GREAT Idea!

At the dance studio where the princess dances, they also do birthday parties.  At a recent party, the princess was asked to come in and teach a ballet routine to the girls.  The gentleman in this photo taught them a hip hop routine.  The girls had a great time.  These "older" kids then got to help play games and pass out (and eat) cake and ice cream.  What a great idea!  That the princess made a little cash on the side was also a good thing.  It is fair week, after all!

Disclaimer:  I wasn't sure I should post this photo of someone else's kid, but when it showed up on facebook it became fair game! :)

About "Gone Girl"

I am giving "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn 3 stars.  It starts a little slow, and the ending has a sort of "WHAT???" ending.  Had it not been for those two things, it would have gotten 4 stars.  It's a pretty darn good book.

This is the story of Nick and Amy.  After 5 years of marriage, Amy disappears.  Nick is the prime suspect.  The book is told from Nick and Amy's perspective, changing view each chapter.  When Amy returns in the last 1/3 of the book, then things really turn psycho.  Mystery fans will like this one!

Kids!

I've really got nothin' here, but thought I should post something.  We've had lots of fun company with more to come so not too much blogging going on.  Too busy living life!  This morning the king has taken our current company--my friend, Barb, whom I was a nanny with YEARS ago and who lives in Illinois now and has come to see us 4 or 5 times over the years now while we've never been to see her; shame on us--to a local mansion for a tour.  I have been there.  Not really my thing.  Once is enough.  So I'm catching up on some stuff while they are out and decided to post these two stories of my kids...you know, the ones who don't show up here all that much lately.  This blog just seems to be more and more about ME--maybe as it should be!  Heehee.

First the prince:  A couple of years ago he bought a Sublime (rock band) t-shirt.  He wore it out.  It is stained and has holes in it, but he still wears it around the house once in awhile.  Last night Sublime was in town for a concert, and he bought himself a ticket.  I didn't see him before he left for the concert, but I was waiting for him after the concert, and what was he wearing?  His ratty ol' Sublime t-shirt!  Really?  Worse yet, he didn't buy himself a new one at the concert.  I'm pretty sure that shirt will never die.

And the princess:  We have a boy down the street, Gabe, who is the princess' age.  They don't really know each other since they went to different schools, but they see each other in "the hood" and are friends on facebook.  Gabe is playing football, and selling coupon books, and rang our doorbell yesterday.  I answered the door, and he said, "Would you like to buy a...."  At that point the princess stood up from where she was sitting and he caught a look at here and stopped talking!  It was so cute.  Nothing better than a flustered 15-year-old boy!  He finally composed himself and finished is request.  What could I do?  I had to buy the coupon book and drag out fishing money from my purse so he could continue to look awkwardly at her.  It was priceless!

Happy Birthday, Mary Beth!

I know; you think I'm going to post another great birthday poem or make all kinds of cracks about you being 40.  Not true, my friend.  This year, I give you:

40 GREAT Things About You!

1. You are funny.

2. You are smart.

3. Okay, you is smart, you is kind, you is important.

4. You have curly hair.

5. You get math.

6. You make your own syrup.

7. You love your broken down ol' Nissan.

8. You like 80's rock.

9. You have a timeshare in Fairmont.

10. You used to have the best Pontiac they made--until you sold it (said Mitch).

11. You have two great kids.

12. Brian's not too bad either--he's handy.

13. You like to sing in church though you say you don't sing well.

14. I have heard you sing,and I believe you can carry a tune.

15. You made the game-winning shot in the most important basketball gave ever--just ask your dad.

16. Sometimes, if it's someones birthday at work, you eat cake for lunch.

17. Too bad you are out of town this birthday; otherwise you might be able to have cake on your birthday for lunch!

18. You are afraid of lice and Jesus.

19. You have to drive most of the time, and otherwise you call, "Shotgun"--literally.  And if you aren't driving, you'll probably be taking a little nap while someone else drives.

20. You like shoes.  They are your favorite thing to buy for yourself.

21. Your favorite pop is orange soda.

22. I learned to overuse the word "Fancy" from you.

23. You love to hold babies--who doesn't?!

24. You think Sean Connery is HOT, which is totally gross because he's OLD!

25. Your birthday cruise is only 89 days away!

26. You can talk to anyone as if you've known them all your life.  You're cool like that.

27. You like "The Poisonwood Bible", "She's Come Undone", and "The Thornbirds" WAY TOO MUCH!

28. Unfortunately, you are a juvenile diabetes expert.

29. You tried out for Jeopardy once.  You were robbed.  They should have chosen you

30. You fancy yourself a princess.

31. You paint all your bedrooms purple.

32. You like to poke people with sticks.

33.  Sometimes, if the hotel screws up your reservation, you go a little "Western" on the poor guy working the desk.

34. You don't like ketch-up.  I don't get you.

35. You are the best bargain shopping, coupon clippin', deal findin' shopper I know.

36. You started our awesome bookclub...and keep it going.

37. You will never be chosen for jury duty, and that makes you sad--cuz you're crazy (crazy because you're sad, not because that's the reason you won't be chosen)!

38. You don't like to share desert when you're at a fancy restaurant though you will share the main course.

39. You are one of the most amazing people I know--truly.

40.  You're my bestest friend (and I hope that doesn't offend my other bestest friends).

Happy Birthday, friend!

Fairmont!

The princess and I had the BEST time when we headed to Fairmont last week with our besties.  We are so grateful that they invited us.  We had a GREAT time!  And the pictures are proof of just some of the fun we had.  Thanks Besties!  We had a BLAST!

I believe her caption on this was:

Why you no eat my banana?

Apparently goats don't like bananas.

We did an egg toss and afterward they had an egg fight.  

They both needed a shower after that, but they went swimming instead.

I'm sure the pool people appreciated that!

There was a trip down the big slide--2 stories high, I think.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

And the 2 seat bike...this one was too big so they had to get the other one!

Phew! That's better!

We also took in "Dark Knight Rises" at the drive-in theater.  

I was a little nervous to see it after the mad gunman in Colorado, but we were safe!

I give the movie a "C" though.  Not that great.

"THIS is American Idol" (Say it like Ryan Seacrest)

I have been hounding my niece to audition for American Idol for a couple of years now.  When they announced that they were bringing a bus to smaller town venues and that our town would be one of them, I once again started hounding her, even offering up dinner at Dos Machos!  She took me up on the offer and came to town yesterday with her mom, brother, and friend, Brady.  Her brother, Jared, also decided to audition, but since he's under 18 needed my sister to come with him.  Win-win for me!

Today we headed to the Zoo for the audition.  We arrived at 9:00--the time the paperwork said to arrive--and were at the end of a long line.  But as we stood there lots of other people arrived after us.  We were outside the zoo in this line for a couple of hours.  It was HOT out there!  

The princess came to cheer on her cousins!

Waiting...

We had moved up in line, 

but sometimes you have to get your cousin to hold your place in line 

because it's hot, and you need a break!

Eventually we had a bag check--no guns, drugs or alcohol allowed-- 

and we moved inside the zoo.

The next line was under this big (blurry) tent, which was much cooler.  

They were here for over an hour.

All kinds of "animals" checked out the action.

Finally, they were moved to the final line.  

Now they knew they would sing soon.

No family allowed in this line.

That's Becky w/the umbrella and Jared to her right.

It was sort of ridiculous that they had to stand out in the sun

 because there was a lot of room under the tent!

Check it out!

The American Idol bus.

Dude in white coat was auditioning too and had auditioned 

before so had great advice and stories to tell.  

People in line were very nice to each other.  

Finally it was their turn.  There was another tent set up on the other side of the bus also doing auditions. They went in groups of 4 but each sang alone.  The guy on the far left is the producer.  The lady in light blue is filming them.  Everyone sang great.  The bar was raised really high.  No one in our group made it through, but we think the kids' cheer coach might have.  The producer told them afterward they they all had very good voices but not good enough for the level they were looking for here.

As promised, lunch afterward at Dos Machos!

Guess who?

Look at this cutie-patootie!  I am cleaning photos before I take my computer to the fix-it shop, and found these!  Oh, the cuteness of Christian!

Woe is me.

My cursor froze on my laptop in the middle of the screen.  If anyone knows of a fix, I'd be grateful.  I've looked on line, and the fixes I see there don't apply to me.  So...until I go buy a mouse or computer battery or whatever else might fix it, my laptop is out of commission.  You know, the laptop with the photos from the recent get-away the princess and I took.  And the photos I'll be taking tomorrow when the family arrives for an American Idol festival.  Not to mention all the other important stuff that I might need to put on here without actually having to sit at the desk and use the PC.  Woe is me.

About "The Nightmare"

I am giving "The Nightmare" by Lars Kepler 4 stars.  I recently read "The Hypnotist" by this same author (authors--remember husband/wife duo?) and liked this one even better.  I was curious to know if they were going to follow the hypnotist, the cop, or start with a new cast of characters.  They follow the cop.  This story is about the cop and a partner solving murders and arsons tied up in an illegal weapons sale.  Good stuff!  And it moves quickly.  This is an excellent book!  I think the third one by these authors is coming out soon!  Yahoo!

Great Aunt Mary

This beautiful lady is my Great Aunt Mary.  Daughter of Great Grandma Mary who started the quilt mentioned a few posts ago.  She's about 90...we should all be so beautiful!

You snooze, you lose...or WIN in this case.

Since only one person attempted my quiz--granted I didn't give you a ton of time, but I'm off line for the next few days so...

We have a winner, and that winner is SHELLEY!  What does she win, she's wondering?  Well, hello!  You just got your name in capital letters on my blog.  And yes, I would have given you the jingle bell rock, but I don't have it...your daughter-in-law does.  So it is not mine to give.  Instead, I will promise to post only good photos of you for the next year.  Oh wait, that's too long.  For the next month!

And so here are the answers, in case you didn't read SHELLEY's comment!

photo1: Rich, Marty
photo2: Cara, Jared (I'm with you Shell, I'm pretty sure it's her.  Her or Becky.)
photo3: Chuck and Mom
photo4: Andy, Shelley, Mitch

Reunion Quiz

Below are photos of feet.  Feet from day 1 of the reunion.  Be the first person to correctly identify ALL the feet, and you will win a prize.  But hurry.  I'll be listing the correct answers in a day or two...before I forget!  

Photo1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

About "In One Person"

I gave "In One Person" by John Irving 2 stars, if for no other reason than I deserve 2 stars for muddling through it.  John Irving wrote "The World According to Garp" and "The Hotel New Hampshire" which were both made into movies 20+ years ago.  I read and enjoyed both books, so when this book came out, I thought I'd give it a go.  I put it on hold at the library, and when it became available, it was a 14 day loan.  Yikes!  I was only 125 pages into it when I had to return it, and it had only gotten good at about page 100.  So I put it back on hold.  It became available this past week--along with another 14 day loan book I had on hold (it always happens that way), so I've been reading diligently to finish this.  And I felt compelled to finish it after having it on hold twice!

I didn't like this book nearly as well as I liked the other stuff I've read by him, but what I really liked about this book is that it had several quirky characters (as most John Irving books do).  Unfortunately, the main character wasn't too quirky (aside from his being bisexual), and parts of this book really dragged on.

This is the life story of that bi-sexual man and the people in his life.  Some of them heterosexual; some of them not.  This is really the story our country's acceptance of gays and their progress over the past 70 years.  The most moving part of the book was the coverage of the aids epidemic in the 1980's.  Still the ending was anti-climatic, and I am sort of glad to have this book done.  Maybe I should have given it only 1 star???

Scorned and Bitter

I have added a new blog to my blog roll.  You might have caught some of the recent media hype on this woman.  Her husband left her for a young 'un, and her attemp to sell their house is humorous, to say the least.  She's gotten much negative press as well, but I find her a good writer and quite funny.  So it's over on the right, on the blog roll, if you are interested and will stay there until I tire of it, or until she quits blogging, or until she moves on.  Personally, when it's all said and done, I wouldn't be surprised if she's offered column work at a newspaper or two.  Check it out!

La Fiesta

The princess danced at La Fiesta today--we do this every summer, and every summer we say, "never again", but here we are again!--and did a great job.  She was in two dances: Fancy Footwork and an improv piece.  The girl on the far right in the 1st photo is going away to college this fall, so their group will change a bit next month.  Great job, ladies!

I Spy

I spy with my little eye...Grandma's pool in Sparky's goggles!  Cool!

This Guy!

Who was named Employee of the Month at work?

This guy!

Wahoo!

About "The Almost Moon"

I gave "The Almost Moon" by Alice Sebold one star.  It was hard to give it even that, but the end sort of saved it.  The end almost ruined it, because I ended up jumping ahead and skimmed some of the end, not correctly interpreting events.  My bad.  Still, feel free to skip this book.

It is written by the same author who wrote, "The Lovely Bones" which is a really good book.  Just goes to show...And I probably should have been clued in when the book jacket quoted reviews for her other books but not for this one.  I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes.

This is the story of a middle-aged woman who is taking care of her ailing mother who has been mentally ill all of the daughter's life.  After her dad kills himself, it falls on her to take care of mom.  As she is realizing it's time to call hospice, she kills her mother.  Not nicely, either.  Thus begins the book and the many flash-backs that have lead her to this point.  Skip this one people, it's a train wreck...but like all good train wrecks, once you start watching, you can't stop, which is why I finished this book.

All healed!

Remember that one time when the prince broke his arm...TWICE?  It looks like he's all healed up.  Our Vet friend took his x-ray the other day and thought it looked good.  And yes, that one screw is supposed to be angled; it's protecting the break.  

Parade Fun

Look who got to ride in the Founder's Day parade.  They threw out taffy and t-shirts.  Very fun!

Costomer Service Heaven and Hell

Yesterday was one for the record book.

Driver's ed called to say the princess' permit is not valid.  Misinformation from the teacher lead to this, but long story short, I was told to get to the DMV by Wednesday to rectify the problem or else she would have to retake driver's ed (at another $200).  So off I went, and met the evil, wicked witch of public service.  Not my fault that they don't mark their entrances well so I went to the wrong counter.  Not my fault that the teacher gave us the wrong information.  Not my fault that driver's ed lady said we had to fix it by Wednesday when, in fact--and I didn't know this until the evil one told me--yesterday was the last day.  Phew!  Glad I got there at 3pm--two hours before the deadline.  But here's the kicker.  There were 4 employees at the counter.  The evil one, helping me, and 3 others watching...from a safe distance...while some guy stood in line waiting to be helped!!!  Ridiculous! 

So evil one hands me a form to fill out.  I ask, "Since my husband's name is on all the paper work, is that going to be a problem?"

Rude answer, "Just read it."

Deep breathe by me.

Read and fill in various parts, get to the bottom to sign my name and then start to fill in the date, and am interrupted by evil one:  I HAVE TO FILL IN THE DATE.  IT'S NOT VALID IF I DON'T FILL IN THE DATE.

Another deep breathe as I think to myself, "Why didn't you tell me that?  You told me to 'read it' but nowhere does it say that you have to fill that part in."

As I'm calming myself she says, "Now I have to write over the top of it because it has to be in my handwriting."

Deep breathe and stop myself from asking, "Don't you have another one I can fill out?"

I quickly got the heck out of that HELL ON EARTH.  The sad part is that I have to go back there in 6 months so the princess can get her license.  Scary!

But on a positive note:  I had to call to make a hotel reservation with some rooms that are blocked for a dance event.  The nicest man (La Quinta group rates) helped me, gave me a bigger room with river view/microwave/frig for the group rate, and restored my faith in humanity. 

Peacock

When Katy Perry sings, "Come on baby, let me see your peacock," what does she really mean?  Do I even want to know?  I don't think that song is going on the school playlist. 

You're brave, Grandma!

I didn't get a photo (this comes from the web), but when at Lagoon, Grandma went on the Samurai!  You get strapped in, and it spins as your spoke also spins.  I did not go on this, but Grandma did!  She is very brave.  It reminds me of when Becky took her on the Rockin' Roller Coaster in Disney World.  After the ride, Becky asked if she wanted to go again.  Grandma's response:  ARE YOU CRAZY?  Gotta love that Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Yeah!  Lynelle got a good photo of these guys!

We love you, Grandma!

Grandma's Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Grandma's birthday (her birthday is really tomorrow).  Thanks to Kathi and Rick for hosting!  Lynelle and the kids were able to make it too, and the only one missing was Tom, who had to work.  We had a nice dinner and lots of fun conversation.  Today there will be left-overs too!  Happy Birthday, Grandma!  We Love You!

My pictures of Grandma with the grandkids weren't all that great,

but this one isn't too bad!

About "Lemon Tart"

I am giving "Lemon Tart" by Josi S. Kilpack 2 stars.  My sister gave it to me to read on the way home, and it was a fun little read.  It was a quick read too, which was what I was hoping for.  It is the story of a woman in her 50's who sort of meddles in other's business, and in this case, she helps solve the murder of her neighbor.  This was just good, clean-cut fun.  I thought I had it figured out early on (and I did have part of it right), but I didn't get it all right.  If you're looking for a fun, quick mystery, check this one out.  By the way, it's the first in a series, so if you like this one, you'd probably like her others too.

Credit where credit is due.

I've had a couple of comments on the "awesome" photos I took and posted from the reunion.  While some of them are mine, they are not all mine.  There are some from Shelley, Mom, Blake, and Becky.  I'd like to take credit for them all, but I cannot.  :)

The Awesome Family Reunion

We gathered in Logan, UT for our family reunion.  We planned tons of fun for everyone.  Everyone was able to make it except Tyson, but we hope to see him at the next reunion.  Matt was suffering from some nasty, chicken-gone-wrong intestinal disaster, but he graced us with his presence when his body allowed.  A special thanks to the Loganites who did all of the prep work for this fiesta.  Thanks to Becky for being so great to the girl cousins.  Thanks to Liz (the cousin-by-marriage but truly one of us) for all your help/work planning.  And thanks to Mom and Chuck, who took such good care of us all and really made it happen.  It was a BLAST!   

I got a group shot--starting at the top:

Jared, the prince, the king, Isaiah, the princess, Becky

Andy, Liz,Marty, Mariah, Ariana, Jujuan, Shelley

Grandpa and Grandma,

Libby, Robin, Blake

Matt was missing, and I was taking a photo, but Shelley found someone to take a group shot so Matt and I could be in it.  Somehow, while making the switch, Ariana and Isaiah disappeared.  Go figure!

From the top:

Me, the king, the princess, Becky, the prince

Andy, Liz, Marty, Jujuan, Shelley

Grandpa and Grandma

Matt, Libby, Robin, Blake

The Matriarch and her kids!

Libby, Blake, Mom, Shelley, Me

Cousins!

We missed Tyson but were lucky that everyone else could be there most of the time!

 Jajuan, Ariana, Isaiah, Mariah, Andy,

Liz, Jared, Matt, princess, prince, Becky

 Girl Cousins--ready for the pool!

Mariah, Becky, Ariana, the princess

Most of the boy cousins doing their best "Men In Black" impersonation:

Andy, Jared, Jujuan, Isaiah, the prince