Where Did the Time Go?

---Driver's permit

---Stake dances

---High school registration

---Talk about pros & cons of BYU v. USU

---Summer job

---Raspberry cheesecake instead of regular old b-day cake

Happy B-day Lane! You are growing up right before my eyes!

Love-Mom

Happy 13th

Happy B-day Budha Baby!

She's Crafty

Addy is quite crafty. The only problem is that she bounces from project to project leaving a string of "craft crap" everywhere. Our basement has pretty much turned into Addy's own personal craft room. Her latest passion is duct tape. Currently we have duct tape stuck to the couches, the floor, the table, and even the dog's stomach. Despite the mess, I love to see the things that Addy comes up with. She is also quite a little entrepreneur with her creations. The wallet you see below has already been sold to a boy at school! She has had a few parties to sell her earrings, bracelets, and hair clips. This summer she wants to have a booth at the weekly local farmer's market to sell her creations.

Just some of the "craft crap" that is spread all over the basement!

Hair clips!

Jewelry!

And now the duct tape creations! My dad, who has always been a fan of duct tape, will be happy to know that the duct tape purse holds Addy's "Mormon Bible"!

The Most Expensive iPod Ever

Addy won an iPod Shuffle from her orthodontist for having good teeth hygiene! Considering the cost of the brace work (almost $6,000) I think it would have been cheaper to just have bought the iPod and skipped the braces!

Fat Cat (The Person-Not the Cat)

My friend, Val, recently did a blog post about her fat cat. She told me about the cat a few months back, but I was truly shocked to see how fat this cat actually is! You must click on the link to truly appreciate what I am saying!

Growing up, one of the nicknames my dad gave me was "Fat Cat". I wasn't really "fat", just larger than my sister who was and still is (even after 4 babies) a "stick". I am not posting this to make you think my dad is a cruel guy-he is actually pretty awesome! However, I do think that sometimes we unknowingly say things to our kids that have long-term impact on them. "Fat Cat" has been one of those things. I have always been self-conscious about my weight, but not enough to do some of the drastic things others have done to be skinny.

Lately I have been feeling more "fat catish" than I have in a long time. I haven't had my walking shoes on since June. Don't get me wrong-I have walked since June-but mainly between my classroom and the main office at school, from the toothpaste section to the frozen goods section at WalMart, and from my downstairs recliner to the upstairs refrigerator and back at my house!

The past 8 months or so haven't been too great for my physical health. I have put on about 10 pounds, and all three pairs of my "teacher pants" are too tight. I don't have much left to rotate between!

I don't know what my problem is. I am completely unmotivated to exercise or eat right. I don't know if it is a combination of a really tough class this year (33 great kids with lots of individual problems), problems within my family that are not my own but still overwhelm me, or the fact that I turned 40 this year and I guess that this is just what happens when you become "middle-aged".

More than anything I think it is mainly about finding time to take care of myself before carpooling, cooking, cleaning, keeping everyone in clean underwear, running errands, paying bills, keeping up with my Church callings, and teaching 6th grade full-time. While shopping at Costco yesterday, a woman who was running a little dress/skirt kiosk hit the nail on the head. She encouraged me to buy one of the skirts I was looking at. When I told her that I seldom buy things for myself but was looking for my girls, she said, "Mothers are always martyrs. You should focus on taking care of yourself!"

I am not saying that my girls are the reason that I am feeling like a "fat cat", but I do think there is a correlation between my current "fat cat" feeling and the fact that I run (not literally-I wouldn't be a "fat cat" then) from the time I get up at 6:00 a.m. to the time I collapse into bed at 10:00 (okay-maybe 9:00) p.m.

It is time to figure out how to juggle all the "stuff" in my life so that I can stop feeling like a "fat cat". Any suggestions?

Hair Today-Gone Tomorrow

Stages of hair over the years

Sometime in the 80's

1/23/2010

My friend Val can tell you that I have been on a quest since the 80's to have peace with my hair.

My hair is thick. It has unruly cowlicks that make it really hard to work with. It doesn't have enough natural wave to just "wash & wear" it. It has to be dried & either curled with a curling iron (I can't even remember the last time I did this) or flat-ironed.

My hair has been big (80's big), it has been short ("man short"), and it has had many periods of in between the "man short" and "I am growing it out". It has been shades of red, blond, & dirty blond (as my kids now call it). Now I am facing what to do with the gray that is becoming more & more prominent throughout the dirty blond.

As I sit here and write this blog my hair is causing me to feel guilt. I should be thinking about & praying for the people in Haiti instead of blogging about my hair. I should be folding the laundry and doing the dishes instead of blogging about my hair. I should be grading math tests & essays about asteroids, meteroids, and comets. But here I sit-a shallow, peaceless person blogging about hair.

I blame today's revisiting of the constant search for hair "peace" on my visiting teacher. She is a lovely lady, but she did something that has stirred this whole peace pot up again. She cut her hair. It is not "man short", but she went from a "I'm growing it out" stage to "I have three kids and I can't mess with longer hair" stage and her hair looks pretty darn good. So good, in fact, that her hair has been the object of my obsession for the past 2 weeks.

To cut or not to cut? That has been the question. I have been in one of those "I'm growing it out" stages for the past couple of years. I have gone from "man short" to completely growing out my bangs and actually having almost enough hair for a pony tail. What have I learned??? Having longer hair is not all that it is cracked up to be.

So, yesterday I went to get my hair "trimmed". My hair lady has been cutting my hair since we moved to Bountiful 10 years ago. She knows about the cowlicks. She has been with me from "man short" to "I am growing it out" and back to "man short" many times. So, it is not unusual for her to ask me each time I go for a haircut "So, what are we doing with your hair today?" She asked this question yesterday, and without even thinking twice I told her to go "man short"-again. She convinced me to only cut about 3 inches off. She said, "It is easier to cut a little more off than it is to put it back on!"

It is a lovely cut, but I still don't feel the peace...

2010 Resolutions

--Addy resolves to spend less money than she earns from her jewelry making business.
--Delaney resolves not to make any resolutions (like Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes).
--Darren resolves to lose 2 inches off his waist (it has expanded a little over the past couple of years) and become strong enough to lift Addy to the ceiling.
--I resolve to lose my pregnancy weight (from the birth of Addy-almost 13 years ago), make peace with my hair, keep my house cleaner, eat more veggies, cut back on the Diet Pepsi, finish reading the Book of Mormon, have more patience with my lovelies at school (and at home), learn how to overcome my insomnia and sleep, and stop worrying about the dog hair that seems to constantly cover the house.

Which one do you think I should really work on???