Again!

It's snowing again.

This is the 3rd? 4th? 5th? weekend in a row.

ENOUGH!

Latest Purchase

The prince used some of his Christmas money to buy an acoustic guitar--it is even a brand that is his name so technically it's engraved with his name. It's his first acoustic guitar. I have one, but he assures me it is not "right" as the neck is wider. I think it might be a Spanish style guitar, though I'm not sure. At any rate, he's very happy with this new purchase, and so are we as it does not get plugged in so can only be so loud.





Notice the Zeplin poster behind him? The one beside that is of guitar cords. And yes, that's a keyboard to his left. It's on loan from a friend (skunk boy) for awhile, or as Reed put it, "This is going to live at your house for awhile." There is much that is musical in this room.





Here's another photos of the current music collection.

Hey, Dude, CLEAN YOUR ROOM!!!

Can you say "over-extended"?

The princess recently signed up for volleyball. That means she's currently active in:

Extended Studies
Student Council
Dance 3 nights/week
Drama Club
Honor's Choir
And now Volleyball--which starts next week

Thankfully, the prince is not currently as wrapped up in activities, which is a good thing because he has tons of homework most nights. His weekends, however, are always very full with social activities with friends. This means, until he finished driver's ed this summer and gets his license, we are his taxi!

I think that makes us all "over-extended"!

Two School Funnies

The kids who ride the school bus fill out a form at the beginning of the school year. It has their address and some major point of reference about the location of their stop, which the child fills in. For example, it might be "corner of Elm and Birch" or "top of Stone Road".

Yesterday the principal showed me a bus slip in which the 6th grader wrote as his reference point, "by big bush with barking dog." Still giggling about that one!

A 7th grader was sent to my room to work on a limerick for his English class. He was having no luck so I "helped" him a little. In the end, he (we, I) wrote this. It was so clever that the teacher sent it out to the school. I thought I'd share:

There was a boy named Brayden.
Who thought school should be played in.
His teachers did not agree.
They said, "Woe is me!"
And decided for a trade in.

KCI does good!

I thought about whining about the additional snow we got yesterday, but instead, I'll share this good news.

KCI Sends Critically Needed Medical Products to Haiti to Help Treat Seriously Wounded

SAN ANTONIO—JAN. 19, 2010—Kinetic Concepts, Inc. (NYSE: KCI) today announced its contribution of more than $2 million dollars worth of advanced wound care products to the Haiti relief effort. The in-kind donation includes KCI’s industry-leading Active Healing Solutions^™ and Therapeutic Support Systems^™ products designed to help treat complex and hard-to-heal wounds. KCI will collaborate with Surgical Implant Generation Network (SIGN) and Project Medishare to place products in the hands of medical personnel in Haiti.

Additionally, KCI is matching employee donations and also donated cash. Yep, the king and I are donating.

Crash Helmet

Back in November, Andy drove his big ol' electric wheelchair over a ball while playing at recess. The wheelchair, with him in it, tipped. Andy's head hit the pavement. An ambulance ride to Salt Lake put him at Children's Primary Hospital for a few days with a skull fracture. No surgery required. No brain bleeding. He was able to come home though was still very nauseous and dizzy for a good week or more afterward. He also began sporting this crash helmet.

But all I can think is: too little too late?

He's back to his old self now. The weather's been too cold for him to be outside many a day at recess so he's started a blog that he works on when inside. Sorry, I'd link you here, but you have to have the special password to access it, and no, it's not crash helmet!

Amazing Race

As I'm sure I've said before, I'm not a big TV watcher. I like Survivor (duh), American Idol when I can catch it, Big Brother in the summer, and my regular favorite is Castle--he's a hoot. I catch Amazing Race once in awhile but haven't watched it regularly for a couple of seasons. I didn't even watch last season when a team from my town was on it. But this season I'll be tuning in because the winner of last summer's Big Brother, Jordan, and my favorite player from last summer, Jeff, are contestants on the Amazing Race this time! She's a dumb blond in every sense of the word, from the south. He's a smart guy from Chicago, and they are the funniest couple since Lucy and Ricky. It premiers February 14. I'll be tuned it!

More Snow!

The Heights got 9+ inches of snow over the weekend. It's done now and the sun is shining but not before the howling wind drifted it up good last night. The snow plow came down out street this morning which means I'll be able to go to work tomorrow. Temperatures in the 20's this week so no melting this week. Better go sledding.

Maxine

Can you read it? She says, "The economy is so bad, I ordered a burger at McDonalds, and the kid behind the counter asked, 'Can you afford fries with that?'" So true!

Acne 101

According to a cute little 6th grade girl who has nary a pimple, you get acne if you kiss a boy who has acne. Now you know.

Naughty

If you call your sibling a "thing" or an "it" you lose your cell phone for a couple of days.

Just sayin'...

Proud Mamacita

It's with pride in my heart that I present my two smarty-pants kids. Both are on the honor roll for first semester!

Moment Saved

Yesterday I stopped by to apologize to the nice girl who's moment I ruined. The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm really sorry I ruined your moment at the dance Friday.

Her: It wasn't my moment. It was your daughter's moment. She ran away so I just followed her.

HUH???? I'm trying to decide if the princess set up the dance or what the heck? Then I remember that at one point I was dancing in the vicinity of the princess and she did run away (scared of my mad dance skills I guess).

Me: No, I mean when you were dancing with Michael, and I walked by singing to you guys.

Her: Oh. I never saw you walk by singing. You didn't ruin my moment.

Me: Oh good. I'm so glad. Now will you go tell my daughter that!!!

Gross Me Out

At the dance Friday I caught a couple of kids smooching. I told them to knock it off, and they did. One of the couples is a 6th grade boy and 7th grade girl...or so I thought. Today I found out she is an 8th grader!! Ewww...

Does that make her a cougar?

TOO FUNNY

Moment Ruined

I was told that I "ruined their moment" last night at the middle school dance I was chaperoning.

The princess' friend was DANCING WITH A BOY SHE LIKES during "When You're 15" by Taylor Swift. So I'm just doing my Chaperon Duties, wandering around the floor, amusing myself by singing to couples as I walked by...I threw out my hands to the friends as I walked by, and apparently, that ruined their moment.

What does that make me? Moment Ruiner, I guess.

Hee. Hee.

I didn't see the princess having any moments to ruin. Maybe at the next dance...

By the way, Mary Beth, I could have ruined Daniel's moment TWICE, but I refrained.

Princely News

The prince hit the slopes for the first time this season with his friend. Self-portrait taken on the lift! They had a good time, and it wasn't even too cold. The prince's friend is a much better skier than the prince, and of course the prince had to do the same runs as his friend so there were a few scary moments of youthful stupidity, but he came home in one piece so I guess all is well.

In other princely news, he finished up finals today. Yesterday he passed Spanish (there was some concern!) so life is good in his world.

Princess, Princess, Princess

Sometimes the highly confident, usually successful princess surprises us.

Recently the choir director announced that there is a choir festival coming up, out of town, and that he'll only take a total of 40 kids to it. He then told them they would have to audition.

That's big stuff around here. So the princess decided she'd give it a shot. She got the music and worked on it for a few days. She even came to the conclusion that piano lessons would have been a good thing because she'd be able to pluck out the notes to learn the song. Ya think??

A few days ago the king's uncle passed away and plans were put in place for him to attend the funeral out of state. She kept begging to go with the king to the funeral of this man she had only met a couple of times and has no memory of. I finally asked her why she wanted so badly to go to this funeral.

"So I don't have to audition to go to the festival. If I don't audition, I don't have to worry about not getting chosen."

Ahhhh....

"You're not going to the funeral. You can audition or not, but you're not going."

Yesterday were try outs and after all that drama...she was chosen!

Now we can quit worrying about that and start worrying about what part she'll get in the drama play she's joined!

Princess, Princess, Princess

Karen

Yippee! I noticed that my friend, Karen, commented on my post yesterday. That means 3 Karens are reading my blog--KP, KL, and Karen!

You can never have too many Karens.

You're Going to Holllywood!

It's time, people! American Idol starts TONIGHT! No more Paula. It's Ellen now. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but then I wasn't nuts about the addition of Kara last year. Besides, I spend most of my evenings driving the dance taxi so I'm not sure how much of the show I'll even see. Still...I'm trying mightily to get caught up in the hype!

Rumor has it a young man from our town makes it to Hollywood. Tune in to find out.

Oh Mandy

I thought that when we hung out with the neighbor's 5 kids yesterday, I'd have good stories to tell on the blog but alas...

1. The best story-teller of the five was with her grandma and grandpa so there were only 4 kids.

2. After hanging at our house for a little while, it was time to go back to their house so the youngest could take a nap. We watched Teenage Ninja Turtles. Good times. Memories. Very 80's hair going on.

3. One highlight: they got a dog for Christmas--more like a moose. Her name is Mandy--the moose. (I'm adding the moose part. She's huge but still a puppy.) She was outside most of the time that I was there, but at one point the kids decided she needed to come in. She likes to jump up on people AND put their arms in her mouth. Not really biting, just playing. But I'm not fond of either of those two things. So we decided she should go back outside. The oldest, who is about 1/3 the size of Mandy, was trying to pull her to the back door while I was "hiding" in the office so she'd lose interest in me. Of course I was "hiding" in a room with GLASS DOORS. Mandie wasn't fooled. I finally decided--being the wise animal person that I am--that the best course of action was for me to get mauled by the dog as I headed to the back door, because I was pretty sure she would follow me to the back door, while she was trying to jump on me AND ingest my arm. It worked, and she was quickly back outside. All that drama, and the baby only slept an hour!!! In my opinion, that was a waste of a trip over to their house.

4. After that we came back to the safety of my house!!

5. One bit of good news: while the neighbors were out and about they bought a shock collar for the dog!

Thousands Gather to Protest Global Warming

Not the dumbest

I'm not the dumbest person this week (see entry on what happens when you forget to close your garage door in sub-zero temperatures.)

Nope, the local school bus company gets that distinction as of yesterday.

In the freezing cold yesterday only 5 of the 10 buses in my district were running. In the big city, most weren't running.

The high school called with an emergency message at about 7:30 "Please stay on the line for a message from the High school." But then no message followed. Now all those schools were being flooded with calls. "WHAT'S GOING ON??"

About 10:00 we had an announcement that there would be NO buses home from school. Another message hits the phone from the high school and from our school. They both work this time.

At 11:30 I'm wondering about the basketball game after school that the princess is supposed to work at. "Please let it be canceled," I pray. But the PE teacher tells me it'll still go on because although they aren't running buses for school, they will run them for sports. HUH??? That's going to have the parents in an uproar!

At about noon there's a new announcement. "Change of plans. Now the buses WILL run."

Hmmm...really, really glad my kids don't ride the bus. Now I've got 2 more messages from both schools.

What this all boiled down to was that the school bus company changed fuel vendors a few weeks ago, and the vendor did not put an additive in the fuel to prevent it from freezing up.

Today the bus big-wigs were flying in to buy pizza for the drivers. I'm kind of thinking they're also meeting with at least 2 school districts!!!

I'm feeling really smart now!

Really???

Now the 12" of snow is blowing and drifting? Hmmm...will I be able to get down my street tonight? Will I be able to get in my driveway? Will I be able to get in the garage (sometimes it drifts there!)

Silly Me!

SOMEONE (that would be me!) left the garage door open last night.

Oops!

It was -22* this morning in my garage. My car started, but it would not accelerate. The kids and I headed back in the house to let the car warm up for 5 minutes. That seemed to help a little as I was able to get up enough speed to get over the big snowbank at the end of the driveway. (I'm not going to comment on my feeling about the king shoveling the snow to that location because he was the one shoveling while I was in the nice, warm house.)

We chugged to high school (the prince had missed the bus at this point) with the car slowly increasing it's pace. The steering wheel quit squeaking every time I turned it (the prince thought we ran over a puppy at one point from the noise). And the prince was early for school.

Then the princess and I headed east. The streets were plowed but icy. The car was now cruising at a comfortable 34 MPH when traffic allowed but traffic was slow. We made it to work only 10 minutes late after forging through the FOG over the bridge.

And a shout out to the county--who sanded their roads!

All is well...until 3:00 when I have to try to start my car again!

Warms the Cockles of Your Heart

We got almost a foot of snow yesterday/the night before. It's about MINUS 35* with the windchill right now. It's supposed to be up in the mid-30*s by the weekend and stay up there for awhile after that. The king has us all shoveled out, but our roads are not good until we get out to the main roads. All of that being said, Mary Beth sent me this photo yesterday, taken in November when she took the kids to the indoor water park. It's a GREAT photo, but I can't help thinking: who eats ice cream in this kind of weather! Brrrrr

By the way, the king tells me that he heard that December was one of our coldest on record!

Snow Day?

I'm not sure how much snow we really got, but if I measure what's piled up on my bbq, it looks to be about 8 inches. The princess is hoping for a snow day, but clearly, she hasn't been around long enough to realize that we just don't have those here anymore. I remember a couple when I was a kid, but not anymore. Plus, it's not blowing (yet) so no drifting. We're off to school!

Elvis Lives!

Can you spot the real Elvis in this photo collage?

No? Maybe he already left the building!

Christmas Eve White Elephant Game

We started this game last year when we were in UT. This year we continued the tradition in AZ.

The rules:

1. Each person brings a wrapped gift worth no more than $5.
2. Draw numbers to see who goes first, second, third...
3. Person #1 unwraps a gift.
4. Person #2 can unwrap a gift or steal #1's gift.
5. If person #2 steals #1's gift, then #1 unwraps a new gift.
6. Now person #3 can steal from #1 or #2 or unwrap a new gift.
7. This continues until everyone has a gift.
8. No gift can be stolen more than 3 times.
9. After everyone has a gift, #1 has one last chance to steal, since he/she didn't really get to play!

Here, I'll show you:

We drew in this order: Grandma, the queen, the princess, Aunt Robin, the prince, Uncle Blake, Grandpa, the king.


#1 Grandma chose a gift--nifty Elvis shades!




#2 I didn't steal the glasses but unwrapped a new gift--the funky hat (just happen to be sportin' the Elvis glasses. I didn't steal them).

#3 the princess didn't steal. She unwrapped a wooden puzzle.

#4 Aunt Robin didn't steal. She unwrapped a bag with a cat in a bag, Obama golf ball, jumbo pen, and Michael Jackson money. (I have my suspicions that someone spent more than $5--naughty!)

#5 the prince doesn't steal. Instead he unwraps, are you ready???, a WHITE ELEPHANT!!!!

#6 Uncle Blake doesn't steal but unwraps chocolate turtles, but check out Grandma's expression.

#7 Finally, Grandpa steals Aunt Robin's loot.

Still technically #7, now Robin can steal or unwrap...she unwraps a snowflake spatula.

#8 The king can steal or unwrap the last gift. He chooses to steal the turtle candies from Blake.

Still #8 Now Blake can unwrap the last gift or steal. He steals the Elvis glasses from Grandma.

Now Grandma can unwrap the last gift or steal. She unwraps the last gift, a makeup bag and lotions. Since she was #1 she could technically now steal if she wanted to, but she didn't.

It's very fun. We've played it various ways at different kinds of parties...one work Christmas party one year had us each bring a gag gift and a nice gift. At a yearly Christmas party I go to we do a true white elephant gift (a nasty sweater is still making the rounds in that group), and our book club does a book swap in the same manner. But the books are always really good and people are stealing them right and left. It's a ton of fun. And if you noticed some beer in the hands of some of the people in these photos, let me just say that beer is not necessary to have a good time with this game. When we played last Christmas in UT there was not a drop of alcohol to be had but we whooped it up anyway!

Thought for the Day

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

Handsome Mark

Cousin Mark was best man at his uncle's wedding this weekend.

Doesn't he look handsome?

And so grown-up!

One Last Piece of Christmas Cheer

Here is the prince, helping Santa as an elf (check out the pointed hat) during our school's annual holiday fun night. There was a time--for many years--when he and his sister would NOT go anywhere near Santa. This is only the 2nd photo he's ever taken with Santa. Still, he was a great help that night, and I wanted to share this photo.

Below I'm adding some tips from mall Santas, compliments of Readers Digest. I thought they were fun. Happy New Year everyone, and only 358 more shopping days until Christmas 2010.

**Never force your screaming kid onto my lap. Just bring him close and give me a few minutes. I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve.

**Some of us get bonuses for making our daily photo quota. So please forgive me if I try to move things along.

**I make around $10,000 a season doing this, but cut me some slack. Between October and December, most of us work about forty 10-hour days and listen to 30,000 children.

**Wondering why both of my white-gloved hands are always where you can see them? Ask my lawyer.

**I’m sorry Grandma is in heaven or that Mom and Dad have split up. But even Santa can only so much, so let’s just stick with what you’d like to unwrap on the big day.

**Want to have more than just a few seconds with me? Skip the mall. Let’s meet at your kid’s preschool or a photo studio that invites Santa in for special portraits.

**As a matter of fact, I did to go school for this. Topics of study: how to hold children, manage sticky conversations, and care for my hair and beard.

**I don’t have total recall. Don’t come back after a few minutes and ask what your kid requested. Stand close enough to listen.

**Those of us with real beards think we’re superior. But the best of the rest of us pay as much as $3,000 to wig makers to make us authentic-looking whiskers.

**I see you vigorously nodding your head but even so, I will never, ever promise anything to a child.

**Boys tend to give it to you straight: “I want a Game Boy and a remote control car.” Little girls want to explain everything.

**Is Santa real? “Well,” I reply, pinching myself and grimacing, “I feel real.”

**I’ve been kicked in the shins, hit in the groin, scratched, bitten and peed on. But there’s a reason I keep doing this year after year: This is the best work I’ve ever found.