WE GOT TICKETS

Last night as I was driving to work I called my friend, Laina, to chat. As I was passing a local attraction I noticed the large electronic billboard flash the words "TWILIGHT tickets". I didn't know if it was announcing a date or if they were already on sale, but I started to scream. Laina, I am sure, could not understand a word I was trying to say, but over the next few minutes I talked to her as she got online and checked the theaters around her for tickets. We wanted to get the theaters that have reserved seating. Long story short- we got tickets for the 11:59pm showing of TWILIGHT the movie for opening night. YEAH! Thank you to Laina understanding my crazy talk last night. And a special thank you to Melinda for her brilliant maneuvering in getting enough tickets, close to each other for a most anticipated, fun girls' night out.

In honor of the the movie, today's posting theme song is a song that totally reminds me of the books- Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis.

And then there were 3

I know, you just can't get enough of me today. I am trying to make up for my lack o' blogging. Is it working?

This morning I was in the shower trying to make myself wake up. Usually when I am in the shower Dalen has already left and the kids are up reeking havoc (is that how you spell that?) in the house. To keep my "Mischief Maker In Training" aka Malia safe from the "Ultimate Mischief Maker" aka Britin, I bring her into the bathroom with me. I pop the iPod into the portable speaker thingy, and bust out the music while I shower. It is a 2-fold bonus. I get to sing in the shower without hearing myself sing and it usually keeps Malia dancing for the 5 minutes I am getting clean. Today, however, it didn't quite work. She danced, but with some "props." Ladies, I know you know what I mean when I say that it is needful to keep the feminine items close by in case of any unforeseen happenings (like starting the painters a day or 2 early). HAHA, I read that term in a British book and thought it was funny. Anyway, MMIT (Mischief Maker In Training) decided they were great fun to dance with. I told her to put them back and watched for a minute as she crazily shoved everything back in the drawer.

(I know this picture is a little too much information for all of you to have about me, but there you have it. A major insight into my personal life.)

As I as rinsing off the final remnants of the conditioner I felt something hit my foot. I looked down to see a flood of feminine products being pushed over the side of the tub and landing at my feet. One thing I have to say, they are absorbent! Alas, they didn't make it, and a good number of items made their way to the trashcan, never to be used for their true purpose. WOWZERS!


PS- The first picture is actually of Malia picking up for the second time. I don't have a waterproof camera. Being the mom-blogger that I am, I called for my son to bring the camera to me as soon as I had a towel wrapped around me.

PPS- I got my speakers working. Don't know how this happened, but the speakers got unplugged and then plugged back into the wrong place. Could this be the underhanded workings of UMM (Ultimate Mischief Maker)? We may never know.

PPPS- Now that I have the speakers working I have a new theme song for this posting- Mess by Ben Folds Five.

What Happens When Mommy Gets Sick?

2 postings in one day.

Have you picked yourself up off of the floor?

Okay- so Earlier this week I had to go to the dr... twice. Just for me. Monday it happened to be a female-type of infection. Enough said about that. I was dumb enough to think that I could get better on my own. Not so, my young Jedi. I needed the force to heal me, or at least some antibiotics lovingly prescribed by a kind and wise dr. who told me to NEVER wait that long again when I feel that kind of pain in that specific area. He was worried about my kidneys, yikes! On top of the medicines I am taking to get over that, he also counseled me that if I feel ANY back pain in the next couple of weeks I am to get into the dr. immediately. That didn't freak me out or anything!

So, the next day I woke up completely deaf in my left ear. What in the world? Did some random thing in the universe happen where my body got a memo that it was a great idea to just fall apart and catch every infection known to man? Nope, it is just a regular, run of the mill, viral infection in my ear compounded by the pressure change in the atmosphere that has caused all of the crazy weather we've had lately. Did you all get that? Didn't think so. I have an ear infection. I haven't had one in like 20 years. The dr. thought that this would make me feel young, since that is something generally linked to younger kids. Oh no. Didn't make me feel young. Made me feel old. I am falling apart!!! Since it is only a viral infection all I have to help with the ear pain is drops. Once again, picture this (ha, I said it again)... tilting your head to the side, as flat as you can, opening up the earway, and dropping in 4 drops from a little bottle. But wait, there's more- you need to lay down for at least 5 minutes to allow the drops to work their numbing magic on your inner ear. I don't know about any other mother, but WHEN do we have 5 minutes every 4 hours to just lay down? Anyone? Anyone? Okay, so I have more than that to blog (at least I make time to blog) but if I am in a laying-down-type-position there is a siren that goes off in my house alerting all children in a 5 mile radius to come jump on me, ask me questions, start throwing things, needing their diapers changed, bums wiped, etc. There is no peace for the recovering mother. I have had to take to putting the drops in as best I can, holding my head sideways for about 30 seconds (that's like 4 hours in mommy time) and pushing a cotton swab in to keep the medicine from draining out. Lets hope it works.

PS If you call and I don't answer the phone it is because I cannot hear you! The cotton swab is making me even more deaf than just the ear infection, but at least the pain is subsiding.

PPS Sorry, yet again no music change. You'll forgive me, won't you?

Field Trips

Jacob got to go on his first field trip yesterday. YEAH! All he has been asking since he got home is, "Can I do my punkin now?" Let me translate- he got a pumpkin on the field trip and he wants to carve a scary face on it. Well, since the other chillins don't have a pumpkin to carve yet I said he had to wait until we could get one for everyone. Apparently that translates into child language: "Ask me again in 2 minutes, I'll probably change my mind." I didn't get the translation correct I guess, so every 2 minutes I had to repeat, "You'll have to wait until we can get a pumpkin for each of your sisters." I am thinking about investing in a translation book but all I can find on the internet are English to Spanish, English to Germany, etc. There is no Adult to Child translation books. Who knew? If any of you out there know where I can get my hands on one that would be much appreciated!

UPDATE- Now that she is back I'll fill you in on Britin's field trip. (The title of the post is in the plural, in case any of you missed it.) She also got to go to a pumpkin patch. I am thinking she was in 7th heaven (not the tv show). When I picked her up she was glowing with pride, holding her new pumpkin she picked out all by herself.

When she got home Jacob busted out his pumpkin and they compared. I have to tell you- I was not ready to hear the following words come out of my 5-year-old's mouth. "Hey, mine is bigger than yours." WHAT? Oh, you mean the pumpkin. Yup, it sure is, but hers is a great one too. My kids are taking after my OCD tendencies- check out the symmetry of those beauties!


By the way- no theme song change for today. My speakers aren't working and I can't choose an appropriate song without first listening to make sure it fits. Sorry fellow bloggers, you'll have to keep on with the Eye of the Tiger until my sexy hubby can get those miracle hands working on my computer.

OUCH!

Let me set the stage for you all...

At the church, quilting. So much fun. Lots of ladies, lots of gabbing.

Picture this (I've always wanted to say that- kinda):

Sitting on a chair at a quilt, tying it when I hear right next to me- a chair crashing and a scream. Malia had pulled one of the folding chairs down on top of her. The back lip of the chair slammed right into her right eye. Less than 10 seconds passed from the time she pulled it on her to the time I picked her up. It was already puffing up and bruised. The girl had to have popped a blood vessel or something, because it was the fastest black eye I have ever seen.

We tried to head off accusations of child abuse to no avail. Apparently people think really highly of us. An unnamed friend even told me at church (once the black eye was in the really attractive yellow/green/blue phase) that if she hadn't been there to witness the biffing up of the eye that she would have thought some foul play had happened. Nice friend! So, over the past week I have taken photos of the various stages of Malia's first (and hopefully only) black eye.

First day- not too colorful, but pretty swollen. Yes, that is Dalen's nose. I never claimed to be a great photographer.

Much more colorful, and still swollen. I tried for a better picture, but she is not a photo opportunity kind of girl. The flash this close ghostifies her face (that is a Julie-ism for those who don't know/think that it is a real word).

The face is dirty from a pb&j sandwich, but the eye is from the chair (wink, wink). This one is the beginning of the yellow phase. Again, no complaints on the blurry picture- I already told you, I am NOT a photographer (as if you didn't know).

Now this one is just too cute. Still colorful- getting past the yellow phase is just in the nasty color phase. Can you tell that I am not fond of the yellow phase. It might be my favorite color, but now on an eye or any other part of the body.

Today- almost gone, but still looks bad. The doctor thought it was a smudge when I went in for an ear infection yesterday. Yes, I went in for an ear infection. It's been more than 20 years since I had an ear infection. I pitty my children, who seem to get them every year.

Theme Song- Eye of the Tiger!

Parenting Report Card

So, I gave myself a D- for my parenting skills for Monday. I should probably explain.

Growing up in California- if there was no mail (ie federal holiday) there was no school. Monday happened to be Columbus Day, for those of you who didn't know. Banks are even closed. But unlike the Postal Service, even federal holidays don't stop Utahans from going to school.

Here is jolly old Utah we have UEA. (UEA=vacation time). It is supposed to be a time for teachers here in Utah to go to teaching conferences, or something like that. Honestly, all of the teachers I know just plan vacations, along with the other families. This is a new concept to me so I am still not accustomed to planning a vaca in the middle of October. Church attendance during UEA is like church attendance during the bow hunt. NO ONE! Well, at least all of the cool people are gone. Just keep in mind, my family and I don't miss church during UEA or the bow hunt. What does this say about us? Yup- I know, we aren't cool. I have totally come to terms with this fact, I just feel bad for my kids that they are stuck in an "uncool" family.

Anyway, last week Kylie came home and told me they had Monday and Tuesday off of school. I said, "no way, you have Thursday and Friday off, I doubt they would let you Monday AND Tuesday off. Monday, I am sure you do because it is Columbus Day." She tried to convince me some more, but I would hear none of it.

Sunday night, I'm at work. I called Dalen while I was on break and he said he was keeping the kids up late for me so they would sleep in since there is no school. (I was the one that told him there was no school) Nice thought, but rarely works to keep the younger kids in bed.

Monday morning arrives, and so does my friend, Jenny, whose turn it was to pick up for school. WHAT? But there is no school... or is there? Yup, that's right ladies and gentlemen, there was school. See, because of UEA, they have moving the Monday off of school to next Monday so the kids get a 5 day break. Seriously, I failed in my parenting. I couldn't get Kylie out of bed when she didn't get into it until about midnight (not MY idea of keeping the kids up late, I would have said 10, maybe 10:30). So, when she woke up I got her ready. She cried. She doesn't want to miss any days of school this year because she heard that if you go everyday you get a ribbon at the end of the year. Anyway, I got her to school at the same time I took Jacob to school. At least he wasn't late.

What kind of Mom am I? I need to pay more attention to the calendars they send home with the kids. I thought those were just something to fill up my trashcan, but apparently they are supposed to help with daily schedules, reminders, and announcements from the school. OH!

(I decided on the ironic theme song this time around- Fight For Your Right by the Beastie Boys. Ironic because the Mom won't let the kids stay home who doesn't want to go to school, and it was opposite with me and Kylie.)

My fantasy come to life!

New Trailer alert... Before you start reading/watching this section turn off the music. You need to experience the fullness of the trailer. I think this is the best one they have put out so far. Makes me excited. My friends and I are going to the opening night - ya, you know who you are- you better be planning on it. We are going to be dead tired the next day, but well worth it, I am hoping!

Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer