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'S Up. 
He Thinks I'm FOXY! (and some serious stuff too) 

Bullet Thursday

I've seen this somewhere else so I'm stealing this idea.

pondered by Just SO at 5:57 PM 9 comments: Links to this post 


Thanksgiving was a nice day. We had dinner with T.'s family and pie with mine. It was nice to be able to visit with everyone. We did have a "Christmas Story" moment on Thanksgiving morning when T. went upstairs to find that Zeke, our dog, had eaten the two cherry pies that were on the kitchen table. Well he didn't actually eat them he only at the crust. I guess pie cherries aren't up to his taste :) .

Friday I got up and got some things done around the house. Packed my bags and left home for my weekend "off" at about 11 a.m. I couldn't check into my hotel until 2 p.m. so I ran around doing some window shopping and getting some cash before I headed up to Salt Lake. I got there and checked in and went up to my room. It was very nice.

They turned the Christmas lights on at Temple Square that night but I couldn't ever find our for sure what time so I missed the actual lighting ceremony (it was at dusk) but that's okay. My hotel was only about a block away so I walked up and around Temple Square trying to get pictures. Nighttime pictures are not easy to take without a tripod because there is just no way to get the camera steady enough to take pictures without a flash so I did the best I could. Here are a few pictures. pondered by Just SO at 4:53 PM 8 comments: Links to this post 


100 things I am grateful for
(in no particular order. I tried to put them in order but just couldn't do it.)

pondered by Just SO at 9:04 AM 3 comments: Links to this post 


Things that make you go Hmmmmmm.

While I was up at the hospital on Monday with my sister I saw a very interesting and pretty funny site. As j. and I were walking out to our car in the parking terrace there was a big white suv that came around the corner and was headed out of parking. On the side was a magnetic sign that said, "Whose your Avon Lady" with a pink kiss mark by the phrase. As I glanced at the driver I did a double take. It was a big, burly, bearded man driving the vehicle! I wish I'd had my camera at the ready to snap that picture.
pondered by Just SO at 6:54 AM 2 comments: Links to this post 


Gimme a break...

So things really haven't slowed down around here in any way, shape or form. I keep hoping that things will but they don't. My dad went into the hospital on Saturday for severe pain and they never did figure out what caused it. I picked him up and took him home this morning he is doing fine now but they did have to give him some blood.

My sister went in for back surgery on Monday (the same back surgery that I had 5 years ago this exact time of year) and they ended up having to go in twice because of some complications. She also got one of those awful headaches that you can get whenever they do anything close to the spinal chord, so she's had to stay an extra day. I went up with her on Monday and sat with her son and daughter (they are older) during her surgery. I'll head back up tomorrow with her daughter to pick her up and bring her home. I also need to bake pies tomorrow.

Today I got up at 5:30 to read with my family and then I proceeded to make chili for a funeral and to send home with my sister when she comes home so she doesn't have to worry about food. I also made a batch of chili for us so at least dinner was taken care of early on and for tomorrow as well. My sister's youngest daughter came to stay with me until she was supposed to go to school at 8:45 when I drove her. I had to call my dr. at 8:30 to see if I could get an appointment to have him look at a rash that has developed on my face and made my left eyelid swell. As I'm on hold to speak with someone my mom calls, I ask if I can call her back. I get the appointment set for 9:45 and head out the door with my niece and j. in tow. In the car I called my mom back to see what she needed and as I'm talking with her my sister's oldest daughter calls on the other line, again I ask mom if I can call her back. They older niece asks if I can pick up the younger niece from school at 3:45, sure thing. Call my mom back, she needs me to come and sit with my grandma so that she can run out to her mom's house and get her meds because she's staying for longer than expected. Yep, I'll be there. Get to mom's house and thankfully grandma is still asleep. Mom leaves, the phone rings. It's my dad saying that they are releasing him and he needs someone to pick him up. I'll let mom know. By now it's 9:10 and so I call to see if mom has made it out to grandma's house so I can talk to her. She wasn't there but I left a message with her brother who was out there doing some fix it work, to have her call me when she arrives. I call my brother B. to see if he can come and sit with grandma until mom gets back so I can go and get ready for my appointment. He'll be right over. The door opens and mom comes in. She hasn't been out to grandma's yet she took my sil K. to work. She's stopping back to get keys and I let her know that her brother is out there, and that dad is ready to come home. Oh great. Who can sit with grandma. B. can't because what if grandma has to use the bathroom? She can't go on her own. So I tell mom I'll pick up dad when I get done at the dr.'s office. She leaves and Ben walks in. Thankfully he's willing to watch j. as well, since she is now thoroughly engrossed in a Noggin program. I get to dr.'s and thankfully do not have to wait long and I actually caught a little nap back in the examination room. The dr. doesn't know what is causing the rash. I'm thinking that it's somewhat stress involved and so does Ty. But he prescribes me some stuff to go on it. I head next door to the hospital to pick up dad and wait for about 40 minutes for the nurse to final come in and discharge him. In the mean time remembering that I need to drop that chili off to the funeral before 12:30. I did get it there by 12. Mom was kind enough to let j. stay there because j. wanted to stay there and hang out with grandpa. And I got out and got my grocery shopping done Yay! A few more things occurred between then and now, such as picking up my niece from school, taking the kids to piano, heading back to the store to pick up a turkey for my sister, picking up the kids at piano, making scones and getting dinner....stuff like that.

I really need a break. And thanks to my amazing husband I'm going to get one. We talked about what we should do since there wasn't anyone to take the kids while we got away. And he asked me why I asked if we could get away. And I told him. I asked because I really needed a break. I really needed to get away from everything for a few days. So he said that he would stay home with the kids and I could take off and spend some quality time with me, myself and I. I am SO grateful. I feel a little bit selfish but I know that this is something I really need. So Friday after Thanksgiving I'm heading out the door not for the shopping but to get some time to myself. I have the best husband in the world.
pondered by Just SO at 8:03 PM 8 comments: Links to this post 

Clean up! Clean up! Everybody, Everywhere!

This is the last decent weekend that we will supposedly have this fall so T. and the kids and I are planning on getting out in the yard and getting it ready for winter. Yes, we should have had this done already but we haven't. I still have roses blooming on my rose bushes and, believe it or not, I even have blooms on my petunias! So the plan today is to get out there. Get the swamp cooler out of the kitchen window. Cut back the roses and the sage bush. Pull up all of the annuals and get the leaves blown onto the garden. The back yard really needs one final mow but I don't know if we can get the mower back there because of our red neck fence. (I'll post more on that later.) Then we'll head over to my parents house and get my mom's mum's cut back and their leaves taken care of. And we'll probably do the leaves at Ty's grandma's as well. So I guess I need to get up off of this chair and get moving because I have a feeling that trying to get all of this done before it gets dark is not going to be easy.
pondered by Just SO at 8:05 AM No comments: Links to this post 

Pumpkin Pictures We carved pumpkins the day before Halloween and I got some good shots of the pumpkins. Unfortunately I didn't get as good of shots of my kids in costume the next day. Ah well. Here are a couple of my favorites. That last one is so huge because I for some reason blogger decided it couldn't upload any more pictures after those first three. *eyeroll*
pondered by Just SO at 5:27 PM 3 comments: Links to this post Labels: Photos, Pumpkins



I really, really need to start my scrapbooking again. The three oldest kiddos have 3 or more big books of pictures that I've scrapped of them. Then j. came along and we went digital. I have about 10 pages of her scrapped and she is wondering why she doesn't have a big book like the other kids. SO I need to get to work on her pictures.

The problem is that it's just SO overwhelming. Going into my files and seeing HOW many pictures I have of her to send off and be printed and then to scrap. That and the fact that I want to digitally enhance most of those pictures that are from the early digi cam.

I did get an amazingly wonderful gift from T.'s Grandma yesterday. She got me a Cricut machine!!! I was so excited to see that. I've wanted one but haven't really looked into them because I knew that it just wasn't in the budget. Now that I've got it I want to use it to work on cards and scrapbook pages.

Now I just have to get over being overwhelmed and start somewhere. I'm thinking I'll start with j.'s blessing pictures. I need to get one of those printed out anyway because I have pictures of the other three when they were babies sitting on my entertainment center and I need to add one of her....four years later *eyeroll*

I'm such a slacker.

Hey THAT would be a great screen name or even blog name. Slacker Mom instead of Soccer Mom ROFL!!! I wonder if I can change the name of my blog?
pondered by Just SO at 10:00 PM 4 comments: Links to this post Labels: scrapbooks, slacker mom

Another Day, Another....

Well not another dollar. At least not for me anyway since I'm a stay at home mom. It's more along the lines of...Another day, Another load of laundry to do or another floor to vacuum or another load of dishes to take care of. Sometimes that can be really hard for me to face because it's never ending. I'm working on being okay with it. It didn't used to be like this but for some reason the last while it's been difficult.

I also usually have some place to go, errands to run or someone to take somewhere. I love being able to help out but sometimes that can be difficult as well. Monday I had a rare day where I wasn't called on to take some one somewhere. I did take j. to preschool but that was it. I got a chance to visit with a wonderful older lady who has had some difficulty with her health. She is just an amazing woman. Her and her husband are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary this month! Can you believe that? I look at her and at my grandmother who is 96 and wonder how old I will live and what will my quality of life be?

I know that some of the struggles that I have been having are because T. and I haven't been able to take time away from everything. It's been over 4 years since we've spent time away from the kids alone. So we decided to try to get away. The problem being that the soonest weekend we could do it is the weekend after Thanksgiving. We thought that this actually might work better because then whoever watched the kids wouldn't have to get them to school and back. But it's turned out to be problematic. It seems that of our family (and we do have a pretty large selection of people to turn to) it looks like there is no one that will be available to watch the kids. I am stressed because we really need to get away and it's looking like the chances for that are slowly slipping away for anytime soon. I don't know what to do. I'm trying to not get down about it but it's hard. If we can't find anyone to watch the kids it will be the second weekend in December before we can go because of T.s on call time. And it's looking more and more like that is going to be the case. *sigh* What worries me more is that something will come up between now and whenever we have planned and we won't be able to get away....ever. And we really need to get away.
pondered by Just SO at 7:16 AM 3 comments: Links to this post 

I am officially the parent of a teenager!!!!

I can hardly believe it. My oldest boy turned 13 years old on Saturday. It's very strange to think that I am the mother of a teenager. I don't feel that old. I don't know if I have the coping skills to deal with the teenage psyche when I don't feel that much older than a teenager myself.

My son is a great kid. He was diagnosed with high functioning Autism when he was in 1st grade. We knew when he was born that something wasn't quite right but we had a really crappy doctor at the time and he told us not to worry... so we didn't. We just accepted J. for the little person that he was. When it came time for him to enter school, I again knew that something wasn't quite right, so we had him tested. At that time they said that he didn't have Autism but that he did have some developmental delays. So off to school he went where through some Occupational Therapy and gentle prodding from my mother we had him tested again....and this time the diagnosis came back as Autism.

Thankfully he is very high functioning and is very bright. His areas of struggle are in the social arena. We have been blessed to have had amazing teachers that have worked and loved J. throughout grade school. And not only the teachers have loved him but the students as well. The kids that have grown up with J. have been amazingly loving and supportive of him. I'm grateful that T. has been able to have a stable job that made it possible for us to stay in one place and not have to move J. from such a great environment.

Now that he is in Jr. High though I worry more about him. The school he goes to has many different grade schools that come to it so there are many more kids who don't know J. Who haven't grown up around him and know of his great sense of humor and his wonderful personality. And kids this age can be so ruthless. Today brought some concerns to the forefront because J. came home from school with some glue on the back of his shirt. He said that someone glued a Popsicle stick to his shirt in one of his classes. That makes me angry but I'm not sure what I can do about it. I'm going to email the teacher and ask that he kind of keep an eye out for this type of thing because I don't want this to escalate into something more. J. is very sensitive and I really, really worry about bullying or anything like that.

I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to be J.'s mother. Much of the time I feel very inadequate and not up to the task but I keep on going because, what else can I do? He has taught me so much about patience and love and forgiveness. He's probably taught me more than I've ever taught him.

I need to take him out and get some new pictures of him to go up on the wall. I just need to find the time!
pondered by Just SO at 8:10 PM 5 comments: Links to this post 

Putting it out there

So I guess this is my first "official" blog here. I've tried other places and haven't been very good at this. So I guess we'll see. I do believe I've even had a blogger account before but gave it up. It may very well be floating out there somewhere in cyberspace. Who knows?

I do love the internet. It's an amazing tool that has helped me meet many wonderful people across the country and some of the world. Thankfully I haven't ever really had a bad experience with it and hopefully that will continue.

I hope that karma has something to do with it. I try to put nice things out there and to respect those who I have contact with. If someone annoys me or upsets me or offends me I usually try to move out of that area of cyberspace and on to something better. It's worked for most of the time. As a mom I really feel that it's important for me to kind of keep up with the technology that is available so that I can relate to what my kids are doing. Or just be able to keep an eye on them. I'm probably not as tech savvy as I should be but I try. I'm sure that I'll have more to worry about as my kids get older.

So there's my first post!
pondered by Just SO at 7:47 PM No comments: Links to this post Labels: blogging, cyberspace The BIG List