Blog ADD again...

I am not sure I like this-- is it too hard to read?

The Birthday Celebration

I was thinking about inviting friends to this party, but I did not. Sorry guys :) I just was not sure I could handle that many more people right now. I wish I could have invited some of my aunts and uncles too, but for some reason, a big huge crowd is just not in my mental capacity this week! I told Jody that I don't want a family birthday party, I want a friend one. Plus, I usually just go to my parents' house for that Sunday (Father's Day) anyway, so that would work fine.
Okay, so Jody likes pork and I do not, therefore I rarely cook it. So I decided to make ribs. Beef and pork ribs. I am not even sure how well they turned out. I know, people said they were good, but how do you really know, when you won't eat one yourself? So I am sorry if they were not good and you had to lie to me (hahahaha).

Jody with brother Kelly and sister Tami

Jody's sister, Natalie and Tami's daughter, Dakota

My brother Joel and brother in law Brad... they are usually fighting :) Dakota with Jody's mom, Patty
Syd and me (her haircut is looking much better!)
Ethan, the manager of the kitchen. He thinks he needs to always get this stool out of the cupboard and be in charge. Drives me crazy, of course.
Me and my dad, Lyle
My poochie, Jake, loving his rib.
Syd with my mom, Jodie, and my dad, Lyle
Erica, my sister
Brad, Joel, and Erica's boyfriend, Weston
Kelly and his wife, Ane
Natalie gave Jody Twilight, as a joke. It was funny! But really, she wanted it back :)
It was a fun party. We were able to enjoy the breeze outside and have people over. My grandma was there as well. The food turned out good (I know the other stuff did anyway) and I was glad to have it and then be done.

Happy Birthday, Jody!

This last week has just been a weird one for our family. We have all gone to bed late, waking close to 8:00 each morning (unheard of among my children). Last night, Jody worked and I went out with women from church so the kids were at Tami's until late-- they did not fall asleep until after 12:30. They just woke me up a little while ago. There is a downside to waking at 9 am on a Sunday morning. Like church starts in 2 hours and that does not give me enough time to make & eat breakfast (and for a birthday boy), get the kids ready and myself (and today is DEFINITELY a showering day). So really, I should not have gone to bed at 3 am, I should have woke up at 6. We are having ribs, so before I picked up the kids, I went to Macy's and got those, and that is what I was doing till 3 am (I feel like I should be singing a Matchbox 2o song), rubbing seasonings on them so we can cook them (which I will have to already ditch my favorite hour of church-- Relief Society-- for). So what am I doing on the computer?

It is Jody's birthday and I wanted to post some pictures. He is going through transitions, and does not want me to post the most recent, but what am I to do? He will not be happy with the old pics, either. Oh wellllll. Sorry and happy birthday!

A rare sight-- a semi-clean office!
February 2007
Sometime close to that, since Syd is around 3 months here.
This is a year ago-- Mother's Day 2007.
This is Jody's birthday, May 18th 2007.

This one is today, with everyone attacking him and telling him Happy Birthday! Ethan has been waiting for this day for like 3 months now.

I tried to put pictures that did not look too different. I will post his "biggest loser" pictures (that is what the file is named) at a later date, when he decides. Soon, there will be pics of his first triathlon (which is May 31st). So he has been really busy and working really hard to lose this weight, to train for his triathlon, and change the lifestyle has been his life so far. We are laying down a different path for our family, and he is a great example of healthy eating and exercise. THANKS!!! He knows how much it means to me so I am very grateful for his hard work and efforts.

Happy Birthday daddy, we love you!

Manure

Okay so when I was in Jr High, I had English with Mr Jenkins (at Midvale Middle School). He liked to talk about how he had manure in his shoes and grew fast or something like that. Well, that happened to Sydney, apparently. I bought her some cute new shoes-- actually, her Easter shoes, and a couple others. Well, one pair of sandals. she dropped one somewhere at the South Towne Expo Center. GRRRR. I had to go to the scrapbooking expo to pick up some stuff from my new friend at My Mind's Eye (drove to their warehouse and he was not there, so he felt bad and had me meet him there--- much closer to my house). I went in, was there for a few deciding what exactly I wanted and then left. Same path, did not stay to look around or anything. So I am walking to my car and I even tell a lady we are leaving and she can have my spot. I had a "good" spot, though I swear it was still a mile walk. Then I get to the car and that darn baby only had one sandal on. FREAK. SO I looked out and did not see anything. Since I gave up my spot, I had to park in the fire lane, then I searched for that shoe. WHO knows where it could have gone. It was such a short time! Well anyway that is what happened to one brand new shoe. Worn twice. The other two, she just all of a sudden does not fit into. Holy Crap. That was so fast. Like two months. Nice. So I need to get her new shoes, yet again. I did make it to The Children's Place for some $2.50 flip flops, but all they had in her size are the 4th of July ones. Since that is soon, I bought them, but they will not go with much. So either off to ebay or Target, I go again. Is this how its going to be the rest of my life?

WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!?

Sydney was in need of a trim. I thought I would do it myself, since it would not be much. WOW what an underestimation I made!
She would not hold still! The back was fine, and then I though the front was going fine as well, but then she moved and I chopped too much, and that is where the problems began. SO she looks like a boy! My poor baby! And I don't think it is very flattering to her round little face. It makes her look chubby and she is definitely not that-- she is low in her weight percentile (she is low 20 lbs area, in the 20th percentile, I think). I really feel terrible every time I look at her and wish that we could magically grow her hair faster so that I can take her somewhere and have it done by someone who knows what they are doing!!!

This tragedy occured on 5.15.2008.

The Microwave Sagas

Okay. The first microwave is the bachelor. It was Jody's before we were married. It is over 8 years old. I am not sure how much he purchased it for, but I will guess under $100. If not that, DEFINITELY not more that $150. This thing has moved with us, it has been in storage (for a few months), it has been our back up several times. Now meet the fancy one. This is the stainless steel Kitchenaid microwave that we purchased. I am not thinking we paid this much, but it retails for $450. YIKES. Yeah, it was rough to swallow, but at the time, it seemed important to have "matching" appliances, all the same brand, etc. We never bought all the built in looking stuff around it, so it is minus that if you want a real visual. LOVED this microwave.

Then... umm like a month after we had it, we had to have it serviced. Then it went back to being fabulous. It really is superior in its actual performance. It makes perfect popcorn. No joke. So then a few months later, more crap. That was such a freaking ordeal, it was not even funny. I was about ready to KILL Kitchenaid! We had someone service our fridge before the microwave stuff (just something little, make sure to do it while its under warranty, you know) and the repairman was from Doyle's Appliances. Well, this microwave business, they assigned us A & E. WHAT A FREAKING JOKE. They were so hard to deal with. And on top of that, we never had the same repairman twice. They came out, weren't sure what was covered by warranty, whatever. Thought they ordered parts, had another appt scheduled. The other guy comes out, says no, don't need all those parts, lets just do this... then HE orders parts (the first order apparently was never made). THEN the third guy comes out and fixes it. FREAK. They were all nice guys, just hate the company's set up. BIG TIME-- you call a service center in like Philadelphia to schedule and its a queue type thing. Whatever. I tried to get them to give me a new microwave, this stuff should not be happening to a NEW, EXPENSIVE microwave (they did not go for that)! Anyway. Not much time goes by. I got Kitchenaid to pay for it (or American Express, I can't remember). WELL. Then it went out AGAIN!!! This was within a month or so (well, it took the 3 services the whole month of February to get me my microwave back... thank goodness for the bachelor!). So when this happened, I called Kitchenaid, and specifically requested Doyle's again. I would lose it big time to deal with A&E again. Roger came through for me and I got a new microwave. Not too long after, the micro started sounding too loud. OH. MY. HELL. What is the deal?! So Roger from Doyle's comes and fixes some things (oh, no worries, I can tell you the names of all these parts, I even know that some sounds, or lack of, mean stop use at once, the fan is dead and the magnetron is going to blow... etc), and decided it was still not right, so he ordered another part and came back the next day. Well, later that day, it made a crazy backfiring-like sound. It still worked. The next day, I made one lean cuisine (good mom, eh), it made that sound again, but food cooked. The second meal I was cooking did not cook at all. And then I noticed it sounded different again, so I would not let anyone use it. I called Doyle's again, and Roger came back. I swear he must be soooo sick of me! A bunch of blah blah blah and I need a new magnetron. But this time it is not the microwave's fault, he made a small error with the fan, and he actually had the part in his van. So its good, had no probs since. WHEW. He told me he has that microwave and has not had a problem, has fixed a few of these, but mine is by far the worst experience he has seen. I'd say!

So, if anyone wants the bachelor white micro, sorry. I need it! It is my life saver!

*This Kitchenaid one really is superior when it functions properly.

Miles 4 Maia

On May 3rd, we went to the very first Walk for Autism. It was fun and out team was called Miles 4 Maia. Our team won for best t-shirt design, thanks to hard work from Calleen's mom-- Thanks!!!

During the entertainment, Syd got away and ran up to the stage. When I got up there to grab her, she was singing and dancing too. It was so funny and cute!

Calleen and Harley. Calleen has done such a great job taking care of Maia (Harley too), I just think it would take so much energy and patience and she has it. She has to take Maia to a special school, and take extra time for many things autism-related, like speaking to congress. She is amazing!!!
Ethan loved this slide and had to go down several times.
Syd on Jenni's phone-- I am in trouble because she loves phones...

Our team a walkin' (and stoppin'-- we stopped sooo many times that we ended up just doing one lap instead of the three that was the whole walk!). Jayson and Chris (Chris is my uncle, Jayson, his son)
Brandon (another of my cousins) holding a team flag.
Syd and Mom (how sweet she is)
Sydney and (my sister) Jenni

Here is Ethan, having a great time in the bounce around. Lots of fun things to do!

Ethan and his "best friend".
Jenni, Tracy (my uncle), his daughter Hailey, his son Ryder and his wife Rachelle, and my grandma.

Erica (my sister), William (Harley's friend), me and my Grandma (Maia & Harley's Grandma too)
Ethan loves this Bee, has to get a picture everywhere we see it!

Syd, taking advantage of the many treats that were given out. We had lots of Tootie Frooties, Gossamer milk cartons, mini Fat Boys (mmm yummmmy), water bottles (love those Aquafinas with flavor and fiber!), and some frozen dot treats from Dreyer's.
Ethan likes to hang out with Jayson.
Maia and Ethan-- she loves to be his pest. Really, she just likes to give him loves, and I LOVE it cause he just needs someone to bug him, like he does everyone else :)
Alan (my uncle, dad to Maia, who has autism) and Harley (his son)
All tuckered out. She had a great time, and loved all of the attention and goodies.

We went to Al and Calleen's after and had a BBQ, then I had to go take down Oh Sweet Sadie! It was a very busy day, but fun and for a great cause. It is fun to be involved in things like this that make a difference.

***PS my son is sitting here doing that Ernie sound-- kind of a raspy hehehehe-- and I am about ready to......... well let's just say I have had it with that sound and would love to never hear it again... grrrr.