These are a few of my fay-vor-ite things . . .

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feeeeeel sooooo baaaaad. I was having a Julie Andrews moment there. Just me? Okay, moving on. I've made a couple of new discoveries in the last month or so that I'm compelled to share with you all (you know, the 3 of you who read my blog).

1. Pandora Radio (http://www.pandora.com/) - I LOVE this at work. You type in an artist or a song you like and it selects other music that is similar in musicality and creates a "radio station" for you based on that. If it plays something you don't like, you give it a thumbs down and it will never play that song again. It's PERFECT for listening at work when I forget to bring my iPod. There are no commercials and I have yet to receive any junk e-mail from them. Just be aware that nothing is edited so if you type in Snoop Dogg, you will hear the explicit lyrics (I wasn't ready for that first thing Monday morning so I thought I'd share that info with you).

2. Kath & Kim - It's my new favorite show! It's so hilarious! It's on Thursday nights (check local listings). See a preview here. The cat wailing thing and the "mexican guy" phrase are my favorite parts!

'Tis the Season (well, almost)

Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy to your blog and change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then tag whomever you choose......'Tis the Season!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? When doing the wrapping I like gift bags, obviously because I'm lazy; but when unwrapping I find the excitement builds a little more when wrapping paper has been utilized.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial all the way - like I'm going to clean up all those pesky needles.

3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving weekend - as soon as Toby feels we have adequately "respected The Bird"

4. When do you take the tree down? The week after Christmas

5. Do you like eggnog? Um, EWWW!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember getting a bike when I was a kid that I never really learned to ride - and then getting a scooter the next year. And getting a bunch of gymnastics videos one year, I think I was 13 or so, when I thought I knew all my gifts and my mom surprised me with those.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Our parents.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Tysen is easy because he always gets REALLY into certain things. Like one year it was Thomas the Train and now it's Bionicles and Legos, so you always know how to score with him - and Audrey because she's too little to know what's going on and she likes the shiny wrapping paper the best of anything anyway.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? More than one, yes.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? No self-respecting person e-mails Christmas cards! Come on! Dish out the $0.42 in postage for the people you love.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My mom always gave us socks, underpants and toothbrushes in our stockings - not too exciting but at least she was showing an interest in our personal hygiene practices.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Love Actually - it's such a good movie (but heads up to try for the Clean Flix version if you're watching with your kids)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Is this question implying I should stop at some point?

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Duh! Regifting is the American way.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ginger cookies and my mom's fudge - and anything with chocolate!

16. Lights on the tree? Who doesn't put lights on a tree?!

17. Favorite Christmas song? If I have to have one, I guess it would be Carol of the Bells.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? As though I'm going to leave the perfect weather here in December? I think I'll stay home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Of course.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Depends on the year - we rotate Christmas tree themes/color schemes.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Christmas music EVERYWHERE!!! It must be stopped. And the fact that retailers put out their Christmas garb before Halloween. Come on people, have some respect for The Bird!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Toby has a group of ornaments his mother made that are Christmas mice, which are his favorite. I really like a silver/blue tree but Kenlynne would disown me so I'm not allowed. I love big ball-shaped ornaments in pretty much any color as long as there are a ton of them. And I love kids' homemade ornaments with pipe cleaners and glitter and rickrack. It's just a reminder of what Christmas was like when I was a kid.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey, ham, potatoes, mom's homemade rolls, pretty much everything.

25. Favorite family Christmas tradition? I have a few: The first is my mom and dad always did sub-for-santa for a family and it was always so much fun to pick out gifts for the kids in the family even though there was a lot of guessing because we only ever knew the childrens' age and gender. Another would be staying up late with my sister doing various unproductive things like watching old VHS tape episodes of "The Guys Next Door" and "Christy" as well as always watching our NKOTB videos. And one that we do now is always go see the lights at the Temple, which is so much easier to do here where you only have to put on a sweatshirt if it's a really chilly evening - not like getting all decked out in ski gear to go to the lights in SLC.

Now I tag Joanna, Amanda, Kenlynne and/or Tessa, Darcy, Jaime, all of the current and former Greenwood girls, and anyone else who's ready to get in the Christmas spirit!

On a lighter note

Here is the link to a post by one of my favorite bloggers (see Poop & Boogies under Great Blogs of People I Don't Know on the right)

http://poopandboogies.blogspot.com/2008/11/con.html

If you read my blog here, you'll understand why I found it amusing.

Honor Thy Mother and Father

Well, today is a very sad day. I've been moping around all morning. My mom and dad have been here for the last week and they left this morning to go to my sister's house. You may think I'm crazy (some of my co-workers do) but my parents are among my favorite people on the planet. I had so much fun with them here and I miss them like crazy. My mom is my best friend (just behind Toby, of course and right up there at the top with Joanna and April) and I'm really sad that they're gone now.

I tried, in vain, to convince them to buy a "snow bird" house here to spend the winters. They left 8 inches of snow in their yard while we had nice 70 degree weather the whole week. Wouldn't you want to live here for the winters? Winter here is GORGEOUS!!! But they were not convinced even after hearing from me that they should to it every 87 seconds for 7 days. Apparently I need to work on my persuasion techniques.

So last night they were getting ready for bed with the plan to leave this morning. I put Audrey in bed at her normal time and mom and dad hugged her before I took her upstairs to her room. I laid my sweet baby down in her crib and she smiled at me and flipped over on her belly to snooze the night away. I went in my room to cry for a few minutes. For anyone who knows me, I'm a cryer so this is not all that unusual. But I sat in the rocking chair in our bedroom and cried on behalf of my little girl who isn't old enough to know she's supposed to be sad that Grandma & Grandpa were leaving. I cried the tears she would cry herself if she was old enough to understand. I closed my eyes and asked Heavenly Father to bless my heart to stop aching. Then I felt horribly shallow and selfish because there are people in the world praying about much bigger problems than me being sad.

I pulled myself together to go spend the rest of the evening with them. We just hung out and watched TV. Then it was time for bed. The only person who loves my mom as much as I do is my little boy. After he said goodnight to them, he went upstairs and we could hear him sobbing from his room. I went upstairs and just lost it. Seeing your kids upset is always painful, but when you know EXACTLY how they feel, it's even worse. So I sat on his bed and hugged him and we cried together for a few minutes. Then I told him it was time to say prayers and he said "How (sniff) am I (sniff) supposed (sob/sniff) to do that?" because he could hardly talk. He calmed down a little bit and in the middle of his prayer he said "Heavenly Father, please bless me and my mom to not be so sad". Is that not the sweetest thing you've ever heard?!?! He's such a tenderhearted boy. It's just the same as when he was 2 years old - he wishes everyone he loves could live in a giant house all together and no one would ever have to leave.

This morning they officially got on the road for the rest of their trip, so I'm having a bummer day. Am I a crazy person or something? Am I the only person who is this attached to my family?

Deep Thoughts . . . by Jack Handy

As you could probably tell by the last 3 posts in one day, we had kind of an eventful week. That being said, it seems like whenever you have a lot going on in a relatively short period of time you have the, let's call it opportunity to learn important life lessons. Here, in no particular order, are this week's revelations:

• A six year old is capable of breaking a digital camera he received for his birthday within 3 minutes of opening the gift.
• That same six year old is also capable of crying about it for an hour and a half without stopping.
• Spending 40 bucks on a stuffed animal is actually worth the money if the child is totally psyched about it and you only do it once a year.
• If your child wants to be a knight for Halloween and insists that his costume include a shield, lie to him and tell him that knights don't really carry shields like he's seen on TV. Otherwise, you'll waste 2 hours of your life using cardboard, a glue gun, spray paint, bias tape & glitter glue to manufacture something he won't even be capable of carrying once he has his costume on and his candy bag in his hands. The candy bag takes priority over the painstakingly handmade shield.
• If your husband is coaching in a championship football game, for the love of everything holy remember to bring along a change of clothes and a trash bag, or at least a large beach towel to avoid the musty car smell for a week and a half after he was drenched by his players with the ginormous water jug. Thank heaven it wasn't Gatorade!
• Finally, my personal favorite: say what you want about the heat here, but when you live in Arizona and it's 93 degrees on October 31st, you can dress your kid like this for Halloween.

I have no idea who this kid is - I saw him at Tysen's Halloween carnival and I had to take a picture of it. Too funny!

State Champs!

I am so proud of Toby! When he started working at Dobson Academy last year they had never even had a football team. In their first season as a team with Toby coaching, they made it to the playoffs. This season, he was the head coach and in only their second football season ever in the history of the school, they are the state champs! How cool is that?!?!

Most of my pics I took during the game didn't turn out so well, but there they are warming up with Coach Smith (Toby's assistant) And here they are after the game with their trophies We had a fun party after the game at Barro's Pizza with the players and their families. They're awesome!

Tysen is Six!

Tysen's birthday was last week and somehow I managed to go through the whole day without snapping a single picture. What a bad mom I am!

On his birthday he went to school, then to the babysitter's house until I got home from work. that evening he went to soccer practice, then to dinner anywhere he wanted to go (Wendy's) and then we took him to Build A Bear. We did that last year and he loved it and has slept with the animal every night since, so we took him again. He had a great time.

Then we went home and he opened his gifts. He got a bunch of books because he loves to read, and he got some cars, a bionicle (which he hasn't put down since he opened it), and a kid's digital camera. We're hoping to be able to squeeze in a party for him at some point in the near future so hopefully I can get my act together and take some pictures of that!

Halloween

As I've mentioned before, I hate Halloween. But having a 6 year old necessitates that I participate in some level of celebration.

Tysen's school had a carnival for the Kindergarten classes. they had so much fun winning prizes and candy from games like bean bag toss and ring toss and then fishing prizes out of a giant vat of spaghetti and eating donuts off of a string with no hands. He had a blast!

I was originally going to go into work on Friday, but I asked Tysen if he wanted me to come to his carnival and he said he did. Then, when I got there he was with his friends, Dylan and Travis, and Dylan said "Tysen, why is your mom here" and Tysen said "she really wanted to come". Um, okay. I've officially embarrassed my kid in public for the first time. Many more will follow, I'm sure. So I snapped a few pics and told him I was leaving which he was fine with.

Later that night he went trick-or-treating with his cousin, Tori, while we watched movies with Kenlynne & Glynn. Added bonus: if you're not at your own house, you're not obligated to open the door for the trick-or-treaters. Score!

Tessa (Toby's niece) went to party dressed as the bride of Frankenstein. She looked awesome!

Toby didn't look quite as glamorous in her wig, however.

Here's Dylan, Tysen & Travis at the carnival. Tysen chose to be a knight for Halloween this year.

Lucky for me Audrey's too little to know what's going on so I only had to deal with dressing up one child. We'll see what happens next year.