Olympic Fever

I love the Olympics, have since I was child. Some of my best memories are watching with my sister and then if it was winter we would strap on our roller skates and skate to our hearts content in the garage and wait nervously for our scores. If it was summer, we were all about gymnastics and had quite the competition in our back yard, complete with medals and a retaining wall that made a great balance beam.

Now, I still love the Olympics, but I love the other all events more than ice skating and gymnastics. This winter I have loved Shawn White - WOW! I love Apollo Anton Ohno and telling my kids about the time we were both running at the Olympic Oval and how he is neighbors with my running friends Mike & Peggy - the kiddos are tired of hearing about it. I have loved the hockey - Who knew! I will always love the stories of the athletes - they are probably my most favorite part of the Olympics.

I love this Coke commercial. I love it because I love history. I love seeing glimpses of Olympic moments that I remember and I love that the people at Coca-Cola remembered to include include the Special Olympics. Makes me cry every time I see it.


PS. I love that I drink Diet Coke and for about 30 seconds I do not feel guilty.

UGH!

Oh, because the last few days have been so great - they can only get better - right? Apparently not quite yet.............


It slipped off my kitchen counter last night while I was working - UGH! It has been replaced because it was akin to cutting off my arm, not quite as costly....but close.

Maybe tomorrow will be better - there is always hope!

Warning!

Camdyn has the face of an innocent angel, but by the path of destruction she has left in the last 72 hours I am beginning to wonder. Here is a brief glimpse:

Saturday Morning:

Jay was out of town so I left for my run at 5:00 am, all in preparation for being home by 8:00 am just as the kids wake up. Camdyn apparently was up by 6:30 and had found Jay's laptop that was put away in our room and gotten in out and spent time doing who know what. Once she was bored with the computer, she found Izzie's fluorescent orange nail polish and decided that it looked really nice on our piano keys - if you know how to get it off, you are my hero!

Sunday Afternoon:

She had been asked to clean her room, this is a daily occurrence and never really gets done well, but we wanted to move Libby back in her room and it needed to be cleaned. After 4 hours of crying the dad lost it, the mom lost it and we all cleaned. She held out for 4 hours - I don't even have that kind of energy.

Monday Morning:

She had a friend over and they went downstairs to play while I was working. After half an hour the friend had to go home and I went down to find them and they were hiding - why you ask? Because they had gotten into more fingernail polish and Libby's scrapbooking stickers. Who thinks of all these things that they know wrong to do?

In order to punish her I told her she had to unload the dishwasher. She completely refused and I had work calls and couldn't fight her ( I think she knows this) so Jay in order to back me up told me he would address it when he got home. So when he got home she had to sit in time out until I got home - this ended up being 1 hr 45 min. Once I got home she had to apologize - "I am sorry I got in trouble" - Are you kidding me! She quickly (by prompting from her dad) revised her apology to "I am sorry I didn't mind" Better, but seriously.

The grand finale came when it was time for her to read her assigned books from school and she pulled out a new "red book." Earlier today when we were reading, I had told her she had to keep the book she received on Friday and read it a few more times and she was not all happy about it. When I asked her what happened to "Muff and Ruff" she refused to answer - she pleads the 5th really well. At this point it was all I could do to turn around, walk away, laugh and leave the dad to handle it.

So if you see this sweet little face, be careful. You can't say you weren't warned.

PS -Wish me luck with her, I am to tired and old for much more.

2010 Book 3

I borrowed this book from my mom over New Year's but it took me a while to read. I finished it last week while I was in San Diego and it is fantastic. An absolutely beautiful memoir of what it truly means to be a friend and the value of every person. I highly recommend this book. Let me know if you have read it and what your thoughts were.

Accumulation

My kids have the tendency to leave things laying around the house - ALL THE TIME! It drives me crazy. So in order to stay sane, I take away things that are left lying around when said kids choose not to put them away after being asked a gazillion times. Here is my collection over the past couple of years:

a giant Nemo
coats
shoes
pants
more books than I can count
a lot of toys (Happy Meal toys go straight to the trash, none of those in this stack - believe it or not)
dress up clothes
and a ton (literally) of crayons - I may never have to buy another crayon again!

It is amazing what they feel they can live without it it means they do not have to clean it up!

So a couple of weeks ago I cleaned up this mess. One garbage bag to the DI, another with just garbage, books given back to the kids and the rest organized and ready to be earned back.



You almost would have thought it was Christmas for both the mom and the kids! Kids eager to earn back stuff they had forgotten about and a mom happy because jobs were getting done.

Our admin at work had the cutest baby boy in January. She asked me to create her birth announcement. So much fun! Let me know your favorite....

Today we are getting ready to go to St. George. I am so excited for sun, meeting up with Jay, family and a completely relaxing weekend that does not have a single must do task. However, there are plenty of want-to-do's: swimming, ballgames, playing Ticket to Ride, hiking, eating, spending time with family and just plane old hanging out.

Hope your weekend is as great as I want ours to be!

PS: Unfortunately it starts out with a mom and 4 kiddos and a 5 hour car ride. Apparently there is good and evil in all things.

The last couple of days I was enjoying the California sunrise and sunset. I enjoyed the warmth of the sun, the yummy seafood, running in shorts and a t-shirt, a sunrise before 7 am and the ability to go to bed at 8 am if want to.



That is about were the good stuff ended. Mostly I missed my family. Oh, how I missed these guys. I was homesick before I left. So now I am home, with the guys that I love talking about Valentine's Day parties, working on science fair projects - the biggest curse to a parent ever, and getting ready to go to dinner with Jay's family. I love the craziness and love the kids and I am so glad that I two weeks of no travel - yet........and I want to keep it that way!

Due to my ignorance when booking my travel this week, I am going to miss the SuperBowl. I am going to miss the food, the commercials, the food, the friends, the food, cheering for the Colts and of course THE FOOD! It is not very often that I actually care who wins, but this year I do. I am cheering for the Colts. I like Peyton Manning and Austin Collie and I do not like Reggie Bush. Yes, I am a girl, but I am a somewhat informed girl. I choose my teams by the players not the team colors. So here is my favorite Peyton Manning commercial to inspire you to cheer for the Colts in my place.



Go Colts!

Kids these days........

A month or so ago I was introducing my son Jake to the wonderful sounds of 80's music. It all started with this. So I thought I would broaden his horizons and introduce him to one of the most iconic songs of my high school days...........





Jake didn't appreciate it so much, until it was gangstafied by Jay-Z. Apparently it is now a fantastic song.




We will see if can stand the test of time, just like the original.....However, I must say I do like the Jay-Z version. The ghetto is rubbing off on this white girl.

PS - The Jay-Z video is much better!

This Week.....

This week I am going to do a few things:

I am going to enjoy the fact that neither my husband or I travel this week.

I am going to try to not complain about more snow in the forecast

I am going to get caught up on my laundry and housework

I am going to ENJOY the fact that neither my husband or I travel this week - WAHOO!

Here's to Monday and kicking off a great week!