favorite spot, the blanket basket and went to sleep. Which is what he is still doing now, 3 hours later. 

 Argh. 

Rotten cat. 

And that's why...

Lilly has been at BYU now for a little over one month.  It hasn't been an easy month, for either of us, but we are working through it and success is sure to follow.  She has had some great experiences that I would like to tell you, hopefully she won't mind. 

First, she had the opportunity to go to listen to our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, speak at a BYU Devotional.  I listened to the devotional later, and it was awesome.  Such simple words, and yet profound enough to make an impact.  If you have the opportunity to listen to it, I would invite you to.  Here is the link.  In the address, he spoke of past prophets that he had known, of their likes and dislikes, and most importantly, the counsel they gave to their generation to cope in a world of strife.  Wise, wise words.   When Lilly got out of the devotional, she called me immediately, full of hope, courage, and ready to take on the tasks put before her. 

Then, the other day, we were talking about her interior design class.  Her professor is a woman, middle aged or more, and the best part, very vocal about our religion.  She has made her views about what is needful and what is excess in the size of a house, very plain to her students.  She has talked about prophets and apostles counsel that we only get what we can afford, that we stay out of debt, that we consider carefully what we really need versus what we want.  She is very thoughtful of advising her students to follow the prophet.

And lastly, Lilly has talked about her English teacher.  The English teacher is a graduate student who has taken the time to really find out about her students.  She has had several interviews with them, critiqued their papers before they turned them in, and given them encouragement.  Lilly's class is full of English majors, taking this Honors English class as the first step in their college careers.  Lilly is not an English major, and took this class mainly because I beg her to.  It is at an awkward time, in the early evening hours, and I worried that it would be beneficial after all.  But Lilly felt like if she was going to take it, that was the time to do it. And it was the only one available.  It has been great for her!  The teacher, acting on what ever prompting, sent Lilly an email, telling her to believe in herself, that her writing was good, and that she could keep up with the rest of her class, even though she wasn't as passionate about writing as they were.  She told her she doesn't normally do this, but she felt that Lilly needed to hear this.  It was exactly the encouragement Lilly needed to keep trying.  Thank goodness for this teacher. 

And that's why I've always wanted my children to go to a church school.  The opportunities are there to learn so much more about the gospel, about how our Heavenly Father wants us to be, of getting to listen so much more to Prophets and Apostles.  I wish for them to have every opportunity to strengthen their testimonies. 

I'm not naive enough to think that they are in Zion there.  There is always the bad with the good, but if they are wise (ahem, listen up children), they will take the opportunities that are presented and use them to better themselves for the upcoming real world that they will be expected to make a difference in. 

And what about the children who don't have or take the opportunity to go to a church school?  I worry about them more!  I think it's harder for them.  I'm sad that they don't get the same insights.  I think they have to be stronger and more resilient.  I worry that I've prepared them enough to face the real world earlier.  I hope that their testimony is strong enough to resist temptations that will come to them faster and more often. 

And that's why.

It's just me.

Yep, it's me.  Still alive.  Still kicking.  Still being a slacker when it comes to the ole blog...

Well, we've had a few changes in our lives since I blogged last.  I guess the biggest would be that Lilly has moved to Utah, attending BYU in Provo.  You know, when the boys left on their missions, they were so obnoxious before they left, and  I was sure it was because they didn't want me to miss them *too* badly, and to a certain extent, it worked.  I'm pretty sure now, that Lilly was doing me the same favor and was doing all in her power to irritate me before she left.  I am sad to say though, that it didn't work as well, and I miss her like crazy.  The nice thing is that she does call me everyday and tell me about how are things in her life.  And things are going pretty well in her life.  She has adjusted to life where you do your own laundry and classes that actually have homework.  Of course, we still have a few tears now and then, from this house and her apartment, but overall, I think we're both doing great.

School has started again!  First grade.  All day school.  Ride the bus to and from school.  Lunch AT school.  Phew!  Tessa has been making lots of changes and doing pretty well with it.  So far, she is still eating her meat sandwiches everyday.  You have NO idea how exciting this is to me.  She is by far, the pickiest eater I have ever seen.  Honestly.  Freshman in high school.  Getting up at 5:45 to get to drill practice by 6:15.  Four classes, not six.  No lockers.  Dance after school.  Guitar lessons.  Tumbling lessons.  Zoey is still figuring out the schedule.  Oh my goodness, Lilly.  I miss you so much at 5:30 in the morning.  I miss that you could get yourself up, and QUIETLY get ready for the day before leaving for practice.  It is an art that Zoey hasn't mastered yet.  Ugh.  Junior year!  Almost done!  Not sure that's what she wants.  Excited for spring vacation, and a trip to Paris!  Yes, that's right!  Megan is going to Paris for six days over spring vacation.  I'm so proud of her too, because she made the money to go all on her own this summer, working at the pool.  I'm so excited for her!  She will get to do something that I want to do!  See the Eiffel Tower! 

My darling son, Tyson, has decided that he has had it with this whole going to school thing and is just going for it.  He decided to stay in Provo, get a loan, and just load himself up with class, hoping to get a job to pay for the rest of school.  He is tired of just barely making any head way.  I don't blame him, but so wish he didn't have to have loans to get going.  Such is life. 

Has anyone been counting?  We are coming up on 24 months soon!  But because I have a little blog stalker, I can't say much about it, other than to say that I'm SO EXCITED!!  Time is almost up and my family will all be together again soon.

Hmmm.  I'm tired and can't think of much else to say.  Hopefully, I'll get back into a bloggity groove again!

Love,

Me.