My little overachiever

Emma is such a wonderful gift to our family. She is always very sweet and kind. Today she was awarded the school CEO award. It stands for Chief Example to Others. She has received exceptional scores on her spelling and math tests, and also uses her free time to help others in her class.
She is just the sweetest, kindest, friendliest person I know. She teaches me everyday how to be a better mother. I'm so thankful for her being in our family. She is truly a gift from Heaven.

What the?

Tri-chicks

My super motivated sisters Meg and Jill have just signed up for the Utah Summer Games Triathlon. Aren't they cool? I was invited to do so, but let's just say, well, Hell NO to that! We could have done it as a relay with Meg biking since she's superfast, Jill running, since she jiggles less than I, and me doing the swim since I'm obviously the most buoyant. But that involves some training on my end, and flying 3 hours and then actually doing it. Not going to happen. But they're still my hero's.

Going green

Last week we went grocery shopping. This was a pretty big deal, since we hadn't been for about 2 months. Really, 2 months. I was out of everything. When the corn and beans are running low, you know it's bad. So off we went to drain our checking account in the frozen foods aisle. We filled the cart, overfilled the cart in fact, and headed to the checkout stand. As we waited in line, we saw these.



Reusable grocery bags. In Utah. At Harmon's! So now I'm doing my part. And it feels, well, pretty darn good.

Now that Colbie's out

Timbaland is in. So in. And OneRepublic, which I have now downloaded onto my near-full iPod. I love love love "Apologize" so much, I find myself singing it in my dreams. It's a sad story when I overindulge in songs so much they trickle into my dream state. But Colbie has been replaced. Thank the good Lord. It wasn't too soon, that's for sure.

Black Friday

This year I passed on the frenzy that is Black Friday. Last year I was 14 months pregnant, not sleeping, and nesting, so of course I went. This year I lied in bed with my new pillow embracing my sleepy head, and enjoyed the breeze from my open window as I cuddled with my hubby. Nice. Not that I won't do my fair share of shopping later today. We have lunch at Mimi's with ALL the girls, extended family included, and then it's off to blaze a trail of shopping destruction. We have to burn off those turkey calories somehow.

And the "holy crap that's good banana cream pie" was a hit. In case you were wondering.

This day

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. You must understand my love of food and family to get this. Even though it's not a "Holiday" on any calendar, it's the most important Holiday to me. You see, every year on Thanksgiving Eve, my entire family goes to dinner and a movie. That is 19-20 people, depending on if Meg brings a date or not. We inundate the local Chili's, and harass the waitress just enough to get her to smile and not spit in our food. We then traipse on over to Jordan Landing where we see the latest Christmas Cash Stealer of a movie. Can you picture it? 20 people, 10 of which are kids, (unless you count Meg as one of our kids, then it's 11), crowding into theater seats with popcorn, candy and soda, and being vewy vewy quiet while doing this. It's great fun.

The reason this is so fun, is it's the only time we see a movie together each year. My family has never been big movie goers, it seemed there was always a motorcycle race or monster truck rally to attend instead. Just sitting around laughing at, I mean with, my sibs is super cool. We all get along so well, it's freaky. We're all pretty different, especially me, but we just work. It's what family is all about.

Then there's tomorrow. Tomorrow is the denouement of my Holiday excitement. For many it is Christmas, but I prefer the food, and turkey, of Thanksgiving. My mom makes the best turkey dinner ever. It's perfect. The turkey is juicy, the potatoes are fluffy, the gravy giblety, and the yams marshmallowy. And then there's the rolls. Oh, Rhodes, you make a mean roll. Thank you for your refined sugary goodness. My hips and tummy shelf thank you too.

Sorry for such a long post, but it's just such a great day, I can't bring myself to abridge. So in keeping with the spirit of the season, Happy Thanksgiving! And merry Christmas, too.

Could it be?

2 things happened this weekend.

1. I have conquered my fear of flying. Amazing what 10,000 sky miles in 2 months will get you. The help I needed came it the silliest of forms. Earplugs. Who knew? I have always had sensitive ears when it comes to loud sounds and such, so I thought I'd try earplugs to take the noise down a bit. Apparently this is all I needed. No engine noise = no anxiety about the weird engine noise! Brilliant!

2. We may have found a house. May have. It's a nice enough house, in a nice neighborhood at the end of a dead end street. The Ward is good, too. But then I get home and check my email, and there, in my inbox, is a newer, bigger, cheaper house on a bigger lot. DOH! We'll see.

My newest addition

How cute is this? Meg has taught me well about houndstooth. And when I was looking for this image on Target.com, I came across houndstooth rain boots. Imitation Wellies, if you will. Hmmm, maybe it will rain a lot in Chicago....

Heard yesterday

Me: Maggie what do you get to do when you're 16?

Maggie: Get a cell phone.

Yep. That's my 4 year old. Already wanting a cell phone. When I was 4, cell phones weren't even invented yet.

Need a new home?

If you do, click here, and spread the word!

Rebel

Am I the only living person that is terribly tired of the FREAKING Colbie Callait song? Oh, puhleez, stop with the "starts in my nose" crap.

Seriously, who says that crap.

Crap, I say.

Stuff I didn't know

I found the following in "Stumble Upon", my newest addiction. I knew some of these, and I even added one of my own. See if you can tell which one came from me, and which ones are originals.

Also, feel free to make your own additions/edits.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is
“screeched.”

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters
“mt”.

Almonds are members of the peach family.

The symbol on the “pound” key (#) is called an octothorpe.

The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.

Ingrown toenails are hereditary.

The word “set” has more definitions than any other word in the
English language.

“Underground” is the only word in the English language that
begins and ends with the letters “und.”

There are only four words in the English language which end
in”-dous” tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

The longest word in the English language, according to the
Oxford English Dictionary,
is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
The only other word with the same amount of letters is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.

The longest place-name still in use is
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimau
ngahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.

Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la
Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula” and can be
abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, “L.A.”

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

In most advertisments, including newspapers, the time displayed
on a watch is 10:10.

Alfred Hitchcock didn’t have a belly button.It was eliminated
when he was sewn up after surgery.

Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays.

Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy.

Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have
the same pattern of whiskers.

Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the
book ‘The Naked Lunch’.

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses
II who fathered over 160 children.

There is a seven letter word in the English language that
contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters,
“therein” the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are
registered blood donors.

John Larroquette of “Night Court” and “The John Larroquette
Show” was the narrator of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after
Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in
Frank Capra’s “Its A Wonderful Life”

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw
up.The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of
it’s mouth.Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the
stomach’s contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully
ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

The male gypsy moth can “smell” the virgin female gypsy moth
from 1.8 miles away.

The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.

The name for Oz in the “Wizard of Oz” was thought up when the
creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z,
hence “Oz.”

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar
tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word that is typed with only the
left hand.

To “testify” was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a
statement made by swearing on their testicles.

The combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine different
ways.The following sentence contains them all “A rough-coated,
dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough;
after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.”

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a
letter is uncopyrightable.

'Lollipop' is the longest word typed with only the right hand.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct
order, as does arsenious, meaning “containing arsenic.”

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the
Australian coat of arms for that reason.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have
about ten.

The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase
“Shah Mat,” which means “the king is dead”.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days
of lore when the engines were pulled by horses.The horses were stabled
on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight
staircases.

Note to Discovery Gateway Mom

Dear helpful mom,

It may surprise you that all these years, despite your lack of input into my child rearing choices, I have managed to raise 3 lovely daughters without any life-threatening incidents. I realize that there are children running around, and that my crawler my not be seen and may get her fingers stepped on. I also realize the "car" isn't childproofed. And yet I allow my 9 month old to enjoy herself fully, within arms reach. How dare I! How dare I not keep her snugly fastened in her baby bjorn, and turned away from the excitement she craves! How dare I not sanitize my children's hands after they have played in the water!

I simply smile, and say, "Thank you," and move on my merry way. When really I'm thinking to myself, "Lady, one day your kids are gonna get so sick of you hovering over them incessantly, they will do anything to get away from you! Let them play and be kids, and get bumps and bruises. RE.LA.XXXXX!"

Sincerely,
Mom who could care less what you think.


#$%^$^. This is me falling down as I descend my soap box. If only I had a hand rail.....

More pics

This one is pretty self explanatory.



More of the Halifax harbor, or harbour, as they say in Canadia.


Glass blowers in Halifax. We sat and watched these guys for a good half hour.



One of the many cemeteries in Halifax. These headstones are made of Sandstone, and therefore don't weather too well. Some of them are paper thin. There is also a headstone here marking one of the Titanic victims. They date back as far as 1700.

Apparently the only picture I have of Bar Harbor. I'm sure I have more on my phone, I'll just have to upload those. The colors on this island don't do justice to the main island beauty.

Pics

Sorry about the lack of rotation on some of these.

Radio City Music Hall. Right down the street from our hotel. Anyone that knows me, knows that I would love to see the Rockettes Holiday Show. Too bad we were a week too early.

Sean in Central Park. Isn't he so GQ?

This is me on the balcony of our stateroom. It was super sunny, hence the squinty eyes.

Ellis Island. This is the view from our stateroom as we left the Port of New York.

And the Statue of Liberty. Also from our stateroom. I'm glad we picked Starboard just for this reason.

I'll post more pics. Blogger was limiting me to 5.

Sleeping in The City That Never Sleeps

Well, I've returned from my cross country jaunt. I know most of you (GABE) have been sitting around twiddling your thumbs waiting for my next witty post. Well, no more waiting, here it is. I'll try to be brief.

Day 1: Ate at Cheesecake Factory in Lincolnshire at 11:00 PM. Yummy.
Day 2: Met Realtor and looked at 20 homes in 8 hours. Only 3 possibilities.
Dinner with "Boss Man" at Wildwood. Yummy.
Drove to O'Hare and stayed in a sweet suite.
Day 3: Flew to NYC on the tiniest plane ever. I was so brave.
Found Hotel. Hotel was waaaayyyy tiny. But cool.
Took a bus tour starting at Midnight. Finished at 2:00 AM, and there was construction!
Day 4: Walked through Central Park. Took a cab to the Pier, and boarded ship. Took nap.
Day 5: Sea Day. Took nap. Ate food, not so yummy.
Day 6: Arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was up at 4:00 AM, and the port is beautiful!
Found a coffee shop and drank hot chocolate and at cinnamon rolls.
Realized Canadia has their own funny money.
Watched local glass blowers. Cool.
Went to Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and saw Titanic exhibit. Very interesting.
Had Seafood Chowder, and fries with vinegar. Weird, but good.
Boarded ship, took nap.
Watched freaky family for entertainment.
Day 7: Arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine. Again, up at 4:00 AM to watch the ship dock.
Realized people talk funny in Maine. Bah Hahbah especially.
Ate crab balls and lobster rolls for lunch. So Yummy!
Took tour of Acadia National Park, very cool. Saw Martha Stewart's home.
Boarded ship. Took nap.
Watched funny comedian for entertainment.
Day 8: Arrived in Boston, Massachusetts. Up at 7:00 AM.
Had Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. So Yummy!
Followed the red Freedom Trail around to all the tourist sights.
Had a good time talking in British accents.
Ate chili in bread bowls, and Gelato.
Boarded ship. Took nap.
Sang Karaoke. Scary.
Day 9: Arrived in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Very, very windy.
Had to tender to shore in 12 foot waves.
Rented car to explore island. Pretty cool island.
Ate the best nachos in a sea side tavern.
Realized a hurricane was headed our way.
Boarded ship. No nap.
Tried to eat dinner, but all fooded out.
Was rocked to sleep by huge waves.
Day 10: Arrived in NYC. Disembarked ship and headed for airport.
Upgraded to first class, and hung out in first class lounge for 6 hours. Niiice.
Flew home.
Home sweet home.

That's pretty much it. I'll post photos after I get them uploaded. I've been stuck behind mountains of laundry, so no time for fun, yet!