Pyles of Clutter

Book review-- Friday Night Knitting Club

Please remember that I am not much of a book reviewer and I just write what I feel.  For real book reviews, please go see Lucy's blog because she is much, MUCH better at it.

I found this book to be pretty meandering.  I wasn't so fascinated with it that I just couldn't put it down, but I didn't hate it, so I actually finished it.  The characters never got to be real to me, and some of the things that happened I thought were just too phony.  The problem is that if you write a book of only things that happen in every day normal life, no one will buy it.  So I should just suspend my disbelief and go with it, right?  I was touched by the ending, but then I'm kind of an emotional sap.  Some gratitous sex, some bad language.  Would I recommend it?  Not for everyone, but I know some people would enjoy it.  Not for me though.  Although I did want to start knitting by the end of the book.

What to say....

What to say, what to say...

I've been trying to blog every day, but honestly, most days I don't think I really have enough to say to make up a whole post.  Today is no exception.  So we'll see how it goes.

Happy Birthday to Zoey!  It is Zoey's birthday today.  I officially have four teenagers right now, at least until AJ turns 20 in November.  Right now, our ages are 23, 19, 17, 15, 13, 5.  All odds.  Soon, we start turning to all evens.  And then I will only have three teenagers.  Three teenage girls.  Please, wish me luck.

It was also Lilly's Birthday this last week!  Happy Birthday, Lilly!!  I really can't believe that this time next year she will be getting ready to leave home for college.  Freakin' me out a little.

Jane posted today about her favorite books when she was growing up.  She asked what were our favorites.  We have several on the same list: Encyclopedia Brown (of which I read them all!), Little House on the Prarie Books, The Great Brain (introduced to me by my grandmother), The Hardy Boys, Harriet the Spy, Mandy, Charlotte's Web, The Little's, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Winnie the Pooh.  Oh my.  It makes me want to go on a wild rampage of the young adult section of the library.  Fun.

Speaking of which: checked out from the library now, The Zookeeper's Wife, and The Ghost Map.  Both old bookclub books that I haven't read yet.

My netflix movies: Red Skelton: Greatest Clown, Disc One and Two.  FUNNY!

Last movie seen, Wall-E.  Good movie!  Tess loved it and so did I.

Last book read: Train to Potevka.  Umm, only so-so.

Favorite show right now: Burn Notice

I think I'm scrapping the bottom of the barrel.  So that's it for me.

Love, me

Sunday meandering.

Today I went to all three hours of my own ward for the first time in 5 weeks.  Yikes!  Lest you think I'm going inactive, no.  I just have been going to different wards for farewells, and homecomings.  Plus we were gone on vacation for a week.  It was a good church day.  I enjoyed it.

When I was checking blogs today, I stopped by Jill's blog.  If you have not gone there today and seen her Sunday Thoughts post, please do.  The video she has posted there is very inspiring, and made my day complete.  I'm trying to figure out how I can take it off the computer and give it to all the teenagers that I know.  It has some very powerful words on it, something for everyone.  Please, watch it.

We have been babysitting a five month old baby for the past three days.  Her mother is a single mom and wanted to take her other children on a little vacation without the distraction of the baby.  Well.  I can honestly say, that I'm not at all ready to have grandchildren.  I'm enough out of babyhood that I'm totally out of practice, but not far enough out that I don't remember what it's like.  But she has been a good baby, and the girls have loved having her around.  But they also see that they do not want to have a baby at a young age.  One of them told me that she doesn't want to have any kids until she's over 21.  I'm good with that.  The honeymoon's over after you have children.  Well, for me anyway. 

For all that might be wondering, my computer is doing well again.  Thank you for thinking of me.

Elder AJ has hit his 8 month mark.  I need to quit thinking about it.  It is making the time go slow again.  Poor guy.  If I think about it, I'm much better about sending letters, packages, etc.  If I don't think about it, time goes much faster, but he doesn't get a thing from home.  I'll probably just have to suffer through it.  He needs something from home. 

I'm going to take a nap.  Midnight feedings do not agree with me.

Love, me.

Woe is me.

Dear People,

I'm perturbed beyond perturbed.  My computer is having woes AGAIN!!  I cannot tell you how irritated I am right now, so I will just tell you that I'm going to try desperate to finish another one of my severly over due books tonight.

I hope I'm not missing any exciting blog action. 

Love, me.

Just a thought or two...

Here's a question:  you know when you cut a shoot off a plant and then you get it to grow roots, what is that called?  I'm trying to do that with a plant that I got from my grandma, but I'm not sure why.  Any help would be appreciated. 

Well, I didn't get to go pick raspberries and it isn't looking good to be able to.  But my sister called me today to tell me that she can get me strawberries that are picked, cleaned, sliced and sugared for a pretty good price.  I'm pretty excited about this because I want to make jam.  Now I've never made jam so if anyone wants to share a great recipe with me, it would be greatly appreciated.  I'm still hoping for raspberries though.

We are off to the pool again today!  Yesterday when we went to the pool, I found a nice little corner of shade, where I read my book while Tessa swam, and then we decided to go on the lazy river together.  People, this is a major triumph.  I have not been in a swimming suit for so long, I can't even remember when I last wore one.  I found a regular old suit at Walmart, but then I found some board shorts that I can wear with it.  Yea, fat legs hidden!  We had so much fun in the lazy river!  We just went around, and around, and around.  Fabulous!

Our studio is puting on the play "Suessical".  It has a lot of our dancers in it, but it really is for anyone that wants to try out.  Well, we have about 40 kids in it right now, and so the director decided that she needed a little organization help.  Or maybe I should say that she needed a little disciplinarian help.  And because apparently I don't have enough to do, I'm now being called the assistant director.  Terry was like, Are you really doing this?!  Are you crazy!?  Yes.  I am. 

Alright, I'm off to Suessical practice.  Ugh.

Love, me

Magazine woes

Alright, are you totally tired of me complaining about magazines yet?  Well, if you are, just click on out of here.  Otherwise, here comes more.

Last week, one of the co-managers told me that they would be moving my magazines Tuesday night, late though, so I might want to come in on Wednesday morning so that I could put them back into order, because let's face it, no else cares if the magazines have any order whatsoever, except me.  So Tuesday night, I get a call from a good friend of mine who asks me if I want to go picking raspberries in the morning and through lots of back and forth, we decided that I can go to work super early, then hopefully be done in time to go picking.  Consequently, I get up at 5:00 to go to work.  Not fun.  I am not an early bird type of gal.  Well, I get there and I see that I have new fixtures but guess what, no magazines moved.  What!?  What is going on here?  As well as that, I see that I'm missing a few of the shelves, so I'm not sure what I'm suppose to do.  Anyway, long story short, I find someone who has to find someone, who has to wait for someone else, who then has to check his list, who then tells me that my shelves are on back order, no one moves magazines but me, I'll have to use some of the old magazine shelves, and so on.  Fine.  I start to move magazines, and yes, 4 hours later, I finally finish moving all the magazines.  Ugh.  But!  They are in their new home and I shouldn't have to do this again (well, except the part where I have to put my new shelves up, but that shouldn't be to troublesome)(famous last words). 

And that is my tale of woe, and why I'm so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open, but tomorrow, I will tell you all about When Tess and I went to the pool for Mother's Celebration Day (a holiday Tess made up).   Oh my, what fun!

Goodnight!

A couple of tidbits

Just a quick one to say if you haven't seen this movie, you must rent it!!  It is pretty funny with lots of inside jokes, and the songs are so cute.  The dance scenes are pretty good too, but the best part of the whole movie is the Sadie Hawkins Day race, where the women try to catch themselves a husband.  Oh my goodness.  I love this movie so much, that I bought it for $5.49 on Amazon.com.  Whoo Hoo!  I can hardly wait for Friday when we own it for good!

Oh another note!  Happy Birthday to Jane!  She is one of the only people I know that truly shows Christ-like love to EVERYONE she meets.  I feel incredibly blessed to be able to have my children have her for a seminary teacher.  The great love that she shows to the students is truly amazing, and gives them all a chance know what Heavenly Father wants them to know.  Thanks Jane for all that you do!  You are the most amazing woman!

Treasures from Grandma Great

Last Wednesday, my dad, sister, brother, his two boys, and I went down to Grandma Great's house to start cleaning it out.  My dad's big goal was to cleanout out the food storage that my grandma had.  My grandma took very seriously the challenge from our church leaders to have a year supply of food.  People, she had more than a year supply of food left!  It took us more than an hour to clean out all her dry and canned goods in storage, her freezer and the food in her kitchen.  The problem with all this is that she hadn't bought anything new in a long time, a loooonnnnngggg time.  Like we found food in her storage that was dated 1968.  Seriously!  We threw away more than we saved because it was so old and past it's expiration date. It was truly amazing. 

But it's done now.

Then I spent a little time going through what was still left of her things in the house.  I looked at the books and looked in closets.  I found these few treasures:

This may not look like much a treasure, a Lassie plate, but this is the plate that my Uncle Garth, who had Down's Syndrome, always used.  I can remember always wanting to use it but he got really uptight when I tried.  Oh, memories.

 

When you were little at my grandparents house, you sat on this stool at the table so that you were as tall as the table.  I can remember sitting on this little stool for a long time, and I even have a picture of my sister who is ten years old than me sitting on it.  Fun.

Now this is beyond wonderful. I found this dress all crumpled up in a bag in the back of the closet.  We pulled it out and I thought my girls could actually wear this with a little added touch here and there to make it a little more modern.  Awesome!.  Then, when I got it home and was showing my mom the dress, she told me that it was the dress that Grandma wore to my parents wedding.  Goodness!

Now this, this... rooster is just....something.  It is made of glass, light blue in color, and, well, ugly.  It was in y grandma's bedroom, and I know nothing of it's history.  We have it because of this: Megan went with me to the funeral and while there asked if she could have a little music box on the dresser but when we went back to get it, it was gone.  Bummer.  She was very upset over this, but there wasn't anything we could do about it.  Well, as things go, my dad felt bad about this and so while we were there, he says, hey, you could give this to Megan.  I'm like, I could, but why?!  And he's like, as a little joke.  I was like, junk in my house dad!  Yuck!  But I took it home, and wouldn't you know it if she didn't love the thing!  She has a very eclectic taste.  Funny Megan. 

Besides that, I also found my dad's high school graduation announcement.  Also, a bunch of vintage baby announcements, which I hope to scan in and post, some old books, and some dishes that I remember from my childhood. 

True treasures.  

Just a little emptying, before I go to bed.

Just a few points to contend with:

• The three olders, (well, the three olders at home) are at girls camp this week and so it is just me, Terry and Tess.  Does this seem strange to anyone else, because frankly, it is really weird to me.  And then I remember that this is what we have to look forward to for about 7 years.  Weird.
• The "m" button on my computer isn't fixed yet and it is driving me crazy!  I have to watch everything I type and honestly, I hate that.  For my little ADD mind, it is an extreme hardship to not be able to do two things at the same time.  Ugh.
• I tried desperately to do my SPT all day today, but it just didn't work.  I'm hoping for tomorrow though, because I have a great idea!
• Speaking of tomorrow, I will be heading down to my grandma's house to start the unenviable task of cleaning it out.  What is left now is really just the junk of our lives.  I have made a vow that I will keep my house clutter clean so that when I die, (which could be any day now, you know) there will not be this big hullabaloo to contend with.  I basically have three big messes to deal with: my movies, my books, and my scrapbook stuff.  The rest is just not that big of a mess. 
• We found out tonight that Elder Pyle (AJ) got transferred today.  What!?  I just got all comfortable with the families he was with, and was slightly less worried about him and now he's in a whole new place.  Well, still in Vegas, poor guy with all the nasty heat, but now he's in the poorer part of town.  Fun times.  I'm worried about the heat there.  If you read this, and now my poor little boy, telling his mother says to stay out of the sun!  Drink some water!  Wear a big ole sun hat!  It's alright to look like a dork!  Take care!
• I have made dinner three days in a row.  It's a record for summer time.  And no one was home to enjoy it except me.
• I have also combed and done something with Tess' hair every day this week.  Also a new record for me. 
• I want a day to sleep all day.  I have not yet recovered from the "big trip".  But really I can't complain.  I didn't have to go to camp two days after I got home.  Thank goodness.

That's it for me.  I'm tired of fighting the "m" button.

Love, me

Las Vegas Baby!

Okay, the thing is that we didn't really spend too much time on the strip, so most (all) of our pictures are from the competition.  That being said, here we are:

The tickets that were given to us (thanks again Stuarts!) were to the show "V".  This is our SPT in front of the box office.  This is our story.  We got to the box office and said, we are guests of **** Stuart and he said he would have some tickets waiting for us.  The manager turned to us and said, He called these in himself.  We were like, wow, does that mean something?  I guess it does! 

You can't see it, because it was actually behind a pole (snicker) but Lilly thought she might have found her new career.  They offer Stripping 101 classes at the V Theater.  Who knew?  Okay, just kidding!  We thought it was really funny though.  Stripping 101.  Really.  They even had a little video going of the class.  Oh funny. 

Is that just the most beautiful sky?  Well, it ought to be!  It's painted on the ceiling of the Miracle Mile of Shops behind the Planet Hollywood Hotel.  Or in the Planet Hollywood Hotel, or something like that.  Somewhere around the Hotel, okay!?  I don't know my way around there.  But, it was beautiful and really fun to look at because it looked so real.  But it was much cooler than outside!  Ha!

Nationals was awesome!!  The dancers were so unbelievable!  They danced so great and the emotion in it was unbelievable.  One of the dances that the Elite group does is called "Prayer of the Children".  It is a really beautiful dance and the emotion it brings from the girls is really touching.  It was so, so inspiring.  On the whole our dancers did well for themselves, but I want to say, Congrats to the Dance Zone, who took it all!  They were so awesome.  But we are awesome too.  So there.

Okay, this is the SPT that I got with Zoey EVERY TIME!  She never once gave me a decent look, so to get back at here, it goes on the blog.  So there.

 

This is our Platinum Award dance!  It was really fun to see all the dancers up on the stage dancing and so excited!  I loved it.  It's great to see them get rewarded for the hard work that they put into their talent. 

On to Provo!  Oh people.  Is this not the sweetest picture ever?  This is my big nephew Brad, with my cousin's son, Ben.  It was the cutest thing to watch Brad help Ben over and over with the sparklers, lighting one, writing his name in the air, watching it go out, then starting all over again.  Oh my.  So sweet.

Another child who can not take a normal picture.  I swear it about kills him to just look at the camera and smile.  More sparkler fun. 

These are some cute girls!

Tyler is my cousin Laura's youngest son.  He is a funny boy.  She told him that he had to take a nap so we could go to the party.  But he kept telling her, I hate the party!  It was so funny.  She kept telling him, you are going to love the party.  And he kept reassuring her, that he hates the party.  Well, when we made it to the party, he loved the party!  As proof, here he is with frosting all over his  face.  Love it!

And now we are home, and I'm *almost* starting to feel normal again.  Thank goodness we are having some nice normal temperatures here.  No Hot, Hot, HOT, weather!