On the Road Again

Okay, it looks like I'll be on the road again. I've decided to go to my 20 year high school reunion. (Yes, that does officially disclose my age.....but I'm okay with that since I seem to forget how old I am anyway). I recently made a trip to visit my parents in Orem, I'm going again this week to see the Stadium of Fire/Miley Cyrus extravaganza and then I'll be in Orem the next week for my reunion. Tom has never been to one of his high school reunions because he really doesn't care to go. So I'm not sure he'd really care about going to one of mine. I'm sure he'd go if I really wanted him to, but then we'd have to worry about where the kids would go and who would take care of our dogs. It's just easier to take a picture of my family. I plan on getting together with my friend, Jennifer for the reunion. We can catch up on things and spare our husband's the agony of hearing us get our "daily quota" of words in. That's a lot to ask. Besides, it might cut in to MASH. Yes, he started with season one again. OCD. That's all I can say.

Pride and Prejudice

Well, I've got some new projects I'm working on. That's a good thing about summer....I have some time to do it. First off, I am working on organizing our family photos into binders. At one point I thought I might join the ranks of the scrapbooking moms to creatively archive my children's lives. I need to simplify because I'm just not doing it. I am just putting the pictures on cardstock with photo corners (acid free of course) and then putting them in page protectors and binders. Last night I got quite a bit done and it went really fast! I have binders started for both of my kids and I put all the professional photos we've had done from birth all the way to the school pictures that are up to date. I want to get a binder started for Tom and I and then have one for each year for our family. The way I see it, I'm only about 15 years behind. My new organizing method is much faster than scrapbooking and I think it looks nice. It's also fun to look at pictures and see what has just been in boxes up until now. Another project is my raspberries. I've mentioned that before. They are still alive and well. I opted not to do other garden vegetables this year. I really want to focus on my raspberries. Maybe next year I'll get some other stuff growing again. Weed control is always a big issue. Of course we love the privacy of our yard, but we are also surrounded by big fields. I have also decided that an English teacher should be well read. I love adolescent literature but I though I would focus on some classics I've never read before. I'm starting out with Pride and Prejudice. I'll have to rent the movie when I'm finished because I've heard that's great too. Tom finished all 11 seasons of MASH. However; I hear the theme song coming from my room right now so maybe he's starting over. He liked the earlier versions with Frank. I tend to like the later ones with Charles, BJ and Colonel Potter. Here's exciting news: My sister, Rachel got tickets for us to go to the Stadium of Fire to see Miley Cyrus! It's been sold out, but she had some connections with someone who needed to sell their tickets. Tori is pretty excited about it. I like that kind of stuff too. So it looks like I'll be going to Provo/Orem again on next week. The kids have had fun with their cousins this week. Josh, Britini and Tami are here from Michigan. They went to the Hyrum Rodeo tonight. Well, that's about it for today.

Lazy Days

I have been enjoying the lazy days of summer. I like being able to not set an alarm clock; I still wake up between 6:30-7:30, but that's better than my normal 6:00 a.m.. Tyler, Tori and I enjoyed the few days with my mom and dad. I helped my mom with some painting and Tyler helped with lots of odd jobs around the house. Tori helped some with the painting but had fun playing with her cousin, Grace. Rachel and I took the kids to the movie on Saturday to see Prince Caspian. I really liked it. We also went to visit my Grandma Anderson. She was having a good day and it was nice to see her. Today I worked on weeding my raspberries. I also fertilized them. So far they look good. I hope they get established so I can enjoy some berries in another year or two. They are so expensive at the store I just don't get them very often. Tami, Britni and Josh are coming to visit tomorrow from Michigan. It will be good to see them and the kids are excited about seeing their cousins. We fixed the extra motorcycle so Josh could go riding with Tyler. This morning I also got the good news from Rachel that she was able to get tickets for us to go to the Stadium of Fire with Miley Cyrus! Tori and I are excited about that. I also got my Zutter Bind it All in the mail (I ordered it on e-bay) and have had fun making projects already. I plan on getting some pictures organized into binders this summer. I've given up on scrapbooking ( I also sold a bunch of my scrapbook supplies on e-bay), but I need to get them out of boxes where we can at least look at them. I would also like to figure out my dvd recorder so I can get our old videos on dvd. Currently we don't have a dvd recorder. Our "new" one didn't last long and is out of commission. Such is life. I also need to finish plans for the family reunion in August. Tom and I are judging a pinewood derby tomorrow and Tom is on season 8 of MASH.

Hot Summer Days

Well, the last few days have really been hot. It feels like summer, that's for sure. Today I took Tori to the pool to go swimming. She ran into a couple of the girls on her All-Star Cheerleading Team. She had a lot of fun. I sat on the side and read a book and tried to keep current on my sunscreen. I just don't enjoy sitting in the sun. Funny thing, I couldn't convince my son to go swimming with us. He's also a red-head. I guess he's learned early on that sitting in the sun isn't fun when you are fair skinned. I managed to avoid getting too burned (thankfully). With all the heat my allergies have kicked in. Cotton is blowing all over the place and I can sure tell. I haven't found an allergy medicine that really does the job. Tori has bad allergies too. Good thing: Raspberries are planted and looking good. I also planted some lilac bushes. It will be nice when they really start to grow and I have flowers and berries. Cross your fingers for me. We also had the garage sale. What a bust. Every time I do a garage sale I resolve to never do one again. People are just cheap. Tori managed to make a few dollars selling soda pop and it's a good thing because Tom sent her iPod through the wash and she used her money to buy another one. Tyler's saving up for scout camp even though he'd rather spend it on video games. We're heading to my mom's house this weekend to help her out with some painting. I also want to visit my grandma. She's 91 and in hospice care right now. Time is precious. I'm enjoying my summer vacation. Tom is on season 5 of MASH. I tease him about being OCD. I can't do the MASH marathon even though I like the show. I did buy all 11 seasons on e-bay. Next big project: Get through the family reunion. I'm spear-heading the whole thing and discovering it's like having a pet elephant- there might be some perks....I'm just too busy with the work to see any of them just yet.

Rainy Summer Days

It sure hasn't seemed like summer. The temperature has been a lot cooler and it's raining again today. In some ways it is nice because I don't like it when it gets really hot, but I also want to feel like it is summer. I had talked about taking the kids to Lagoon this week but it's way too cold. I finished getting my garden spot ready to plant my raspberries yesterday. It started to rain when I was finishing up and continued to rain throughout the day. I bought some raspberry plants yesterday afternoon and some lilac bushes. I want to get them planted today. For whatever reason I haven't been sleeping very good lately. Last night I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep for almost two hours! Needless to say, I am tired today. I didn't sleep well the night before last either. I also finished reading my book, Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf. It wasn't as dry as I had suspected. It gave a lot of information about the reading brain and all the complex processes that go into learning how to read. I finished my "Foundations of Literacy" class and will start the remainder of my reading endorsement classes again next fall. I think it should be very interesting. I really would like to be a better reading teacher. Tom and I have enjoyed watching re-runs of MASH. For mother's day Tyler bought season 2 for me on DVD. It's been fun to watch them. I have some stuff for sale on e-bay and I plan on saving up enough to buy all 11 seasons. Hopefully the auctions close out good today.