New Blog!

I have moved on over to word press, so you can now find my blog at desperatemormonhousewife.wordpress.com 

 After thinking about it, it seems as though my blogger account has become tired and old (much like myself) and a face lift was in order (NOT for myself).
So onto bigger and better things.
I am hoping this change will also inspire me to be more daring and honest in my blogging.  There has been a topic stewing in my  mind for some time, but I haven't had the courage to post it yet.  Perhaps in the near future . . . .

PSSA's

As I was looking at the traffic sources of my blog, some disturbing information came up.

The #1 searched phrase for my blog was "desperate mormon housewife."  

That makes sense.

But the next 4 searched phrases are bothering me.

They all were some form of "naked/nude kids playing pool."

WHAT?

I am pretty sure that there are no nude picture of my kids on the blog.

So if that is what you are here to see, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!

I am quite bothered by this.

Why would my blog show up when those words/phrases are searched for?

I am disturbed.

Onto my intended subject of the day . . . .

The PSSA's began today for my daughter.

(For those not in PA, or even in the USA, the PSSA's are the state mandated standardized tests)

We have 6 days of testing.

I am not going to get into the politics, and the right and wrong of the testing practices.

I would just like to thank our school for making the testing experience a pleasurable one for my daughter.

She looks forward to these tests.

(Yes, that does make her seem a little crazy)

But I think the school makes a big effort to make them seem fun, so that the kids don't worry about the testing process.

They provide all the kids with snacks, like fruit and granola bars.

Then they test until lunch, and relax for the rest of the day.

Plus, they have a different teacher as the test mediator, and I think she enjoys getting to know another teacher.

She made plans to arrive at school 15 minutes earlier than usual.

She was so excited last night for these tests.

I think half of the excitement is knowing that there will be no homework assigned for the next week.

(I appreciate that fact as well.)

So thank you, Selinsgrove Intermediate School, for taking a possibly stressful event and creating fun for my daughter.

Disney Addiction Recovery

My sister recently found this on Pinterest.

I have found it extremely accurate.

We have not been to Disney since September of 2013 and I am still sad to not be there.

I am sad to know that I will not be eating a waffle sandwich while sitting near the Haunted Mansion.

Or that there are no Dole Whip's in sight.

You would think after getting to visit Disney 2 times within a 12 month period, I would be over the Disney craze.

But going there seems to make it worse.

Hi, my name is Nici, and I am addicted to Disney World and Land.

It all started in college.

My BFF was from LA, and so we would take many trips during fall and spring break to her house.

While we were there, we would spend much time at Disney Land.

We would go there from the time they opened and wouldn't leave the park until they closed.

This is how it always starts.

Just an innocent trip to the happiest place on earth.

I started to collect Disney snow globes, and then bought some Disney Barbies.

But then I graduated college, got married, and started a family.

There was no time, and DEFINITELY no money for trips to Disney.

And then, in 2012, my parents decided to take us all to Disney World.

We all had such a great time.

Even my husband, who thought that he would hate it.

He liked it so much that he suggested we plan another trip.

So we did.

Planning the next trip kept the obsession going.

And then we visited the park again, and had a fantastic time.

But now, we have no plans to visit again.

I really need to find a Disney World Recovery Group.

And every time I find out a friend of mine is planning a trip, I get extremely jealous.

It is sad.

I am a grown ass woman (to quote another dear friend of mine) and I can't get enough of Disney World.

Are all the rides coated in crack mixed with pixie dust?

Do they lace their food with an addictive substance?

If you haven't ever visited, you may not want to start.

Because once you start, it is hard to break the Disney habit.

Throwback Thursday

I have noticed that Throwback Thursday is becoming quite popular.  

I have always wanted to participate, but all my childhood pictures are at my parents house, which just happens to be 2000 miles away from me at the moment.

I also just completed a book call "What Alice Forgot."  

It is about a woman who hit her head at the gym and thinks that it is 10 years ago.

I found it interesting.

So, my version of TBT will be to write a bit about what my life was like every past 10 years.

2004: 

 I was working at OC Tanner in Salt Lake City, UT.  I was also pregnant with my first child.  I can remember being so excited, and yet terrified at the same time.  

It took us quite some time to get pregnant with her, and I was so afraid that something would go wrong.

The pregnancy ended up being rather uneventful, and I did give birth to a very beautiful baby girl.  

(I seriously cannot believe she will be 10 this year.  Kind of freaks me out how old I have become.)

1994:  

We had recently moved from Tulsa, OK to Bogota, Colombia.

  It was a moved I had looked forward to, since Tulsa was not my favorite place.  

Bogota ended up being one of the most favorite places I have ever lived.

I could write a whole post just on the wonderfulness of Colombia.

Dancing, beautiful green mountains, vibrant city, DELICIOUS food.

1984:

My memories get a bit fuzzier the further back I go, but I do know we were living in Muscat, Oman.

My best friend was Lesley.  We did just about everything together.

My family spent a lot of time a the beach, and wadi bashing when possible.

I was also British for this period of my life.

(My sister and I attended a British school, and we both spoke with British accents)

We also had to opportunity to travel extensively (Paris, London, Singapore, Denmark, India, Thailand, New Zealand, to name a few).

And that is as far back as I go, because I wasn't born in 1974.

Perhaps 'Flash-forward Friday' will be the next thing.

So tomorrow I should consider what the next 10 years will bring . . . 

(Oh crap, that means my youngest will be turning 18 and graduating!!!!)

Hockey Weekend

I have talked about teachers, and coaches in past posts.

This time, I would like to talk about teams.

The players, their families, coaches, and everyone who contributes to the team.

My son plays hockey. 

He LOVES it.

He loves it so much that he has decided that he must be Canadian, since hockey is so popular up there.  

(He is serious about being Canadian.  He cheered for them all during the Olympics, and asked to learn the words to their national anthem.)

My point is that he LOVES hockey.

He has been playing for 2 years here with our local team.

Hockey is not a big deal here in Central Pennsylvania.  Most people don't even know that we have a hockey team.

Last year, we attended a tournament in State College, where we had the chance to play against other teams of the same age.

We were decimated.

I can't remember how many games we played (it had to be over 10), and we won 1.

And the ones we lost were not close at all.

I likened our team to the Mighty Duck (from the movie) or the Bad New Bears.

This year, there were many parents who noticed our lack of support and really stepped up.

This past weekend, we attended another tournament, this time in York.

My only hope for this tournament was that we didn't end up in last place.

We started on Saturday with a loss.

But then we won the next game, and Caden actually scored some goals.

(He is not usually a big scorer.  He is definitely not one of the superstars.)

We played 6 more games and only lost one more time.

We were all so thrilled.

We ended up placing 2nd with our cross ice team.

Our half ice team played for 3rd.

This was one of the most intense games I have ever watched.

We came back from 1-5 to win in overtime 7-6.

I was almost in tears.

It was just so amazing to see how far all the boys have come in the past year.

And to come back from a 4 goal deficit took some serious heart.

They really left it all out on the ice.

One of the reasons I think our team played well is that they really functioned as a team.

Our boys (for the most part) did not try to take it to the goal every time.

They passed well, they played smart.

I have really loved these past 2 years getting to know all the other hockey families.

And I love going to the tournaments with them, and getting to know them better.

I look forward to many more years of hockey with all of you.

I am having trouble writing all that I am feeling (I am NOT a writer), but just know that my heart was made so full after this weekend.  

I am still grinning.

Teaching Reliance

While sitting at my kids' gymnastics lesson last night, I had a conversation with my friends about cooking.

Not what we were going to cook, but about letting our kids cook.

I immediately felt panicked, thinking about letting my kids near a stove.

And knives, don't even get me started.

But after talking for a while, I realized that I have been doing a disservice to my kids.

By taking care of every little thing for them, I have hampered their ability to be self-reliant.

OK, I don't do EVERY little thing.

They do make their beds every morning, and recently have started to get their own breakfast.

On occasion, I have let them pack their own lunch.

But I wash and fold and put away their clothes, wash all the dishes, cook almost every meal, clean. . . 

I am basically a housewife from the 1950's.

But I like it.

It makes me happy when my son tells me that whatever I have made for dinner is the best meal he has ever eaten (he says this a lot, which makes me doubt his sincerity, but I still love to hear it).

But when they ask to help, I politely decline.

Yes, that sounds really sad, and not something that a very good mother would do.

And I have my reasons, which are all dumb (they will probably break something, or they won't do it right, or it will just be faster if I do it myself, etc.)

So last night I let my daughter cook for the first time.

She made pancakes.

(From Bisquick, not from scratch)

She read the recipe from the back, got out all the ingredients, and mixed them up.

I did not help once.

I did help by telling her at what level to have the stove, and she needed a little help with the flipping of the pancakes.

But she mad the whole batch, and the house did not burn down.

I am resolving to have her cook more often.

(I still did the dishes for her, but that will be another lesson for another time.)

Life After St John

So, when I last left off, we were in St John.

(It turned out the swimmer had died from a heart attack, and not from drowning.

Still very tragic.)

We have since returned to PA.

Cold, wet, icy, snowy PA.

It makes me miss the beach.

We had a fantastic Christmas. 

As usual, it was just the 4 of us; no extended family, no visitors.

We ate out at our usual Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day with some great friends (who will soon be leaving us, so if anyone else wants to join us for Chinese Christmas 2014, let me know!) and just hung out at home.

We celebrated New Years with friends as well, but didn't make it until midnight.

Since then, things have calmed down, and the regular routine has started.

This consists of: school (for the kids), work (for Rocky and somewhat for me), hockey (for Rocky and Caden), gymnastics (for both kids), and cooking, cleaning, errands, etc (for me).

One new development:

There is a semi-truck driver that has started parking next to our house.  

He doesn't live in our immediate area.

But just likes to park there.

This is annoying for many reasons.

1.  When pulling out from the alley behind our house, you cannot see the oncoming traffic.

Beside being dangerous for us the in car, the kids tend to cross the street there because there are friends whose house is right across that part of the street.

2.  It is loud.  He has begun to start the engine at all hours of the night, and leave it running for at least 30 minutes.  I know there is a reason for him to do this, but it wakes us up every time, and I can't go back to sleep until he either drive away or just turns it off.

And when I say "all hours of the night," I mean all hours.  Sometimes it happens at 1 am, 3 am, 5 am, 6am.  Plus at random hours during the day.

3.  I hate looking out my windows and seeing a huge, ugly semi parked there.  This reason is less of a problem than the first 2, but it is annoying to not be able to see anything beyond our fence besides a truck.

We are at a loss as to what we can do to better the situation.

Rocky did call the cops one night at 3 am when he left the truck running for almost an hour.

But he continues to park there, and start it up whenever.

We have tried talking to him as well, but to no avail.

So we are going to have to get tough.  

There apparently is no ordinance (currently) to prevent him from parking there.

But I would think that common sense would just tell you that parking a semi in the borough is not the best idea.