My Bonko Ladies

Last night was Bonko, my guaranteed once a month GNO or girls night out. It was just the girls this time. About a third of the time we invite the husbands, which is so much fun, but they tend to get pretty loud and boisterous (not to mention quite raunchy - you know who you are Mr. Its-After-10:00!), so it was fun to just have us girls. One of our regulars, Jenn, wasn't there so we missed her. Here is a picture of all of us girls. It is an older one, back from an overnighter we had a few years ago in Park City for some shopping. From left to right, there's Jennica Murray, Lisa Lindsay, Natalie Dansie, LeighAnn Taylor, moi, Mindy Rose, Jenn Wells and Nicole Skowronek. 7 very incredible women, if I say so myself. I just tag along with them, hoping the incredibleness will wear off on me a little! We have been through a lot together in our 6 years as a bonko group.

As Lisa put it:

"Since we started in 2001:
We have had 8 births 3 precious girls (wipes eyes with tissue) and 5 rowdy boys.
We have at least gained and shed 150 pounds (a whole person).
We have grown friendships and love for one another.
We have celebrated 37 birthdays, some milstones!!
We have shared happiness and hardship.
We have supported a friend who's husband honorably survived our country.
We have supported a friend who had to say goodbye to a loved one.
We have been there for eachother in sickness and in health.
We have been wonderwoman, superman, a hooker and a pimp, velma and shaggy ...... (and these are only the costumes we have seen...)
We have lost jobs, started companies, started new jobs -- new adventures....
We have had 32 BIG BONKO prizes and atleast 100 BIG BONKO SCREAMS...
We have had 3 BOOB JOBS!!
We have had atleast 60 recipes - 8 cookbooks (THANK YOU JENN!!)
We have consumed atleast 1 ton of candy and 2 tons of diet coke."

Would you like some whine with your meal?

Aargh! If you’re not in the mood to hear me whine, then don’t read today’s post…

My internet is down today. Our router has been whining like a cat in heat the last few days and last night it sputtered its last dying breath, which in a router is NOT a pretty sound. I tried my best to fix it myself by 1) taking detailed pictures of how everything was plugged into the old router, 2) going to CompUSA, talking to the sales guy like I knew what I was talking about, and then buying a new router, but I proved to myself that I don’t know what I’m doing because I swear I plugged it in exactly the way the other one was plugged in, and I’m still not connected. So now I have to wait for Allen, Zach’s partner, to come tonight and see what I’ve done wrong. In the meantime, I can’t send my transcription work from yesterday, I can’t download today’s work, I can’t blog (I’m doing the next best thing by typing this in Word), I can’t email, I can’t surf the net. What am I supposed to do? Oh yeah, make dinner. I actually have that one under way.

I guess I could tell you about how our holiday decorations are going. We got the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. We have a beautiful pre-lit tree that we bought at a nursery a few years ago. But this is the first year we have not been able to get all the lights to come on. The whole middle section won’t come on despite changing fuses and all that. Zach and I have decided to live with it this year but it bugs me every time I walk by it and see a dark stripe in the middle of my beautiful tree! Anyway, the kids were so anxious to decorate it. I just let them do it for the most part, and then later rearranged things to my liking. Doesn’t every mom do that?

Zach came home from his parents’ house one night (I was home sick and still am 3 days later) and firmly - actually, irritatingly - stated that we need all new Christmas decorations for the house. I think this was because his mom had just put up all of her decorations and her house always looks awesome during the holidays. I tried to not take it personally, since I think I do pretty good decorating, but anyway… So he went to Target that night and bought a bunch of stuff. I guess he just got tired of our old stuff and took matters into his own hands. He has really good taste, though, so I don’t mind when he does stuff like this. This is the table runner and centerpiece that he put together.

Here is something fun that I have no reason to whine about. We just installed 3 new faucets in our house, new front door hardware (nobody could open our last door handle even when it was unlocked) and a new light fixture in my bathroom. We plan on staying in this house a while, so we are starting to upgrade and replace things to make it a place where we will want to stay. Our house is only 9 years old, but we have been pretty hard on it in that time. In the next 3-5 years, I want to replace the upstairs carpet with hardwood floors, replace our banister with a combination of wood/decorative rod iron, pour a driveway on the side of the house, finish the bathroom downstairs, re-do the office (it still looks like the Think Tank office from when they officed out of the basement), change my bedroom light fixture, put mirrored closet doors on my closet, upgrade bath and shower fixtures and repaint most of the upstairs. I’d better get busy and Zach had better keep workin’ hard so I can do all this!




As if this wasn’t exciting enough, I just about burned the house down a few minutes ago. I was trying to make myself an artichoke for lunch, something I love to eat but have a horrible track record of ruining. But I keep trying…. Today I decided to try and boil one for 2 hours – a method a friend of ours assured me was better than trying to steam one which is what I usually do. So I set it in a full pot of boiling water with the lid on, set the timer and went downstairs. An hour later, I hear the smoke alarm going off upstairs. As I come up the stairs, I smell the horrible stench of burning Teflon, a smell I have come to be very familiar with in my time. Apparently a whole pot of boiling water can evaporate in about 1 hour, leaving just the artichoke to smoke and meld itself to the bottom of the pan. I think I ruined my burner, too. I had to actually pull the pot off the burner. Amazingly, and the only good part of that situation, is that the smoke alarm did not wake Simon up who is just in the next room!

Aaahhhhh.... Zach and Allen just came here on their lunch break and figured out the problem for me. Thank heaven for technologically minded people!

10 Reasons Why I Love My Man

1. He is a family man. He loves to spend time with us. He loves to make even the most menial of tasks like going to the grocery store a family event. He doesn't disappear on the weekends to go golfing or snowboarding. He spends time with us, as boring as that may be sometimes. He truly has his priorities in order when it comes to family.
2. He is a hard worker. He has worked to build up his business to the point of exhaustion at times. He loves what he does, or at least the rewards that come from doing what he does. When we were dating, it didn't occur to me to look for this quality in a guy. I lucked out to have married a man with a sense of duty and ambition.
Zach proudly standing by his first package designs to hit the Toys R Us shelves.

3. He loves loves loves his kids. I know, I know - all dads do. But it is still a special thing to see that bond between a dad and his son/daughter.
4. He really loves his mom. Don't get me wrong - he loves his dad, too, but as a mother, I appreciate this more and more every day. I hope my kids see this example and remember it when they are grown!
5. He loves to have a good time. He will go to a lot of effort to make an event fun, like the kids' birthdays, holidays, anything. He got this from his mom. He is really big on Halloween. This was us 2 years ago dressing up for our Bonko Halloween party.
6. He loves to spoil his kids (and me!). He gets away with doing things that I never would allow myself to do, like slipping the baby a bit of Pepsi, or buying the kids things when there was no occasion for it. I secretly love that he does this, but I have to keep up the front of "Zach, you shouldn't have done that!" so the kids get the feeling that they truly got away with something special.
7. He is artistic. This has come in handy so many times in our lives. I love it when he uses his talent to bless our home, as he did in Emmy's room this year.
8. He loves his dog....dearly. In fact, this morning he said to me as I tossed a piece of bacon on the floor for the dog, "I can't believe you would humiliate him by making him eat off the floor like a dog!" You know, instead of putting it on a plate. You see what I mean. And as many times as it drives me crazy how he pampers Yoshi, I ... again ... secretly like it. It is an endearing quality in the end.
9. He is passionate about his hobbies. This can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on my mood :) These days, his passion is his cars, and he tends to make that "s" on cars even more multiple in the coming years. I list this as one of my 10 reasons why I love him because when I think about it, I guess I could be married to a guy with no hobbies but watching TV and drinking beer. He really is an interesting guy, and sometimes I feel really boring in comparison.
And last but not least...

10. He has his own action figure! Now that's hot... You probably can't see the small black type, but it says "Sgt. Zachary 'Mustang' Sharples". The toy company he does design work for named a figure after him for fun. They have tons of soldier figures they have to come up with names for, and sometimes they are real people. Look for it in Wal-mart. We found one yesterday.

Thanksgiving Video

A great reason to be THANKFUL today

As you know, my dad and stepmom were just here visiting. They arrived back in Red Lodge, Montana on Tuesday so that he could go to the hospital on Wednesday to get a PET scan to show the status of his cancer. For those of you who don't know, a year and a half ago my dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to the liver. If you have any experience with cancer, you know how close to a death sentence that is. After a long run of chemo, side effects to the chemo, surgery to remove the tumor in the colon, a small intestine perforation, emergency surgery to repair that and an ileostomy (google it if you don't know what that is), we have recently watched his CEA level (blood test that shows indications of cancer in the body) drop in the last few months to a normal, healthy level. Yesterday he got his PET scan. I called him this morning to see how it went, and he tells me that there are no signs of cancer in his body anymore. He is being cautiously optimistic, because apparently the PET scan can only detect large groups of cancer cells. There still may be little clusters in his body. But this is a HUGE improvement to when he was diagnosed. What this means, we think, is that he will go on "maintenance" chemo. So instead of spending a day in the hospital every Wednesday, he will go maybe every 2-3 weeks to keep anything that is still there at bay. Dad, if you are reading this, I am so grateful to have you with us (albeit 2 states away) this Thanksgiving. I am so glad I got to hug you just 3 days ago. "I am your daughter and you are my dad." I love you. XOXO

Our little cuddle monkey, Simon Oliver Sharples

A Cooking Victory

Because cooking or my lack thereof is such an issue with me, I had to post that I had a very successful experience tonight. This is the exception to the rule. I have 2 very picky kids, neither of which ate my dinner tonight, and a husband who eats out every day for lunch getting FAR better and more interesting food than he gets here. I had Dad and Shirlee over before they drive back to Montana tonight. I made meatloaf (not my favorite but always a hit with men for some reason), homemade mac & cheese, strawberry spinach salad, and warm brownies ala mode with raspberries and chocolate sauce for dessert. All the adults loved the meal.

Dinner at Bonsai with Dad and Shirlee

Last night we had an adults only dinner with my dad and stepmom at Bonsai, our favorite place to eat. They are in town for a few days and we wanted to celebrate Nana's 60th birthday there. Dad is feeling great and his appetite is good. The only shocker was to see him without his mustache, but he braved a long road trip away from his doctor and we are so grateful that we got to have him here with us for a few days.

Zach surrounded by my beautiful sisters, Misty and Erin
Dad and my brother Quinn
Brett and Erin Blake
My two brother-in-laws, Mike and Brett, who will forever be true to their schoolsShirlee got the "gong" birthday treatment
Me and my sweetheart

Emmy quote of the day...

Emmy came home from school starving and was begging me to make her a plate of pepperoni (just heated in the microwave to get crispy). I was laying on the couch and was too tired to get up. Hoping to drag out the process and give me a few more seconds on the couch, I told her I would only get up if she asked for it Anne of Green Gables style. She immediately come back with "It would be my lifelong sorrow if you didn't make me some of this beautiful, blood-red pepperoni." I think she is a kindred spirit after all!

My Family - Part 1

I want to introduce you all to my family, or at least part of it. This is the family that I grew up with. I also have a step-brother, David, and half-brother, Thomas, who grew up in California with my Dad and stepmom, Shirlee. I'll tell you about them in my next Family post. This picture was taken a little over a year ago at a wedding that we all happened to be at and my brother was the photographer for. We were all looking presentable, so I suggested that we take a family picture since he had all his equipment there. I think the last time we did this was about 10 years ago.

From left to right, there's me (although I don't look like that much anymore), my beautiful mom, Misty (2 years old than me), Quinn (6 years old than me, and Erin (4 years old than me). Misty and I were both pregnant in this picture, me just barely so and not sick yet, and Misty was sick as a dog by this point. We Farley women get quite ill in pregnancy, although my sisters are probably shaking their heads as they read this because apparently I DON'T GET AS SICK AS THEY DO.... Hey , I think throwing up 1-2 times a day is considered sick. We don't all have to be hospitalized or throw up every day until you deliver to be considered sick :) Love ya, chicas!

Quinn is married to his awesome wife Suzie. They have 4 kids ranging in age from 12 down to 2. They live here in Salt Lake on the upper east side. Sometimes they come down the mountain to associate with the likes of us on the WEST side of State Street. Just kidding - they are the most humble and down to earth east-siders I know. I used to work for Quinn's photography business and he is a very talented photographer (see www.quinnfarleyphotography.com), and Suzie helps him tremendously.
Erin is married to the ultra-cool Brett Blake and they have 4 kids ranging in age from 15 down to 7. They live in Bountiful. Erin is a stay at home mom, but the busiest one I know. She teaches piano and is in a band! How cool is that? Her kids are so talented too (I know you are reading this, Maddie and Ali!) My two nieces just started their own blogs and we are getting to know eachother better through them.
Misty is married to the infamous Mike Mayfield. I swear he knows everyone so don't be surprised if you know him! They have 4 kids ranging in age from 9 down to baby Elle who is almost 1. The funny thing is that Mike dated my sister Erin when they were at BYU, but ended up marrying Misty instead. Misty has her hands full with lots of young 'uns close in age. I am amazed that her house is usually clean and she makes dinner every night. She is an inspiration to me!
And then there's me and Zach and our little brood. We are the odd man out because we ONLY have 3 kids. My mom keeps pushing for more, and to be honest - I'm not completely closed off to the idea. But time will tell on that one.

A random list of memories from my childhood...

There are in no particular order...

* Getting lots of teeth pulled and cavities filled, more than I can remember
* Being the youngest meant getting lots of mom to myself. I remember getting priveleges that the others didn't get (and they resented me for - admit it!) like sleeping in mom's bed.
* Being scared when mom worked the night shift at the hospital, even though I had all my older siblings to watch over me
* Taking piano from Sandy Peterson, a stern but awesome teacher. I owe her everything I know about music!
* Elementary school friends like Nicole Murray, Brittany Smith, Rosie Swanagan and Michelle Christensen
* Going to visit my dad and stepmom in California every summer and playing with my cute little brother Tom and getting tormented by my evil brother David (just kidding Dave, I know you were just doing your older brother duty)
* My elementary school crushes on the likes of Spencer Holmes and Jeremy Quick
* Sucking my thumb until an incredibly old age...
* Spending a lot of time at my across-the-street neighbors, the Smith's, who were our 2nd family. I swam there daily in the summers, had tons of sleepovers even though they didn't have any kids remotely close to my age, and we ate dinner there every Sunday. Sister Smith even would drive ACROSS THE STREET in a thunder storm when my sisters and I would be home alone and afraid of the thunder, too afraid to run across the street.
* Being in elementary school plays like Annie Get Your Gun and Tom Sawyer, but being crushed that I got the minor parts.
* Going to the Murray Theater with my friends and family. I particularly remember seeing Grease there on more than 1 occasion.
* Going ice skating at Murray Park for one of my birthday parties - maybe 12th?
* Making up dances with my 2 older sisters. We pretended to be the Solid Gold dancers!!!!
* Sticker books
* Rainbow shirts
* My dog Luke Skywalker Farley pulling my socks off with his teeth, but he would be so careful not to bite toes in the process.
* Having many "Big Sisters" from the Big Brother/Big Sister program - that was fun. They liked to spoil me.
* Night games at the Porters house on Knollcrest
* Singing with my sisters everywhere and for everyone who came to visit our family.
* Going with my mom late at night in our green VW wagon to pick up my sister Erin who was acting in plays up at the U of U.
* Going to see lots of plays, for that matter
* Wanting to be Anne Shirley in the worst way (I even died my hair red at one point)
* Sleepovers at my cousin Katie's house in Riverton. They were our only relatives in Utah and I felt so at home in their home.
* My mom sometimes taking me out of school to go see movies. You rock, mom! But I don't dare do that with my kids for some reason.
* "Sleep is sacred" - a regular saying in our home.
* Family Home Evenings in Murray park on our yellow blanket by the creek
* Taking naps on the floor by the heater
* Playing piano duets with my older sisters - mostly Scott Joplin
* Reading, reading, reading....I think that was my only hobby

Take that, you size 0's! And 2's and 4's and 6's and even 8's!

NEW YORK (CBS News) ― New research finds an apparent, direct correlation between women's body fat and intelligence.

As CBS News correspondent Susan McGinnis reported on "The Early Show" Tuesday, the study shows women with fuller, "hourglass" figures seem to be smarter, and give birth to brighter children.

The research, published this week in the journal "Evolution and Human Behavior," indicates hips don't lie. In effect, says the study of some 16,000 women, the smaller your waist and bigger your hips, the smarter you are.

And, McGinnis points out, there's a formula: Divide waist circumference by hip circumference. The lower the result, the better.

For instance, notes McGinnis, Jennifer Lopez's waist measures 26 inches, her hips, 39 -- for a waist-to-hip ratio of .66. The less curvy Kira Knightley's waist is 25 inches, and her hips, 33, for a ratio of .76.

The researchers say it has to do with omega-3 fatty acids, which gather around fuller hips and thighs, and are important for the growth of the brain during pregnancy. The curvier the hips, the higher the level of omega-3s.

It may also explain other studies that show men prefer women with a low waist-to-hip ratio.

Not only that but, according to the research, women with smaller waists and larger hips live longer!
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Breakfast with Tom and Dani in Hollywood

This will probably only interest family....We had a great breakfast with Tom and Dani at a very cool cafe in Hollywood a few weeks ago when we were there to see Wicked. Just a short clip, nothing groundbreaking, but probably nice for those of you who haven't seen him in a while. We love you, Tom!

Simon with my niece Paige (3 yr. old) and Elle (11 mo. old)

This is kind of long for those of you who don't know these kids, but a MUST SEE is in the first minute or so when my niece Paige who is a crack up sings "Fabulous" from High School Musical 2. The rest is just cute interaction between the 2 babies.

That same day, Paige made up a song for me out of thin air. It went something like this... "Sometimes I get nervous by you, your choices and your problems. I get hammered daily, oh what a day. Hammered, hammered, hammered!" There was something about princesses in the middle, but this was the best part.

50 Favorite Things (in no particular order and I probably forgot really important stuff)

1. My mom's warm tapioca pudding with nutmeg
2. My bonko friends
3. My other friends (I need to work on that one :)
4. My pug dog, Yoshi
5. The Office
6. Watching TLC's "What Not To Wear" with Emmy
7. Doing High/Lows at dinner with the family - always started off by Emmy
8. Laying down with kids at night, particularly Connor because that's when he REALLY talks to me
9. Doing the airplane with Simon on the grass
10. My dad's hugs
11. The way Zach pampers me
12. Helping out in my kids classrooms
13. My sewing machine
14. Orange juice
15. Taking pictures/video, then editing them into DVD's and slideshows
16. Warm bread with butter
17. Sleep
18. Scrapbooking, although this has fallen by the wayside for awhile
19. Talking with Zach in bed before we fall asleep
20. Doing Emmy's hair
21. Watching TV in bed all cuddled up in my blankets
22. Back scratches
23. Professional massages
24. My washer and dryer
25. Indoor plumbing - yea!
26. My Honda Odyssey - I never would have believed I could love a mini-van!
27. Pride and Prejudice, both movie and soundtrack
28. My piano
29. My family, both immediate and extended
30. Christmas
31. Swimming at Murray Pool in the summer
32. Wave running at Bear Lake
33. Tin foil dinners in the canyon
34. Girls Night Out
35. Blogging
36. When Zach cooks
37. Traveling
38. "Wicked"
39. My computer
40. Spending time with my mom
41. Long, hot showers and baths
42. Fuzzy socks
43. Down blankets
44. Halloween
45. San Francisco
46. Heater/air conditioner - I'm big on temperature control!
47. Playing out in the front yard on warm summer evenings with the kids
48. America
49. Lime rickeys
50. Emmy's poems

Larry's Wedding

Saturday night was Zach's best friend's wedding. Larry and Zach have been best friends since they were about 10. They have a lot of history together. We even lived with him and his mom on 2 occasions. Larry asked Zach to be part of the wedding party. He looked awesome in his tux. Here are a few pictures from the wedding. It was up at Deer Valley and was beautiful...

The party afterward included an awesome dinner and dancing. Did we dance, you ask? If you know Zach at all, you should know the answer to that :) That's okay, though, everyone on the dance floor was a little tipsy. We were the only non-drinkers of the bunch, I think. Larry was kind enough to arrange for some sparkling cider for us for the toasts.

This doesn't count...

I just wanted to say that I'm so proud of myself. I set a goal to not blog today due to the fact that I think I posted 4 times yesterday. I think I've found my addiction. However, I did spend about an hour looking at blogger templates on Pyzam, but never could decide on one. I did choose one for about 10 minutes, but when I saw that it got rid of all my page elements that I had before, I changed my mind. Oh, and I also helped Emmy create her own blog which she has been asking me to do for weeks now (see link on right). But that doesn't count, just like this doesn't count... My name is Kelly Sharples, and I am a blogaholic.

What is WRONG with these children?

After getting flu shots, I made good on my promise to take them to Jungle Jim's (for those out-of-staters, it's kind of like a Chuckee Cheese). Connor and Emmy didn't even want to ride any rides. They just wanted to play token games to get tickets. Lucky for Zach and I, they chose that one game where you have to push the button when the light is just at the right place to get the jackpot. They went through all of their tokens in like 10 minutes. When they were through, they had a lot of tickets. They decided to pool their tickets together and spend it all on these War Head candies. When we got home, we had a photo session to see who had the best sour face. We just barely touched the candy to Simon's lips and got this response. I know it looks like he is crying, but he totally wasn't. He even wanted more after the sourness subsided. I didn't give it to him, though. That would just be cruel...

I did it! I figured out how to embed videos into my posts!

This is my Dad

This is my dad. I just wanted to post this picture because I love it. I found it on my brother's photography studio website and I lifted it so that I could post it here. This is how he usually looks - cowboy hat, perfectly ironed button up shirt tucked into nice dark jeans, a cowboy belt buckle and cowboy boots. He is always so put together. Right now he doesn't look a lot like this picture because of his 1 1/2 year battle with colon cancer. He's a lot thinner, and has lost his hair including his mustache. That will be a shocker to see him without his 'stache. It's been about 15 years since I've seen him without one. He and my stepmom, Shirlee, are coming to visit in a few days from Montana. It's Shirlee's 60th birthday so we are going to throw her a big party. They are taking a few weeks off his chemo regimen to drive to California to see Shirlee's family in the bay area, down to Hollywood to see my brother Tom, then back through here to visit their 4 Utah kids and their families. We can't wait to see them!

Tagged...if you are reading this then you have to copy and paste and update your blog.

TAG!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
* Finishing our basement at our first house in Kearns, and toying with the idea of building a new house in Murray
* Having fun just being married to Zach and our 3-year-old son Connor
* Working full time at a real estate development co. in accounting :(
* Taking temple prep classes for our sealing the following March
* Taking Connor to daycare every day... those were sad days

5 things on my to-do list today:
* Do my medical transcription
* Update checkbook
* Flu shots for all 3 kids at 6:00 tonight
* Go out to dinner with the family
* Take kids to Jungle Jims... the long awaited reward I promised when I told them they had to get flu shots

5 snacks I enjoy:
* Pomegranates (only available this time of year)
* Bananas
* Chocolate covered raspberries from V Chocolates or Cummings if I want to drive that far
* Red Vines at the movies
* Warmed up bread with butter

5 songs I know the lyrics to:
* Defying Gravity - Wicked, or anything from Wicked for that matter
* Fabulous - High School Musical 2
* Baby Beluga - Raffi (the one song guaranteed to put a big smile on Simon's face)
* Most of "I Can Hear the Bells" from Hairspray
* She don't use jelly - Ben Folds Five - not a favorite song by any means, just one that gets stuck in your head and happens to be on my iPod because I really like Ben Folds.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
* Pay off all my debts - that's the best feeling I could think of
* Invest and start college/mission/wedding funds for kids
* Help out family members who need it most
* Buy Zach a '67 Fastback Mustang GT 500 just like Eleanor in Gone in 60 Seconds
* Go shopping at the mall!!!!!!!!! (Sale racks, of course - you can't let money change you!)

5 Bad Habits:
* Blogging too much, a new found hobby and habit
* Avoiding making dinner
* Letting my kids watching too much TV and play too many video games
* Not doing my visiting teaching
* Not keeping in touch with out of state relatives

5 things I'd never wear again:
* Unitards with the french cut waist high bikini bottom thing over it
* Jelly shoes
* barettes with ribbons woven through them
* braces
* banana clip

5 Favorite Toys:
* My blog
* My Mac so I can make awesome home videos and slideshows
* My baby (I always say he is the ultimate toy for me, I could play with him forever!)
* My video camera
* My camera

People Tagged: any of you who read my blog and haven't done this post.

#6 List the contents of your purse

* Car keys
* Neighbor's spare house key who is always locking their 13-year-old daughter out of the house on accident!
* Reminder card for Connor's next orthodontist appointment with Dr. Baugh (pronounced "Bah" so we call him Dr. Bah Humbug or Dr. Bah Bah Black Sheep)
* Gum - Trident Citrus Splash, my favorite flavor
* A wide array of lip sticks, lip liners and lip balms. The kids always complain when we get in the car because they have to wait to leave the driveway until I have my lips done. I'm such a mean mother!
* 2 cell phones, one operational and one not. The non-operational one was my old phone that I am going to give to my mom one of these days since she is pretty much still using a block phone. Not quite, but close. Until I get around to giving it to her, Emmy likes to pretend that it works and tell her friends that it is her own cell phone. In her dreams! She will probably be the last kid to get a cell phone. Again, I'm such a mean mother.
* Brown sunglasses that someone once called "Ray Orbison" glasses. Not sure why.
* Jergen's sparkly lotion
* Tide stick
* Fingernail clippers and nail file, for those times when you are waiting for kids to come out of school and you have a spare moment to give yourself a much needed manicure.
* Kids pictures
* TOO MANY DISCOUNT CARDS! I wish they would do away with those things, but until they do, I am a sucker for a free meal at Yoshi's or Cafe Rio or Costa Vida.
* Contact lens prescription

That's it! So tell me, based on the contents of my purse, what does that say about me?

Tribute to my Mom...

I had planned and even started my post for the day to be "random memories from childhood" but was having a hard time making it entertaining enough. Then I went to my mom's to help her rake leaves. She has 2 huge maples (probably 50 years old), a big apricot tree and a neighbor's giant oak that drops a ton of leaves on her yard every year. We got out the garbage cans and rakes and giant metal shovel (to scoop the piles into the garbage can) and started our work. We had a great time talking and watching Simon play in the leaves. And I realized that I need to say how much I love my mom (it's true Mom!). She is such a sweet person, always willing to help her kids out with babysitting, taking our kids to movies (her specialty), feeding us homemade food whenever we drop by, search the valley for a particular item we need, sending us news articles about things she thinks we would be interested in, etc. I know I have been a challenge to her, mostly in my insistence that I know better than she does. But I eventually come around and see the wisdom in her words (of course I don't TELL her this). She is partly to credit/blame for Simon even being here. She told me for years that I needed another baby and I fought a good fight. We have taken some fun trips together, Las Vegas for mother's day to see my sister-in-law perform in the ballet and L.A. to see Wicked this past year. She is such a help to me and I owe her so much.

#1 My morning routine

* 6:30 a.m. I was awakened by Connor who was waking up Zach to go do flags with the scouts for Election Day. He got up at 6:00 to shower and be completely ready so that Zach could drop him off at school after they were done. What a responsible kid!

* 6:30 a.m. Simon heard the commotion and decided to wake up at that time. He normally sleeps until 7:00. I gave him a bottle and tried to put him back to sleep which he sometimes will do so that I could get another half hour of sleep. He wouldn't have anything to do with it, so I put him in the middle of his floor, surrounded him by all of his wonderful toys, and went back to my bed. This kept him happy for about 20 minutes, and even though I didn't sleep deeply, it was a nice 20 more minutes in my bed.

* 7:30 a.m. Woke Emmy up to get her in the bath. She wanted fancy schmancy up-do hair today so we had to get started early with a bath and hot curlers. Simon took a bath with Emmy. As soon as he hears the bath water, he goes nuts and starts flapping his arms and kicking his legs.

* 8:45 a.m. Zach took Emmy to school, and I finally got to have breakfast with Simon sitting by my side in his high chair eating his cheerios. I was out of my normal breakfast of Special K with Berries, so I indulged in a guilty pleasure of mine - Eggo waffles with maple syrup. I watched E! News while eating, another SERIOUS addiction and guilty pleasure of mine!

* 9:30 a.m. Put Simon down for his nap.

* 9:40 a.m. Mistakenly answered a telemarketer call who was with Dan Jones wanting to do a survey on Intermountain Health Care. Since I do have their insurance and I have had babies in their hospitals, I felt an odd sense of duty to do the survey. After 3 minutes, I asked the guy to just put me down for "10's" on everything because "I just love IHC". He said okay, surprisingly!

* 9:50 a.m. Took a shower and got ready, while listening to E! True Hollywood Story about the Paparazzi from the bathroom. Those guys are nuts!

* 10:30 a.m. I finally got to come down to my office and start my day at the computer. I am waiting for my transcription work to be put out to download. I am checking my bank account and the business bank account. I just sent Zach profit and loss numbers for Sept. and Oct. for the business. And best of all, I am blogging! I am waiting for my sister Misty to bring her 2 youngest kids for me to babysit while she goes to get her first colonoscopy ever...gulp! With our dad's colon cancer and his dad's colon cancer and his dad's dad's colon cancer, we have decided to start getting colonoscopies earlier than the recommended time. I'm going to schedule mine as soon as I hear how hers went. Fun stuff!

Connor, our amateur photographer

I just have to brag about Connor for a minute. He is showing some promise in the field of photography. Zach and I are trying to get him interested in something other than the world of video gaming, and photography seems to be the one thing that grabs his interest more than other things. It was clear early on that he was not a team sports kid. He seems to like tennis, though. But whenever I put a camera in his hands, he always surprises me with what he shoots. It's not your typical point and shoot point of view. You'll see what I mean. The first picture below won him Reflections up to the regional level.