25 Random things

So since i posted this on my facebook (which by the way takes way too much time, I like blogging better) I figured I should post it here. So just in case I haven't talked your ear off at some point which is highly unlikely since I am my mothers daughter here is a list of 25 random things about me. I am not tagging anyone else to do this but if you feel so inclined I do like learning about other peoples quirks.

1. I hate doing things like this that make me sit down and think about what I could write about myself.

2. I can't handle it when people touch things, anything with wet hands. It drives me crazy and my mom and sister are constantly doing it.

3. I am addicted to the Internet. I am not sure how my life ever functioned without it.

4. I am still afraid of the dark. I check my house multiple times at night, and only in an extreme emergency will I go to the store by myself at night.

5. At least a couple of times a week I try and get my husband to get out of bed and go check our house because I think someone has broken in. I do live in a good neighborhood, I am just paranoid.

6. Jared was so late to our wedding that the temple patrons started asking me if I was sure he was going to show.

7. I love recipes but I don't like to cook.

8. I already have grey hairs. I can thank my children for that.

9. I am horrible at keeping in touch with people.

10. I have an amazing memory when it comes to people and conversations but please don't ask me to remember everything at the store.

11. I am a TV junkie. I do not have enough DVR's in my house to record all the shows I would like to watch.

12. I am the worst about flossing my teeth and going to the dentist regularly even though I am married to one.

13. I have an extremely large sweet tooth. I try and keep candy in my bag for the emergency cravings.

14. My #1 goal in life is to sit on my couch at night with one of my favorites shows, some good candy, a diet coke, and think to myself that there is nothing else I need to do today.

15. I have almost completely given up on my #1 goal.

16. I despise Thanksgiving and don't think it should be a considered a real holiday.

17. Cereal for dinner IS a real dinner

18. It never ceases to amaze me that boys have no aim when peeing even when they grow up. Really, how difficult could it be.

19. I love that my all four of my kids got my blue eyes

20. I have not taken a nap in probably 6 months. That is a travesty.

21. I despise people who make a big production about wanting to be moved to a different table at a restaurant when they see all of us getting seated. I know why you want to move, but don't be so rude about it.

22. I have had 3 letters to the editor published in the newspaper here. It is now somewhat of a family joke.

23. My kids can make me the most mad and the most happy all in the span of about 5 minutes.

24. I am deathly afraid to fly. I have to be medicated preferably very heavily.

25. I am actually grateful my mom made me take piano lessons. I used to tell her I would never be happy I know how to play the piano and that I would never make my kids do something so horrible. Never say never.

Yada, Yada, Yada...

I saw the following quote on a friends blog and remembered why I love the show Seinfeld so much. Could they just start replaying seasons during prime time in the summer when there is nothing else on? Or I guess I could borrow my dad's DVDs. So which Seinfeld character do you think you are most like? I would have to say I am most like Elaine when it comes to how she reacts to things and probably how she dances. Jared I would say is like George when it comes to dealing with money. We even have a "close talker" in the family.....Ethan. If you are thinking to yourself, " I have never seen an episode of Seinfeld" then shame on you although "not that there's anything wrong with that".

I am so busy doing nothing...

that the idea of doing anything -

which as you know, always leads to something -

cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.”

--Seinfeld

Matt and Kristal

Way back during Thanksgiving my brother and his family came down for a visit. They have a little girl Presley who is adorable. I had just gotten my new camera and needed some victims for picture taking. They agreed and these are a few of the ones I liked the best. When I edit photos I always take the photos and make one color and one black and white. No matter what I always end up liking the black and white ones better. I am also noticing as I type that the first photo of Presley has a red tint to it. Guess I need to fix that. Adobe Photoshop which is supposed to be amazing is not so amazingly easy to figure out. So this post is a little bit of picture overload but who doesn't like to look at pictures right?

Matt, Kristal, and Presley

Being Productive

So this was the conversation Jared and I had with Ethan yesterday while driving in the car

We left our house with him having a fit about the fact that we were not allowing him to play the wii star wars game for hours on end. Jared told him that playing video games is fun but not very productive.

Ethan: Being productive is boring

Jared: In order to do fun things you have to do productive things too

Me: Playing video games and watching TV are not productive things to do

Ethan: Well all you guys do at night is watch tv

(this is where I sort of wince and think how am I going to get out of this one since let's face it he does have me on that one)

Me: What do we do during the day?

Ethan: I don't know

Me: Dad goes to work and I take care of the house and all of you. Those are productive things and watching tv at night is a fun thing

Ethan: Well I am just not a productive guy

He then went on to talk about all the things he wanted to do or buy and then Jared told him this

Jared: You have to have a job to make money in order to buy or do all those things. Having a job is productive

Ethan: I don't want a job then, I'll just marry someone and let my wife have a job and go to work and I will stay home and babysit the kids

Obviously I haven't really shown him how much "fun" it is to take care of a house and four kids.

I have a problem

My problem should make my life between the hours of 4 and 6 pm much easier but that has yet to happen.

I love recipes.

I love to read cookbooks. I love to collect recipes from other people. In fact my favorite recipe books are the ones you get when the Relief Society collects recipes from everyone and puts them into a book for you. That is multitasking at its best. A book full of recipes collected from other people.

So my problem lies in the fact that I love to collect these things and yet at least 2 nights out of the week we eat cereal for dinner. At least it is the good kind though. Reese's Puff's anyone? So I have banned myself from purchasing anymore cookbooks until I start making dinner on a nightly basis. Thank you for the "good luck with that" you thought to yourself as you read that last sentence.

I am burnt out on all the usual things I make (that list is pretty small so it doesn't take long). In my effort to avoid cookbooks I have been blog hopping my way through recipe blogs. I have found a few that I really like and whose recipes actually look like something I could make. I have posted the links to them on the left side. If any of you have any favorite recipe blogs or sites (especially the ones that post a weekly menu so I can avoid doing even more work) leave a comment with the name of the site or blog so I can add it to my list. Jared and Ethan thank you. The other two.....well, they really like their dinner cereal.

Big Daddy 5K Fun Run

While in Texas, Jared's family decided to have a family 5K fun run. They even had shirts made for all of us. Although there are some hard core runners in Jared's family (Jared's dad has run the Boston marathon at least twice, sister in law Kim just qualified to run Boston in April, Melissa and Justin are both training for a half marathon (she just had a baby 4 months ago), Spencer used to compete at the college level in cross country) you get the idea. Then there is me. I loathe running and only do it when trying to catch my kids before the run into the street. So I was going to just follow in the truck with Eric, Donna, and the kids, but then I decided I would walk with Teresa. Then that turned into lets see if we can jog the first mile.

The kids before the race with a neighbors dog. That dog followed us for the entire race.

The starting line. As you can see all the "runners" are setting their watches. Then there is me sunglasses and all. Don't forget Eric in the background with the shotgun. What better excuse to shoot a gun than the start of a race.

Kim, Spencer, Jared's dad, Jared and Ethan. Ethan ran for almost the entire first mile. He did better than me. Not too long after this picture he decided to hop in the truck.
The winner......Justin. I don't remember his time but I know that is was good. The kids just waited at the finish line to run in with everyone.

Landon crossing the finish line with a classic Landon face.

Teresa and I bringing up the rear. Teresa did run the first mile. I tried to run it. I made it half way then walked. Then when Teresa started walking I tried to run again to catch up to her. I had to stop when I thought that I just might be dying. So we walked and when all the runners passed us we just turned and headed for the finish line instead of walking the rest of the course. We did want to make a good finish though, so we ran to the finish line. In our defense we were pushing two kids in the jogging stroller which weighs a ton. Although without having that to hold onto I probably would have fallen over.

Backing Up

We were so busy before we left for Texas that I didn't have a chance to post about Mackenzie's programs. For some reason she was the only one of the kids to have Christmas programs this year. I'll count myself lucky for that one since just going to hers kept us plenty busy.

The preschool always does a Nativity program. It is hilarious. All the kids are dressed up and they sing songs and the best part is that all of them have to walk down the aisle of the church to get to the stage. They don't let you take pictures of the actual program (we can buy a DVD for $20....what happened to the days of legions of parents lining the back wall with all their video cameras...sometimes I wish things wouldn't change) so all I got was a picture of her after in her bunny costume. Too bad I couldn't get a picture of Mary this year. She rode down the aisle on a giant stuffed donkey on wheels looking pretty unhappy. It was fitting though since I would probably look the same way if I were that pregnant riding on a donkey.

Then she had her dance program. It was really short and sweet which was very nice for all involved. Mackenzie would have been just as happy to wear her tutu and taken a picture. She did do the dances but with no smile. Oh well, I guess this is payback for all the pictures I refused to smile in when I was a kid, which was many.

I ended up making her tutu. Remember that I have no sewing skills at all, so that is how easy it is. I do have to thank my friend Laura for sewing the waistband together for me. When I saw that it only took her about 1 minute to sew it, I thought to myself I really need to learn how to thread that sewing machine of mine. It took about 30 minutes to tie all the tulle around the waistband and TA DA!!! a tutu that cost about $10.

Mackenzie is loving dance and preschool and is very happy that she has something to go. They have a big recital in June for dance that I am looking forward to. Hopefully they dance studio is old fashioned enough to let us video tape the program ourselves.