Woh, woh, woh, woh, woh (think Snoopy)

So the other day at the bus stop I meet this lady. We are chatting and she says she has to go somewhere in a bit. Since it is 8 am I ask if she is off to work. Her reply is "No, I don't work anymore. I am on disability." So what do I say? "Oh, I bet that is nice to stay at home." I wanted to smack my forehead right there and stick my head in a hole.

My problem is many times I don't stop to process and think about what I just heard before I speak. Instead I leave no room for silence and plow ahead in the conversation. In the example above I heard the word "no" and my mind raced on to prepare an answer before I finished listening to her. By the time my mind catches up my lips and tongue have already wrecked havoc on my social graces.

I have tried and tried to work on this but like many of my flaws there has been little improvement. So please don't take offense when I blurt out anything stupid, rude, and/or incoherent. Most of the time I really don't mean it.

Whose Idea Was It Anyway

More philosophical thoughts from yours truly. I think the two most painful grooming tasks for women are leg shaving and eyebrow pruning. I can get past the legs because 8 months out of the year in Utah I can hide behind long pants and no one knows how often this ritual takes place.

But eyebrows that is a different story.  They stand out before everyone and there is no hiding them even behind glasses. I am not sure why it bothers me so or why I neglect them so often. It isn't painful anymore to rip them from the follicle (sometimes it is when I get a hold of a little skin by accident, then I cry and shout out a string of alien sounds). Maybe I hate the chore because I am not the best at it. Sometimes they get a little thin and bald looking and other times it is still a bush. Most of the time I will step in front of another mirror in a different light and see a bunch of strays I missed (even after thorough inspection). In college I used to make my best friend pluck those hairs for me because she was so much better. Man do I miss her.

So I ask, who's idea was it that to be beautiful to most that women need silky smooth legs and manicured brows? Legs again a little more understandable. There is something about slipping into a pair of pants when all is satin. But the bikini part I can tell no difference nor does it make clothing feel any better. But because someone deemed it sexier, I myself feel better when standing around in a swim suit and there is no forest hanging out. Back to the brow. What is wrong with a uni-brow or two bushes on your face? It is only wrong because someone decided that people look better by pruning nature. Of course I will continue to shave and pluck because I have fallen into the same belief abyss that less hair is best and clean trimmed eyebrows are more beautiful.

Kids Pics

There were a lot of pictures this year so I decided to split the last entry up.

PS I found a missing entry. Somehow Braden's birthday post didn't get scheduled and was left in draft mode. I wanted to leave everything in chronological order, so if you are dying to see what took place and all his cutness check it out here.

Photo shoots

This has been the year of the photos. In January my family had their photo taken (it was my mom's Christmas present. Then in April it was the grandkids time for Brian's mom for Mother's Day. Then my kids were due and so over Spring Break I dressed them up and took them in.

Tulip Festival

I know those here in the state may not believe it, but we did have one beautiful weekend in May. Luckily this was the weekend we chose to visit the Tulip Festival. The grounds were gorgeous. The weather perfect. The kids had a good time and I bought myself a new purse.

I know, doesn't exactly seem like me. But I have been dying to get something a little more wild. My old purse was begging to be retired (it has been with me for several years) so I jumped when I saw something I could handle. Actually a few weeks before I had another purse picked out but Macy was with me at the time and as soon as she saw it she had to have the purse. I was out of luck because she had enough birthday money for the purse. I just couldn't bring myself to buying the same purse as my 7 year old.

Back to the Tulip festival. My mom and sister came with us and that just added to the enjoyment of the day. After several hours Brian dragged us home. He was hot and hungry.

We even purchased a frog at the festival. Mom agreed because it was an aquatic frog and could not leave the water. It also did not require any extra care. It could live with the goldfish we have had since last May. The frog was named after a favorite cousin until mom said no and the name was changed to "Daphne".

Well the sad news is the frog did not live long. He died 3 days later. Not sure if it was the trauma of being hauled all through the gardens, being underfed (we lost the food given to us and could not get more until 2 days later, however, I was told these frogs should only be fed every 2 to 4 days), being overfed (Brian overcompensated for losing the food), being scared to death by Darla aka: Braden (Imagine seeing 2 small holes and 1 gaping hole filled with lots of white rocks at the waters surface and then hearing a thunderous noise yelling "hi froggy" over and over again. Now add a large stick like thing stabbing into the water trying to touch you. Get the picture.) or if there was something with his water (we gave him his own space for a day to make sure he was eating). Anyways his burial was the luv.

Here are a few parting shots from this fun day.

Spring Break, Easter,and birthday

The worst thing about laundry (besides actually finishing it by folding it and putting it away) is the interesting surprises that can be found in the dirty mess. Today was my lucky day because the item I found was not too nasty to tell. Today I found in Kelsey's pocket a glob of dried out pink stuff. Not sure what it was exactly but I am guessing it was the silly putty from Easter. The pink was a similar shade and it was stuck to all the fibers in the pocket. If it was silly putty, it is definitely easier to clean off of fabric when dry. On Easter Sunday Macy managed to ground in silly putty into the sleeve of her new Easter sweater in the middle of Sacrament meeting.

But todays post is not about laundry so I will bring back my focus. This post goes out to my sister who is tired of seeing Larry the Lobster on my blog and wants to know about Macy's birthday and Easter.

Easter week also means Spring Break to those with young children. Tired of the miserable cold in Northern Utah (which still won't leave for good), we decided to trek on down to sunny St. George. We sure did pick it right. The weather couldn't have been better and we lived it up only to cry huge sobs when we got home and had to put away the flip flops.

While in St. George we met up with some good friends and spent the day in Snow Canyon. We played in the sand dunes and then took a hike. The sand dunes were nice because it had rained recently so you only had to dig down a little to find cool, moist, sand castle sand. After we took our little fam on the Hidden Pinyon trail. This was the best idea. It was about 1.5 miles round trip and included a nature guide. There was a pamphlet with 19 different plants to find. This kept the girls interested as they ran ahead to find the next numbered marker. Maybe only once did we hear "Are we almost done? My legs are tired." The trail itself took you through some very scenic areas. It had a little bit of climbing, some flat areas and some hills. Braden the trooper didn't want to be carried. He was big and tough. If his sisters could do, so could he. He did most of the trail himself and you should have seen some rocks his little legs had to maneuver over.



Took a small detour on the way down and stopped at Cove Fort. Well worth it.



One day we took a "short, little, easy drive" to see Toquerville Falls aka La Verkin Falls. One website recommended four wheel drive vehicles. They were wrong. It should have said "four wheel drive required". I would have loved to have seen a car try to get there. The kids laughed and bumped their way there.



Why did Braden cross the road? Because he thought this tube would keep him safe. He loved walking in this tube any chance he got.

 Another day we went up to Gunlock Reservoir because we heard they were letting water out of the spill way. This was the prettiest spill way I have ever seen. If you ever get the chance to see this, do it.

During this trip we decided to give Macy one of her birthday presents, a new bike. The weather down there was a little more conducive for this item. She was so excited and Kelsey was excited to get Macy's old bike. You should have seen how cramped Kelsey's legs were on her old bike. Kelsey has tried riding without training wheels a couple of times but she still needs more work and a lot more courage.

We drove home in time for Easter. The Easter bunny came and dad didn't take very many still shots of the egg hunt and the movies are not worth posting. A "grandma bonnie" thing happened. One egg was never found. Our Easter bunny thought she was smart and left a count of how many eggs were hidden. Well it didn't help and as far as I know one is still missing. Luckily it was a plastic egg. I think one of the kids must have found it afterwards because I have cleaned and still haven't seen it.

After the egg hunt we ran over for pull-aparts and breakfast at my mom's house. Then we ran home for 1 PM church. After church we ran over to dinner at Brian's mom's house. It was relaxing. Oh yea, I had to substitute in Primary too.

I am impressed if you have stayed with me this far. You may be wondering what else we did for Macy's birthday. Well it spread out over a two week period. For presents she received money and clothes from Grandma Carol and Grandpa Alan , a shopping trip with Grandma Wendy and Grandpa DeVon (she brought home a Barbie corvette that Braden enjoys along with 2 Barbies and something else), a new MP3 player (because she lost her other one), the new Taylor Swift CD and a squinkies gumball machine (it dispenses squinkies not gumballs). She took doughnuts to school for her treat. For her night out she chose Incredible Pizza (and no no one took pictures, I had the camera and was playing with Kelsey).