MOVIE

Saturday we saw

I Am Legend.

I am not sure how I felt about it, no I am sure. I felt like I was flung out of a rollercoaster at the top of the highest peak, then had to hope that I would land somewhere soft.

The movie was going, going, then it suddenly ENDED! It was harsh! It was scarry.

Who has seen it - and please comment your thoughts!

Just a Little Catch Up

I need to catch you all up on a few pictures!

I'll start with Easter.

Here are some pictures:

Easter eggs that we colored. It was fun, and somewhat of a competition.

Quinn's is the bottom left green one, dad's is the yellow, colorful one above it.

Mine is the one with the 2 yellow stripes, that is another of Dad's next to mine (green with dots and yellow).

Kylie's loot.

Griffin's loot.

Zak and Quinn's loot.

This video is of our annual Easter Egg hunt. It is only mildly amusing. I find it too hard to video AND enjoy the action.

Kylie had her Highland Oaks Talent Show. It was fine. Her group talent was very good. Her girl scout troop did a dance to "Car Wash". I thought I was videoing her performance. I guess I wasn't because I don't have it. Today, out of frustration, I tried to see what the problem was and see if I could video. I guess I can, but not in the dark, under stress and duress.

So, here is that video, on Sunday. Only Zak has the duress (he has loads of homework to do).

Festival of Colors (Holi)

Steven and I went to Festival of Colors at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. You can look up what the holiday actually is, but basically there are thousands of people throwing colored powder at each other. It is crazy. I got a bunch of pictures which you are sure to enjoy.

Clamato

Ever hear of Clamato? It is a combination of Tomato juice and Clam juice. Quite possibly the worst concoction ever invented. I can't believe anyone would drink this stuff. Anyway, our roommate Joel was born on St. Patrick's day. He had a birthday party last night, so naturally we played (mormon) beer pong. It was quite a game. I ended up drinking 3 full glasses of a weird soda/grape juice cocktail, but the real kicker was that I had to drink the nasty point cup. It had a real combination of all sorts of things, but the taste of clam overpowered it all. I would never suggest trying this stuff, I was tasting it all night. Steven got away with an easy one glass.

Still

Kylie is STILL sick.

I am STILL doing laundry.

Griffin is STILL making big messes in the family room.

Zak is STILL talking football all the time and begging me to pick a favorite team.

Quinn is STILL joining in on the football talk, and (happily) doing his homework.

Dad is STILL trying to work out an offer on the Larkfield house (thank goodness!).

Throw-up & Clean-up

After 25 years of mothering, I had a child throw-up IN the car, not in a carseat. I guess my time had come.

Kylie went to her baseball game on Saturday, but felt too sick to play. We stayed until all the tissues were used up that I had, then we drove home. On the way one, she announced she thought she might have to throw-up. She did.

It turns out she has an upper respiratory infection. She has anti-biotics, so she should get better soon!

It took hours to clean up, hence the picture.

New Favorite Food Place

Since Chase is talking about favorites, here is my new favorite food place. Great Harvest is right by us, and at lunch time they do these great sandwiches. Not only that, but you get a free slice of bread. A HUGE hunk, where they put butter and stuff on it for you. I always get the Cinnamon Burst bread. Mmm. And, guess whose photo is posted on the counter? You guessed it. Our very own mission president.

UPDATE

Ok..it's been a while since I posted anything so I owe everyone an update. I think I mentioned it somewhere else, but starting last week I had a midterm in every single on of my classes, so I have been studying, going to reviews, doing homework, and writing essays all day almost every day. I got home past 10pm for 3/5 school nights last week. But, it is all over now so Im going to have a break for a while. I did pretty well on all of my midterms, except for I didnt do too well in econ. I missed a really important review because I was taking an in-class midterm for art history. Things are not looking good for that class because there are only 2 tests and a final, so if you mess up on one then you are in trouble. Hopefully things will start to go better for that class.

Other than that..I've noticed that throughout most of my life I go through phases of having favorite foods/activities (ie. eating donuts every day after school). Here are some of my recent favorites:

Favorite Drink: Blue Powerade. I drink it every day. Whenever I get a meal anywhere on campus, this is the drink I get. Every time I go running or do any type of physical activity, I stop off at the creamery to get some Blue Powerade. White is my 2nd favorite, and Green is my 3rd favorite. I different flavors depending on the severity of my thirst and what mood Im in. And yes, I refer to the flavors by their color. The people who work at the creamery all know I get powerades all the time too. They try to guess which flavor I'm going to get...its pretty funny.

Favorite Meal: Almost every day I go to subway to get a Chicken and Bacon BBQ sandwich on Italian Herbs and Cheese bread. Im very specific with how they make it. I make sure they put BBQ sauce on before they toast it so it soaks into the chicken and bacon, then I put southwest sauce on after its is toasted. A lot of the people who work at subway started to recognize me and know what I get every time. One girl said she would be very upset and confused if I ever changed what I ordered.

Favorite Activity: Recently I taught my two roommates and one other girl how to play racquetball and were all addicted. We go every single Saturday and sometimes more during the week. Its fun to get out of the apartment and do something active every once in a while. I am currently the reigning champion.

Favorite Pre-Bedtime Activity: Every night before I go to sleep I watch Conan O'Brian, and sometimes Jay Leno. Conan is the most important one to watch though. I always change into my pajamas and lay on the couch to relax before I go to sleep. This also helps me not stay up too late so I get a good amount of sleep each night. My roommate Sam watches it every night as well. A lot of people know we do this, so we randomly have people over to watch it with us pretty frequently.

Favorite Weekly Restaurant: Almost at least once a week a bunch of friends and I go to an on-campus restaurant called Legends Grill. We can use our dining dollars here and the food is really good so we like to go there to get a decent meal every week. A lot of athletes from the basketball, volleyball, and football teams go there to eat because its right by the track and indoor practice facility. My roommate is friends with Harvey Unga's girlfriend because they were from the same stake, so theycome eat with us every once in a while.

Ex-Favorite Activity: Near the beginning of the semester, for like 3 weeks, a bunch of friends and I would play monopoly every night. We would get very loud and competitive. The games usually lasted 2-3 hours. We dont do this anymore because it was wasting a lot of time and it started to get a little boring.

This isnt really a favorite, but Ive gone classic skating with a bunch of people a few times. We've gone like 3 times on Friday nights when its disco night, so a lot of people dress up and its pretty funny. I also went to the tumbling gym two days ago. It was the same place that steven went to. It was reeeally fun. We are definitely going to go back again. We had a jumping contest with and without a trampoline. I won the jump contest without the tramp. We would run down this platform thing that was slightly spring then dive over this big box things and land in a foam pit. I cleared one that was up to my chin, so it was about 5'4ish. We tied for the trampoline jump contest. We got it up to like 7 1/2 feet...it was way high and very fun.

Hmm...thats all I can think of for now. Aside from that, Im finished with everything I need to do for my mission. Ive just got to meet with the bishop one more time then meet with the stake president. Ill probably get my call mid-April depending on when I can set an appointment with the stake pres.

Maintaining the Status Quo

Not much happened today - worth mentioning anyway.

One bad thing....the house got more messy.

I will really try to rectify the situation tomorrow.

Good news: Lost is on!

I Screamed at the Doctor's Office Today

Today I had an appointment at the doctor's office to get this little piece of (gross) hanging skin taken off. It WAS located right at/below my right eye. I was hoping my doctor would say she could not take it off, that I would have to go to a dermotolgist.

No, she offered to possibly cut or freeze it off. She said she would freeze it. Ok, just lie back, she asked. I did. Weirdly, as she began her very slow and demented work, I thought it felt like cutting. YES, she was slowly and carefully cutting at my skin!

Tears were streaming down my face, eventually I screamed....a couple of times.

The tag of skin is off now. I am grateful, but my eye area still hurts.

P.S. I wish I knew how to add a scream sound when you touched the word scream.

Pool

Having a pool is nice, but sometimes the up keep can really be a BEAR!!

It is like giving a moose a muffin....one thing just leads to another!

Well, I got it all clean, all running nicely now. You may thank me.

Update

Ticks: looking much better! We think Quinn will survive nicely.

Zak: Woke up SICK this morning! Headache, fever, feeling cold, nauseated, not well. Let's hope he feels better tomorrow.

WINDS: they were blowing SO hard last night, I thought we would have a tornado. I was frightened! Dad just slept through it! I heard Kylie's bedroom door close hard about 3 or 4 times during night...meaning the wind came into their room - all windows leak - then the wind left, making the door open a bit and close hard. Very distressing to me.

Best part of Dad's day: sleeping in....he takes Zak to seminary and when Zak did not wake up, neither did Dad.

Christopher, I expect you to partake in the quiz question on the Payne blog.

Griffin: today he came up to me with a bit of excitement..."Mommy, smell me!" "What", I said, "Smell my hand", he asked, "OK"...I smelled his hand, and told him it smelled just like boy skin. He said, Oh, Good, Then I don't have to take a bath! I don't smell dirty!"

I don't know where that came from, but I thought his idea was funny.


That's it.

2 Items of Business

With the buisness of the tickS and all, I forgot to mention.....

Kylie was QUITE the pitcher on Saturday!

She pitched the last inning....

1st batter....strike out!

2nd batter....strike out!

3rd batter....strike out!!!

No help from the coach. Yea for Kylie

APPARENTLY Chase has been reading the blog and studying! We all know now that he has tests none of us would like to take.

Hope all goes well, Chase!

TICKS UPDATE: It looks gross, I had to draw a black line all around the redness today to see if it continues to grow. While I was at it I wrote in the date and time. I enjoyed the excuse to draw on Quinn's stomach.

Tick Tack Toe...No, Just a TICK

Quinn came back from his camping trip with a GUEST!

He got a tick.

Enjoy the pictures

I pulled the tick out with tweezers.

You can see the whole where the tick was.

Dead tick on a tissue

photographs courtesy of Mom
Great blog courtesy of Quinn

ALERT: upon closer inspection, another tick was found.

No new photos were allowed.

Friday Night

Tonight it is/was just me, Kylie and Griffin.

Dad and Quinn went on an overnight campout. In a shocking turn of events, they were actually ready WAY early! I fixed them both a nice tin foil dinner. Quinn has never had one before and was quite concerned about the bun for the hamburger. When I finally was able to explain enough what the meal was, he thought it very odd to eat a hamburger patty like that. We will see how he liked it.

Zak was at a vollyball game, I picked him up at 7:00pm, then he got ready to go to a friends birthday party - they are playing video games until 10:00pm when I hope he will get a ride home.

Kylie, Griffin and I watched Bee Movie. It was funny! I really liked it.

That's it. Hope you all enjoyed your night.

Hey Chase!

Chase,

Where are you??

I don't think you are reading this blog anymore,

Or you are too shy to comment!!

Get back in the game!

I MISS YOU!

25 cents worth

Don't worry Chase, I found a Wyoming quarter today and placed it in your Quarter Book.Now we all have to look for this Oklahoma quarter, it is out NOW!

Check every quarter.

Brawling IS Allowed

We got the game yesterday. Already Quinn and Zak have unlocked 3 players.

(Whatever that means.)

I think they like the game.

Ninja Tumbling Gym Extravaganza

I organized this little event at a tumbling gym in Provo. I haven't gotten many pictures yet, but here are a few I downloaded from Facebook. Next week is a big-time testing week for me, so I will have time to get some other pictures after that. FYI: the guy standing by the hole I jumped through is about 6'5.

We Want A Pitcher, Not A Belly Itcher!

Kylie is a GREAT pitcher. Here is proof. She did great on her first game. Know this: she does not want to talk about it, but I wanted you all to see her pitch.

Kylie struck 2 girls out...this is one of them, you will see the girls 3rd strike, sorry for her, but happy for Kylie.

Pitching, Pool, Dad and Dog

Kylie on the mound!

(I have my camera through the chain link fence)

that's Kylie on the pitcher's mound again
It may be 80 degrees outside, but the pool is 60!

New Sport: Volleyball

I found it quite difficult to take pictures, or video of this sport! I really wanted to watch, but you can't do both!

Zak is #85

Washington DC

Last week, I got a random call from Lockheed Martin telling me they wanted to fly me out to Washington DC and interview me. I happily obliged. I flew in on Thursday night at about 9 PM. I stayed in the Sheraton in Crystal City. I spent that first night just walking around and exploring. There is a HUGE underground mall thing that spiders its way through all of Crystal City. I also bought myself dinner at a fancy seafood place called Legal Seafood at Steven's suggestion. I spent $45 all on myself, payable to Lockheed Martin.

The next morning I had my interviews from 9-12. They went fine, we'll see if I get any offers. The real exciting part was afterwards. I went back to my hotel, checked out, and had them hold my bags for me. Then at about 1:15 or so (I had to be back by 3-3:30 to catch my flight), I took off on the Metro for downtown DC. I knew I didn't have much time, so I just literally ran from building to building. I think I set a record for the number of national monuments seen in such a short time. I ran all the way around the Capitol Building, and then to the Washington Monument and on to the Lincoln Memorial (straight line from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial is over 2 miles). I made quick stops at the Smithsonian Air & Space thing, the Library of Congress, and some other small monuments. When I was finally done, it was like 3:15, and there was no way I would get back on time on the Metro. So I went up to a taxi driver, told him I only had $7 and asked if he'd take me to my hotel anyway. He did without a problem.

It was great to see all those sites. The architecture is incredible, unlike anything I've seen on the West Coast. It is one thing to see that stuff in pictures, but quite another to see and experience it all in real life. Thanks Lockheed Martin, I appreciate it.

What you see are pictures I took from my cell phone. It was raining pretty hard as you can tell, and I got fairly wet. I had no time, so I just went to the airport wet. It was fun.

Polar Bear Club

Griffin touched the pool water with his feet, and decided that the pool felt great, just right for swimming. I said fine, if he wanted. He went swimming, later he AND Kylie went swimming. Later we checked the pool temperature, it was 60 degrees.

Here are two videos for your pleasure:

I say: Is that all you are swimming Griff?
He says: Not any farther!

Had Your Ears Lowered Lately?

I just cut Dad's hair.

His comments upon seeing the results:

"I don't think I have seen hair cut this short!"
"It is just fine, I am sure it was this short when I was born."

I think it looks fine, just like regular.
Dad said as long as I am happy, that is great.

Done....Already?

Wanting my family to have enough roast for dinner on this Fast Sunday, I guess I cooked one roast too many.

I bought what I thought were 2 small roasts. I guess one was just the right size. Roast beef sandwiches for us.

Griffin's Confession

At church yesterday, I guess Griffin felt chatty, so he told me:

"Mommy, yesterday at Kylie's game I had to go potty. I looked all over for the potty and I couldn't find it. I couldn't find you, so I just went potty on the playground."

I thought it was funny, purely childlike and naive. I did caution him to not do it again.

oo la la....Guacamole

How did the guacamole turn out??

Baseball with NO Steroids!

Kylie at first base

This WAS a GREAT play! Mr. Red Jacket HAD to get in my way JUST as Kylie caught the ball and got the girl out at first.

Kylie playing catcher
more catcher

Run, Kylie, Run!