Grey's Addiction

I meant to be better at blogging, but I got Grey's Anatomy season 4 and 5 for my birthday.  I have been watching them around the clock.  Even Rocky was getting into it.  We would stay up way to late watching.  We would finish an episode, and decide we could do one more.  It was always just one more, one more until it was 1 am.  I think they need a Grey's Anatomy addiction recovery program.  I can't believe how obsessed I was.  

Sick season has definitely started.  Both kids were sick this weekend.  I took them to the Doc on Monday to find out they both have ear infections, and Ciara has conjunctivitis.  Armed with medicine, the kids are now better, but they have passed to cold onto me.  Yuck.  We have been watching way too much TV, but I just don't know what else to do when we are all sick.  I have been going overboard with the hand washing (I really don't want conjunctivitis).  And now it has been snowing all day.  If I didn't have to watch the kids, I would actually enjoy laying around, bundled up with the fire, watching the snow outside.  I am glad that the forecast for Halloween looks good.  I hate taking the kids out in the snow.  

Frye

Yes, I know I have been a slacker. I have been trying to update every week, but time seems to fly by so quickly that a month passes before I realize it.

I celebrated my birthday last week, and one of my best presents is:

I have been eyeing these boots for months and was finally able to purchase them! They are the Frye Harness 12R. Very comfortable, and go with many outfits.

Yes, I do find it sad that boots can make me so happy. But what can I say? I am a shoe girl. My mom can remember Frye boots being popular back in the 70's. She was amused that they are now back in popularity again. I guess I will have to hang on to these, and perhaps when Ciara is my age she will want a pair too!

Thank you to everyone who made me feel special on my birthday! And thank you to the Frye company for making such cute and comfortable boots that were exactly what I was looking for!

Fall

I can't believe that October is already here. I am loving the weather today, not too cold with lots of sun! This kind of weather makes me feel energized, not sure why. So I just celebrated my anniversary. Incredibly, it has been 9 years. I really can't believe it has been that long. It doesn't feel like it. It just makes me realize that I was just a baby when we got married (what were we thinking??). I can say that I have never regretted this decision, and can't imagine my life any different. Well, maybe I can imagine winning the lottery . . . The kids have picked their Halloween costumes. Ciara is Dorothy and Caden is the "scary" Spiderman (you know, the black one from Spiderman 3). They are both so excited and ask every day if it is Halloween yet. We drove up to Morgan and Mountain Green again to look at houses. I think we have both decided that this is where we want to live. I am still nervous (small towns and all) but I think it will be OK. It is just so nice and quiet up there. Although now Rocky thinks he wants to buy a lot a build. I don't know how I feel about this. Yes, it sounds great and I would love to pick out everything that would go in our house, but what if we go over budget, or if something else happens? I guess we will get it all figured out. I swear I had much more intersting topics to blog about, but I can't seem to remember them at this time. I will update again if I figure it out.

Mom's Gone Wild 2009

This is my sister: (and her husband)This is my sister is Vegas: This is my sister (and Brandi) after a night out in Vegas: (we were still in Cesar's Palace when this was taken)

Our annual girl's trip was last weekend. We had a blast. And what happens in Vegas, really does stay there. Here are some highlights. (Sorry if you don't understand it all, but there are tons of inside jokes.)

"Blanket likes cheese."

"It just gets poky."

All the "nan" talk.

Time travel in the Grocery Store.

The porn house.

The shoe chair.

Sleeping in the streets of Chicago.

The puking spot at the gym.

Making (or burning) cookies at 3 am.

There are many more great memories. Although what is it about Vegas that makes the freaks come out? I thought we all looked pretty cute dressed up, but SLUTTY seems to be more appropriate in Vegas. So do fake boobs, peroxide hair, dresses that are better worn as shirts, and sequin shirts (especially on guys). And why do married guys think it is OK to hit on married girls? Just because we are both married doesn't make it OK. Oh well. I still had fun.

***Due to popular demand, I need to add some quotes and moments that were forgotten.

-"Where'd you get that panis?"

-"This $20 is for you to buy diapers for your baby."

-Brandi's 1 minute challenge.

-Singing hymns in the car. (He can sit on a tack.)

Oktoberfest

This past weekend, we went to Snowbird's Oktoberfest with Rocky's parents. We spent the night Sunday night up there, and then got to play all day Monday. The kids had a blast. They climbed the rock wall, jumped on the big trampolines, rode the Alpine slide, got their faces painted, and tons of other things. Here are Joe and Caden coming down the slide.

And Rocky and Ciara coming down the slide.

Ciara got a rainbow painted on her face.

And Caden got a shark. He thought it was so cool that when his mouth opened, so did the shark's.

The only problem with this great trip: Rocky's mom's health. On Sunday before we left, she was saying how much on side of her body hurt, and also around her shoulders and neck. (She has had a heart attack before, about 3 years ago). We kept telling her that she should stay home and rest, but she refused. She was in so much pain that you couldn't touch her at all. And she had to walk really slowly and take deep breaths. Seriously, what is this woman thinking? We kept expecting her to keel over at any minute, but she made it through the trip. Monday night as we were eating dinner, I got a phone call from Rocky's grandma. She had been trying to reach Brendalyn (my MIL) but couldn't get a hold of her. She sounded like she had been crying, and I immediately thought that Grandpa Ward had died (he has Alzheimer's and is not doing too well). Brendalyn calls her mom back only to find out that her brother has died of a heart attack. He had one about a year before Brendalyn had hers. He was apparently driving at the time. I know that Rocky and I were both thinking that it means she just has a year left as well. I don't understand why the woman can't take care of herself. Joe (my father in law) decided that she would be fine, because he hasn't heard of a brother and sister dying so close to each other. Sound reasoning.

In closing, we had a good weekend, but a sobering one as well. My heart goes out to Rocky's uncle's family, and his Grandparents. How awful to loose a child, no matter how old they are. I just hope that Brendalyn will take better care of herself.

What a Summer, and First Day of School.

Yes, I have not been posting nearly enough. I kind of took a break for the summer. I am hoping that being back in a routine will help. My goal is at least one post per week. We will see how this goes.

I have lots of pictures to share. We took our trip to Pennsylvania, which was fun. It is so beautiful there. There was only one problem. The one day we chose to be in Philadelphia also happened to be the day the First Lady and her daughters were there. They got there around the same time Rocky and I did, and apparently wanted to see the same things. Since they are under heavy security, they shut down Independence Square, which meant we couldn't see Independence Hall (where the constitution was signed) or the Liberty Bell. Oh well. Rocky's main goal was to eat a Philly Cheesesteak, which he did. We also went to Lancaster County, which is where there is large communities of Amish. I am strangely fascinated with them. It was just so neat to see the buggies driving down the streets with the cars.

And today we had the first day of school. I was so nervous. I am not sure why. It is just so scary to think how big Ciara is getting. I console myself with the fact that Caden still has 2 years to go, but I know it will go by so fast. I almost started crying after she got on the bus, but I put on some music to distract myself (thank you Tupac and Kanye). For those of you that are not aware, I go on an annual girl's trip. This is our third year, and we call our trip Mom's Gone Wild (of MGW for short). This trip is coming up on Thursday, and I CANNOT wait! We are going to Vegas. I should have plenty to blog about when we get back.

I just loved seeing these Amish Farms. The countryside was so green and beautiful.

I just loved to see this! Rocky thought I was a little crazy because I got all excited every time we passed a buggy.

Here is Ciara, waiting for the bus. As soon as she saw it, she decided she didn't want to go anymore. But she soon changed her mind and hopped right on. When she got home, she told me that some of the older girls in the neighborhood helped her find her class and sat with her on the bus. (Thank you Sarah Farnsworth and Carli Elgren for taking care of my girl!)

Here she comes off the bus. Caden hopped on, and I had to drag him off screaming. He doesn't understand that he doesn't get to go with her.

Damn Delta Airlines

So we had another horrible customer service experience.  Rocky and I have been planning a trip to Pennsylvania in the next couple weeks.  We have lot's of skymiles, and thought we could use those for one of the tickets.  We found his skymiles number, but couldn't find the pin number, and of course, you can't do anything without the pin.  After a day of trying to guess the number, we were finally locked out of the account.  Rocky decides to call and find out what his pin is.  After a number of phone calls (one of which the representative hangs up on him) he finally gets it figured out.  I then go online to try to book the ticket only to find out that we have been locked out of our account.  I called Rocky to let him know, and he said they told him that our account is good now.  I finally call myself, and tell them the problem.  They tell me that I am wrong.  This pisses me off.  I am looking directly at my computer, and it says that our account has been locked.  He tells me again that everything is fine with my account, and offers to walk me through the process of logging on.  I explain that walking me through will not make a difference, since I am locked out.  He again says that I am not locked out, and that everything is fine.  Again, I say it is NOT fine since I cannot access my account.  He finally transfers me to another department where they tell me there is nothing they can do, and that we have to wait 24 hours to access our account.  I called Rocky and told him this, so he calls up Delta to argue some more.  They then inform us that we need 50,000 miles to fly to Pennsylvania, and we only have 49,000.  When did this happen?  I thought that all domestic flights were only 25,000.  Oh well.  We got the flights booked, and then yesterday Rocky wanted to change one of the flights.  He apparently had to go through many people, supervisors, and (after dropping the "f-bomb") ended up at the complaint department where they finally were able to work with him.  Why are these people intent on making our life difficult?  We were trying not to use Delta, but that is difficult when you are flying out of Salt Lake.  

Enough of the anger, next post will be about my kids new favorite activity:  snail races!