Ten for Tuesday 3.17.09

Happy St. Patty's Day! This has been a crazy, whirlwind week for me. A few days ago I was sitting by the pool, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice and soaking up the sun. A few days before that, I was sucking up 4 inches of water off my carpet into the shop vac. Somehow, I survived (and enjoyed) my week. So, this is my new motto:

etsy

I think I need to have several of these framed and hung all over my house as a reminder. Calm down. Things will work out.

1. We'll start the news off this week with Blake's haircut. I finally took him out for a real haircut. Reed was threatening to do it while I was out of town, and I was worried about what I might come home to, so I did the deed myself. I think it really turned out cute, but my baby is gone! He looks like such a big boy now!

He's been talking a lot lately. These are some of his new words: "I don't know," "I want that," "thank you," "no way," "Ty," and. . . "Daddy!"

2. On Thursday I woke up to a hundred and one things swimming around in my head that needed to be done that day. Like booking my ticket to Arizona, packing for the trip, installing the new modem that still hadn't arrived, picking up a wedding gift, laundry. . . You know . . . Well, lets just say things didn't go exactly as planned. Long story short, I came downstairs for breakfast and found water gushing out of the toilet all the way out into the hall. The water was up to my ankles in the bathroom and was seeping through the wall into the kitchen and down through the floor, "raining" in the basement. My heart pretty much didn't stop racing until Reed came home that night. What a mess! Luckily there was no serious damage. I think now that every inch of our basement has been flooded at some point.

3. After I got all the water cleaned up, my replacement modem was delivered, and Reed called to say that he had booked me a great ticket for the next day. My day was definitely turning up! Not so fast. . . I spent the next two hours on the phone trying to get my modem installed---with no success. A few weeks ago we called up Qwest and asked if they had an internet filter and they referred us to a Family Safety filter that we installed (which rendered the internet completely useless). So, later the modem broke and I tried to install a new one. The problem is that the filter would not let the modem access the internet until I logged in to the filter. But, I couldn't log into the filter until the modem was installed. Nice litle circle we had going on. In addition, the filter only offers customer service via the internet. So I couldn't call them to disable the filter while I installed the modem. Brilliant. Eventually (several hours later) we got everything back up and running. It is not fun to live without the internet!

4. On Friday I skipped town (sans kids and husband) and flew to Phoenix. I had a great time hanging out with Janie and Megan all weekend. Megan was a beautiful bride, and I was really impressed with her fiance/husband. He was such a nice, intelligent guy and seemed to be just perfect for Megan. Megan has a huge family with lots of sisters and cousins. And, let me tell you, these people know how to par-tay! Megan hired a great DJ for the wedding dinner, and all the cousins danced for hours. It was hysterical watching them sing and dance to songs from Grease and strut down the cat walk to "I'm too sexy." It was like watching something straight out of a musical. This was not your typical Mormon reception in the cultural hall. That's for sure. Megan has been planning her wedding since she was five, and everything was perfectly organized. It was so much fun to be able to spend some time with her and be there on her big day. Congratulations Megan!

I stayed with Megan's aunt and uncle in Phoenix, and they were great hosts. They had a gorgeous yard full of citrus trees that were in bloom that smelled heavenly. The red bougainvillea was blossoming and crawling up the side of the house, and their garden was already growing tomatoes and onions. Oh. And they had a pool. Did I mention the pool? You have no idea how jealous I was! I was surprised how lush Phoenix was. Although it was desert-y, everything was colorful and lush. I LOVED it! Granted, in a month you'll be able to fry an egg on the patio, but I'm thinking maybe I need a winter home in Phoenix. That would definitely cure my winter blues. You have no idea how hard it was to come back home to Utah!

Oh, one more thing. I am so glad I didn't drive! I'm sure I never would have found it. Janie drove the rental all weekend, and I was so grateful! I would have been a total mess on those roads. Thanks again Janie!

5. I met one of Megan's friends at the wedding who had the cutest bag (and the cutest dress, but that's another post). Anyway, I got talking to her and found out that she invented/designed her purse and created a company called Miche Bag. These bags are very cool, so I thought I'd share them with you! The idea is that you buy just one purse, and then you buy interchangeable shells to easily change the look of your bag. Aren't these fun?

6. On the plane out to Phoenix I had quite an interesting conversation. The guy sitting next to me was 23 and from North Carolina. He was in Utah for a ski trip and was headed home. He was enjoying his Coke/Jack Daniels (at 11:30 am) when he asked how old I was and if I was Mormon. He had all kinds of questions for me. When was the last time you had alcohol? Never? Your husband too? Wow. . . Can you have piercings? Have you ever cheated on a boyfriend? What's the worst thing you've ever done? Are you a polygamist? Are you going to make your kids be Mormon too? This guy was not interested in any kind of doctrine. He just wanted to know about our lifestyle. And hopefully I answered his questions well. He was pretty excited to go tell people that now he has a friend who is a Mormon.

7. After I got home from my trip and collapsed in bed I found a rubber snake and a 6 inch spider waiting for me under the covers. Isn't it fun to have little boys in the house?!

8. Reed had a fun-filled, basketball-filled week. His ward team did really well this year and they had several playoff games last week. They made it all the way to the finals and took second place. Michael thought it was pretty cool that even though they lost their last game, they still got a t-shirt.

Speaking of basketball, yes, we have all filled out our brackets. Most of us just filled out one, but I think Reed's already got 10 filled out. Honestly. IMO, you can't really get excited about your bracket doing well, if you've filled out 9 others that didn't. . .

9. So, remember when I told you that my little brother Andrew is getting married to Janina? Yeah, I totally spelled her name wrong. It's Giannina. I stole this picture off my sister's blog. Isn't she pretty?

10. Overheard at my house:

Ty: I made a toilet in the dirt at Gordon's house today.

Michael: Did you pee in it?

Ty: Yep. Me and Cade and Gordon did.

Michael: Did you wash your hands?