Pyles of Clutter

Today I saw....

Today I saw this guy, looking really tough with his mohawk helmet, and leather gloves. 

And an orange safety vest. 

Riding a scooter that wasn't capable of going over 30 mph. 

But his license plate cover had USMC on it. 

What do you think?  A marine? 

;)

Today

Today....
I woke up at 4:30 to the sound of pouring rain. I settled into my covers and let the sound wash over my senses. I drifted in and out until 5:30 when I made the decision that it was probably going to be raining in a half hour and I wasn't going to be running. Then I texted Christina, turned off my alarm, and snuggled up to Terry.

Today...
I started the laundry like I always do. I always start Monday with washing sheets and today was no exception. I put them in the dryer then put in towels to wash. When the dryer signaled it was done, I transferred the towels and put in another load. Soon I heard a high pitch noise coming ominously from the dryer. Sure enough, my dryer was no longer drying. No, it's drying, but it isn't tumbling. If I were really resourceful, I would try to fix it myself, but I'm not so I went to the laundromat with all my wet clothes. I do love having all my clothes dry in about a half hour. Clothes dried, and folded, in the presence of total strangers.

Today...
Gloried in having a small house. I started cleaning my house at 7:30 and was done by 9:30. I swept, mopped, and vacuumed. I did dishes, wiped counters and cupboards. I dusted and watered plants and cleaned the fish tank. I scrubbed the bathroom! I cleaned my room and made all the beds with fresh sheets. Plus more but you get the point. When your house is small, it's going to be fast.

And that was my day...

Wednesday Wanderings

Here we go....

:-) We are off to another dance competition this weekend.  It is on the west side, at a place called Wolf Lodge.  The nice thing is that the hotel has an inside water park, so I'm bringing Terry and Tessa along.  Terry is really just coming to keep Tess busy in the pool.  This is the beginning of the next busy season.  This weekend, Wolf Lodge.  Next weekend, big Drill Team Garage Sale.  Then it's Spring Fest here in ML town.  Graduation, Recital, Stake conference, girls camp, ward conference, 4th of July.  Sheesh.

;) I cannot believe that Zoey is on the cusp of her senior year.  When did I get so old, to have the main family of kids out of the house?  Just so crazy.  I know that it is weird that I don't really count Tess in with the other kids, but really, 7 years people.  It's a long time to be counting the time when they are all gone.  7 years.

:0  I was sad to see Roshon and Chelsie get eliminate from DWTS last night.  First, because I love Chelsie and will always cheer for her.  Second, because I think Roshon got some raw deals because he's young.  Third, because I don't think you should get votes just for taking off your shirt.  Seriously.  Do some dancing people!

:/  The weather for running is so awesome right now!  Its warm, but not too warm.  I can run in my t-shirt and shorts and not be sweating up a storm.  It's just super awesome.  And now we are running about 5.2 miles every morning.

:))  I'm kind of really liking the music from the band Karmin.  Have you seen them?  She's got some weird hair stuff going on, but I really like their songs.  I saw them on GMA and also Live with Kelly.  Too funny.  Look at me, getting all hip. 

:>  How do people wear those really short skirts?  I mean, you bend over wrong, or slide when you sit down and you are showing some precious parts there.  This is not good, truly.

:)  I watched the movie "We Bought A Zoo".  What a cute, fun movie!!  There is a bit of swearing, but truly, so fun, so sweet, and so happy.  I would recommend it with the understanding that there is that little swearing.  So different to see Matt Damon in a really calm role.  I mean, not only is there really no stunts in it, but it looks like he put on some weight to do this movie.  He isn't heavy by any means, but he is a little rounded out.  It was nice to see.  I love to see celebrities that look like real people.  You know what I mean.  Don't pretend you don't. 

:+)  So what else is going on?  The new neighbors are finally moving in.  They were gone for the weekend, but they have their dog here, so we fed Mick for the weekend.  Yep, if I was thinking about getting a dog before, I'm not now.  Dogs are just so much work!  I love Sarafina even more now.  He pretty much sticks to himself, and has his little clues when he wants my attention.  Usually it means he needs food in his bowl, or water.  Or that he wants to be brushed.  Otherwise, I don't see him all day.  I love it.  He really only cuddles up to me when it's cold outside.  It's a perfect relationship. 

:) And now it's time to go do work.

Until tomorrow. 

Me.

Bric-a-brac

~Oh my heavens, what a day!  Do you sometimes find yourself doing things that you just think, what the heck??  Today, I was doing a bit of rearranging in the garage when I found that a jar of spaghetti sauce had broke, just a little hole, the size of a dime.  So it had leaked out, all over the shelf, down the wall, and onto the floor.  I hadn't noticed because it was all the way to the back of the shelf.  So as I was moving things around, I noticed the spill and started cleaning.  I cleaned it all up, but as I was doing it I was thinking, "I've got to get this all cleaned off the wall, so when I die, the kids won't have to do it."  I've had the unpleasant experience to clean out house of both my sister and my grandma after they had died.  It really isn't fun to sort through all the stuff and clean out all the junk.  I'm hoping to save my children that task.

~Well, I had quite an experience today.  I was at the studio, which has a semi steep set of stairs.  As I was walking down with my new glasses, I was looking out of the bottom which is the reading lens, which distorts the distance of things.  As a result, and also because I wasn't paying that close attention, I missed the last two steps.  I went crashing down, straight onto my hands and knees.  I stayed like that for a good two or three minutes!  It hurt so bad!  The weird thing is that my ankles are what is hurting now.  I'm not looking forward to running in the morning.  My ankles are hurting and so stiff. 

~I love when I have a good crockpot dinner.  Wednesdays are always crockpot dinners.  Sometimes, I make soup, sometimes something else.  Today, I made Russian chicken, which is the easiest thing ever.  Just a bottle of Russian dressing, some cut up chicken breasts, and that's it!  Cook it on low for three hours or so, serve over rice.  So yummy.  Try it!

~I made 8 wedding cards yesterday!!  It felt good to be crafty again!  The crazy thing is that I'll have to make some more in the next couple months, we have so many weddings to go to this summer.  Time to go looking for some more ideas!

~The spring cleaning bug has hit!  I've been reorganizing, and purging, and cleaning all the little nooks and crannies that I tend to ignore.  Places like, the top of the fridge, the bookshelves, my craft shelves, and out in the food pantry.  I love that clean look when it's all done!  I'm kind of on a tear right now, and I'm hoping it will continue right through the time when I finish the garage.  (my worst cleaning nightmare)

~Meetings, meetings, meetings.  Both Terry and I have been having a million meetings lately.  It's obvious why Terry has a million meetings with his new calling in church, and their job to call people to new callings.  I've got meetings because girls camp is getting close.  It is my job at camp to have a little fun time for the groups that we are calling "Senseless with Susan".  I'm feeling a little bit of pressure to be super fun, and I'm not sure I can live up to it.  I guess we'll see.

~When does the new season of Downton Abbey start?  I'm missing it.....

~Have I told you that I cleaned the bathrooms on the fourth floor of the HFAC at BYU for a year?  Well, I did.  Because of that, I really don't like to clean the bathroom.  I know it was a long time ago, over 20 years, but still, when you cleaned 22 toilets, everyday for a year, it makes you never want to clean a toilet again.  So everyday, I drag my feet over cleaning the bathroom.  And that's all I've got to say about it.  It just never gets better.

~Our running at 6:00 in the morning is getting easier.  In fact, I'm really enjoying it now!  With the weather getting hotter, I'm a sweaty mess in the mornings, and if we were running any later, it would be even worse.  And I get home 45 minutes before Tessa even needs to get up, so I can shower, do the dishes, and start the laundry before I have to mess with her.  It really works out well.  And it's a good thing we are getting back into the habit!  I just signed up for the Fun Run 5K at Spring Fest.  I'm excited.  This will be my 4th year running.  I'm becoming a regular. 

~The lilacs are in bloom.  I love lilacs.

~Just in case you were wondering, I cleaned the fish tank.  It's all sparkling again.

~Alright, that's it.  I better get to bed.  5:30 comes early.  ;)

Shopping, part two

I had to go to the store this morning (guess which store?  Yep, the Wally World!) to get some eyelashes for Zoey.  Apparently, since the last competition, hers had gotten twisted, or something, and they were a mess.  Hence, trip to the store. 

When I got there, I thought I should maybe save myself a trip later, and see if I could come up with something for dinner on Sunday.  So I started walking the aisles, seeing if something caught my eye for dinner. 

The thing about going that early in the morning is that there are so few people at the store, that you really can take in your surroundings.  I was noticing the colors of the produce, and the structure of the rows of stocked aisles.  I was noticing the people that were there (hello pajama pants!)(although I have to say that I *almost* went in my pajama pants but the wind convinced me that was a foolish idea--hello cold pajama pants) and the music they were playing over the speakers; not your normal elevator music! 

I saw an old principal of my kids.  He was basically reading a book in the magazine/book aisle.  He was there when I went in, and there when I walked out, reading the same book, in the same spot.  Funny.

There was pajama pant lady, and pajama pant man (Double yikes!!), exercise lady, and lots of hats on, what looked like, messy hair (me too~).

One of the more interesting things, as I was slowly making my way through all the aisles, was the night shift employees that were stocking shelves.  At this point, they were done with the stocking, and were just going aisle by aisle, straightening all the products that needed it.  Each would take a section, on both sides of the aisle, straighten up, then move to the next available section.  They were making quick work of each aisle, and it reminded me of the locust; they came, they straightened, they left.  Very interesting to watch.  I'm sure they thought I was some kind of weirdo, just standing there watching them, but the buzz and precision was so interesting to me, like the 24 hour lapse of film that is sped up to go really fast.  I find those fascinating as well. 

The other thing that struck me was a dad that had a full cart of groceries.  He had obviously started at the back of the store and gone through the aisles getting what he wanted, and was now in the front, in the produce section.  Standing next to him was a pretty, little girl, about Tessa's age, that had obviously been pulled out of bed too early on a Saturday morning.  She still had sleep in her eyes, and she was leaning on the cart, like it was all should could do to stand up next to it.  It made me sad, that she had been obviously been pulled out of bed too early to go to the store.  It made me think about my kids and their upbringing.  It made me think about how easy I tried to make their lives.  Maybe if I had made it a little harder, some of them would have stayed out of trouble a little more. (You know who you are!)  Not that I should have dragged them out of bed to go to the store early with me, but I probably should have made them work a little more, and spend more quality time as a family, and.......  well, too late to second guess myself now, isn't it? 

That is my Wally World adventure for today. 

I hope. 

Try this again

So my computer is still on the fritz. As soon as it gets fixed, I'll do a wedding round up. In the meantime, send some good vibes for a speedy recovery!

Memories in the making

So I've been busy.

Like.... really busy. 

I thought I'd take you on a little memory lane journey on what I've been up to for the last two or so months.

The first thing to get done was these adorable nutcracker dolls.  I made 16 of these, and dare I say, I'm now an expert at making rag dolls.  These are so cute and relatively easy!  I made half blond and half with brown hair. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make some of these to sell next year at Christmas time, you know, in all my spare time.  ;)  I do have all the tricks now though, so it should go even smoother.

Then we had Lilly's temple day.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Lilly went to the temple for her own endowments.  It was so incredible to have all of my children who could be in the temple with me there.  It really allows you to see what heaven will be like, being sealed to your family forever.  I loved it, and the day. 

To go along with those Nutcracker dolls, we also had the performances to go to.  I really can't tell you how beautiful the Nutcracker was this year.  I loved every costume, every dance, every nuance of the performance.  It was really incredible, especially since it was just all our students from our studio.  Well done Naomi, Lacey, Peggy, Lori, and Janet!!  It was wonderful!  This is Zoey in her Snow costume, and Tessa as a Gingersnap.  Zoey also was a demi-soloist as a Nonpareil.  Beautiful girl!

Um, did I tell you that we had a wedding at our house?  Maybe, just a few times?  Well, we did!  And through the torrential downpour and windstorm that was ours to have in Seattle, we had a beautiful day at the Seattle temple for Lilly's wedding.  It was actually about 50^, but the rain was nuts, and coupled with the wind, and it was very near to impossible to take pictures.  But we got a few good ones, especially this one by Julie Waites Photography:

Look at the last picture, now at this one.  Can you see the miracle worker that is Julie?  You can barely tell that it was pouring rain on the happy couple.  And happy they were!!  It didn't matter that it was pouring, and makeup was coming off, and hair was drooping, and bodies were freezing.  They were both just so happy to be together, forever.  It was just a happy, happy day. 

And then there was the truffle making.  Oh my heavens.  People, we made just over 800 truffles for this wedding.  But I will give the credit where it's due because Megan and Zoey made most of those!  I made about 100 or so, and they did the rest!  They were truffle making machines, and I think, we could even consider them experts!  We made four different kinds of truffles, Decadent (which was just chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate), Oreo, Cake batter, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles.  Each had its own nuances, and problems, so it was interesting to figure out how to best do each one.  In all though, it was awesome, and was pretty cute at the reception.

It wasn't too shabby getting to eat the rejects either!  ;)

(AJ and Lilly)

I will give the reception it's own post later in the week, but I'm telling you, it was spectacular and I owe a LOT of people some very big thank you's!  You'll see! 

Now, I don't have much to do.  Just drill competitions, and performances, and dance competitions and performances, and our anniversary, and Megan's birthday, and....  Okay, maybe a few things to get moving on. 

Love,

me.

Monday morning.

Apparently, I can only do early morning blogs because I sat down about a million times to do a blog post this weekend, and just couldn't put it all together.  Sorry.

And apparently, I gave the wrong link for the Best Biscuits Ever!  This one should work.  Super sorry!

It was a wonderful weekend of watching General Conference.  I cried, was edified, felt chastened, was lifted up, had peace.  It was a good feeling.  And I'll be watching it again, and again, and again.

Is it just me, or are some of the apostles finally looking really old?  That always makes me sad. But it is the way it is, I guess.  Life goes on.

I worked all weekend long on the drill team Silent Auction.  It is tonight, and boy, do we have some great stuff!  I think I'm pretty much ready to go.  I'm just working on display now.  That's a nice feeling. 

Did I tell you that I finished the curtains for the studio?  Yea!  I'm pretty excited about that!

I just finished watching this Mormon Message.  It made me cry.  I could totally see that in my experience, and also in the lives of my children.  We are a family.  We stick together. 

I'm feeling a little melancholy today.  Hmmm. 

I'm swamped.  Usually, when I'm swamped, I say things like, Oh, I'm doing great, and la-de-da and fiddle-dee-dee, and everything is great.  But I'm trying to be more honest with myself, so I'm just saying, I'm swamped.  Now please, don't think that you need to come and try to save me!  I'll get things done, and off my list, I'm just trying to be more honest with my feelings, and admit what I'm feeling so I can deal with it.  I think that will be healthier for my mental health. 

And today, I get to cross off Silent Auction.  Yahoo!

But I also had to put something else on my to do list.  Have you ever had one of those, Man, I wish I had that last two minutes back?  I had one of those yesterday.  I was printing out some things for silent auction, and I got a paper jam in my printer, which is ridiculous in itself.  But anyway, I went to clear it out and kind of was in a hurry, not paying attention to what I was doing, when I pulled the paper out.  And I pulled out that little wire thingy too, that helps the ink cartridges go back and forth.  I pulled it all the way out.  Printer=dead.  I have to go get a new printer today.  *sigh*  I hate getting new stuff.  All that means to me is that I have to figure out how it works now.  U.g.h.

It's that time.  Good morning, Tessa.  Off to school.  On to my chores.  Just keep moving.  ;)

See you tomorrow!

Twenty three and counting...

It is true, Terry and I have been married now for 23 years.  I have officially been with Terry as long as I was without him.  I count myself very, very fortunate and blessed to have been able to call him my husband for all these years.

Our actual anniversary was Saturday.  Terry had some plans for us.  I'll give you 23 reasons why I love this man so much:

1.  Even though we had a lot of things we wanted to get done on Saturday, he still let me sleep in as long as I wanted.  Terry hates to be rushed.

2.  I asked him about 100 times if he thought my hair looks stupid, and each time he told me it looked youthful.  He doesn't really care about hair styles.

3.  I really wanted to wear my new short sleeve shirt, but I was worried about being cold, so Terry told me I'd still look great with a coat on, which I knew was a blatant lie.

4.  I got totally distracted by the computer, but he didn't say one word to me.  

5.  He bought me breakfast on the way out of town, even though I should have ate at home.

6.  He never complains when I fall asleep the minute we hit the outskirts of town.  

7.  Fortunately, on Saturday, I stayed awake!  And he let me ramble on and on about stuff he cares little to none about.  

8.  We listened to my music, which includes Michael Buble, not his, which includes Jimmy Buffett.

9.  Even though he had some very specific things that he wanted to do, he let me direct all our movements.

10.  When I had a return at Ross, which means that you actually have to step foot into the store, Terry didn't complain at all when I then had to "see what was there" which involves the little girls section, the teen section, the womens section, the shoe dept., the home wares section, and the accessories.  Everywhere but the mens section.  He checked that out.  It took him about 5 minutes.  Not so quick for me, and yet, he didn't hurry me at all.

11.  He voluntarily took me to the craft store.  (He did sit in the car for that one, but I didn't get a phone call while I was in there!)

12.  We looked for shoes in four different shoe stores, and each time, I would ask what he thought, and each time, he gave me an opinion, not just your standard, "whatever you think, honey."

13.  He went to Target, while I was at Payless Shoes, to buy me the Justin Bieber CD's.  Do you understand what that means?  He was by himself buying a Justin Bieber CD.  ;)

14.  Even though he was dying to go to Famous Dave's for lunch, he was willing to go anywhere I chose.  I chose Famous Dave's for him.  

15.  He went grocery shopping with me.  That in and of itself is a huge commitment.

16.  He was extremely patient with me as I figured out how to use each of the 20 or so coupons I had for the most effective amount of money saved.  He just stood patiently with the cart, while I went through each item.

17.  When I started having a slight panic attack about where we were going next, he just took over all the reins and made all decisions for me until I was back under control again.

18.  I'm totally smitten with a new little band called The Lower Lights.  They are kind of a grass roots band, that do hymn revivals.  I love them.  I found out they were coming to Tri-cities, but didn't really think too much about it.  But Terry bought tickets for us to go and hear them in concert!  He had never really heard these guys, but was willing to go sit through it for me!  

19.  He learned to love The Lower Lights like I do!  I love this band!

20.  He didn't even balk when I started singing with the band, clapping my hands and shaking my shoulders.  He even encouraged me to get up and dance.  I didn't though.  I didn't want to embarrass him too much. 

21.  He let me listen to my new CD even though it was church music and he was trying to drive and stay awake. 

22.  He totally told me to go to sleep after we started going home.  Shopping does that to me.  It makes me super tired.

23.  When we got home, he helped me unload all the groceries, all the shopping, and then put my tired body to bed, while he unwound from the long day. 

Twenty three things in one day.  I could have come up with even more!  He is just that kind of husband, really that kind of person, that tries to do whatever he can to make your life just a little bit better.  I feel very much like the song in the Sound of Music that says, "I must have done something good."  

Now, I wasn't going to do this until he blogged again, because this whole first post is just a bit embarrassing, but Terry has started a blog!  Yep, my honey is a blogging man.  It is aptly named, Terry Pyle.  That's my darling, just a straightforward, no nonsense type of guy. 

Lucky me. 

And again today...

I have a headache.

Again.

I'm telling you I'm sick of this!  I went to bed, at a reasonable hour, and still woke up at 2 in the morning with a wham-doozy of a headache.  Took medication (which I would call drugs, but I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea), then laid in bed for an hour waiting for it to go.  Got up and took another set of medication (drugs) and then waited another hour for my mind to quit racing.  It's not good if I wake up in the night because my mind goes nuts and I can't settle down again.  So finally sometime after 4~ I went back to sleep.  Unfortunately, when I woke up, headache still here. 

Here's the fun part.

I had to take Tess to the bus, so I drove, but my eyes were so sensitive to the light, I wore my sunglasses.  At 7:15 in the winter morning.  I looked ridiculous.  And then, if you've ever seen my hair when I wake up in the morning, it's pretty hiliarious.  I have little boy bed head in the morning.  It sticks straight out.  Like this===.  Funny. Well, then two people came to my door, after I had come home and gone back to bed.  So I came out to answer the door, with crazy hair, and squinty eyes.  One lady said, um, sorry, did I get you out of bed?  At 10:30 in the morning?  Yep, you did.  Crazy.

And now, I have to go back to bed.  At 11:30 a.m. 

Sheesh.