Something About Mary

Last entry for this blog

2008-03-07T13:53:00.003-07:00

Since I am starting my new life with Mike I have decided to start a new blog called: Something about Mary and Mike. You can find it at this url:

http://somethingaboutmaryandmike.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there! Mary

My house is sold!

2008-03-03T11:54:00.001-07:00

My counter offer was accepted so now I have to be out of my house by April 1st. Guess we need to step up the house shopping!

Sold!

2008-03-02T21:50:00.002-07:00

Mike's townhouse is sold! He got his asking price, but has to be out by the 17th of March! My house got an offer yesterday, but I refused because they wanted to pay $2000 less than I was asking and wanted me to pay 3% at closing. No deal! I countered with a price $2600 more than my asking price which will give them their closing money, and still give me $2000 less than my asking price. So we'll see. They have until noon tomorrow to get back to me. Both of our houses have been on the market for less than a week, so I can wait a little.

Now to find a house. So far we've seen some we like, but not that one yet that we LOVE! On Tuesday we have about 12 more to look at so we'll see. Otherwise all four of us will end up living in an apartment! Now wouldn't that be fun! Wish us luck!

My church is doing a "Pray it Forward" activity this month, which means I'll be praying for the three people after me in our church directory. If you know of anyone in need of prayer, please email me at Mjwaddell1@gmail.com and I'll pray for them and/or you as well. Mary

My life is crazy!

2008-02-26T22:31:00.002-07:00

As most of you know, I'm hosting a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands. The regional director contacted me for some advice based on my prior military experience. Unfortunately she ended up having to resign from her position and recommended me to replace her. Today was my first day on the job. I am now the regional director for the exchange program for all of Utah.

So, my supervisor calls me this morning and welcomes me to the team. Then she tells me I have to remove a student from a home today and find somewhere for him to stay. Of course my house is my first thought but I don't have a spare bed and I am in the middle of trying to sell it. After asking everyone I know I asked my realtor and wouldn't you know it but she and her husband agreed to keep him until the weekend at which time the issue would be resolved. Either he would return to his host family or he would go to Oklahoma to a family who is willing to host him there. After picking him up and then taking to my realtors house I found that he seemed to be a really nice boy who was willing to sleep on my couch for the rest of the semester and take a taxi to school if that was necessary. Unfortunately I am just not in the position to take on another student. On the way home I needed to stop by another friend's house to drop off a computer program. After telling her about my crazy day she told me the boy could come and live the rest of the school year with her and her 3 boys (she is a single mom). So assuming all the paperwork goes well that is where the boy will end up. She is happy, he is happy, my supervisor is happy. The only one who won't be happy is the host parent who will no longer have a student. Oh well. I'm happy to get this resolved!

But guess what else happened???? I looked out my front window because I thought I heard the mail truck go by. What did I see? Not a mail truck, but a big hole in my front yard! I have a man hole cover which goes to a storm drain. It seems that somewhere along the line there is a crack in a pipe which is sucking the dirt from my yard into the pipe. The hole is currently about 3 feet deep and about 6-8 feet in diameter. Now how did I not notice this before? Because it was covered with a record amount of snow!! Not really good timing since my house is up for sale, although my realtor told me she is expecting an offer on my home soon from someone who looked at it yesterday, so we'll see.

I really don't need anymore stress! I have enough with school, two part time jobs, two full time teenagers, a boyfriend and a house for sale!

Acid reflux!

2008-02-20T14:42:00.003-07:00

Can you believe I have very bad acid reflux and I didn't even know it! This is the reason my esophagus is closing up, I guess to try to protect itself. I had an upper GI and small bowel study the other day (if I have to drink one more ounce of barium solution I will hurt someone!) and they were amazed at how bad it was. So far, with my abdominal pain situation they have found the following: Loads of scar tissue in my abdomen due to appendix removal and tubal ligation, which was all removed surgically; irritable bowel syndrome, which isn't bad enough for me to take any meds (I take enough as it is) and now acid reflux. The doctor is hoping that this will get rid of my abdominal pain, since people with acid reflux experience lots of different pain locations. I hope so too because I'm getting tired of all these tests and doctors visits only to have the pain. So I'm on the little purple pill (Nexium) until further notice. If the pain persists after a month, I'm back at the GI doc's office again. So pray for healing for my esophagus and for everything for that matter! My kitchen counter looks like a pharmacy right now! :)

Wedding and stuff

2008-02-18T17:39:00.002-07:00

So after agonizing about a wedding I've decided (and Mike agreed) that we will not have a public ceremony. We will have us, our girls and my pastor, and possibly my parents attending, along with a friend who will take photos. With selling 2 houses, buying one house, helping with my parents 50th anniversary celebration, school, a job and two teenagers, I've decided I don't need the stress of a wedding. I had a huge, over the top wedding the first time so I don't need that again. My church will only hold about 225 comfortably and since I've been active in my church for so many years I know just about everyone, would feel I need to invite all of them, plus all of my friends, Mike's friends, friends we share, my family, etc. we'd have to leave some people out which would be hard, so this is just so much easier. Plus, with the money we'll save we can afford a nice honeymoon later in the year.

Speaking of selling homes, we signed the paperwork with the realtor today. Our houses are in the affordable range (less than $200,000) which is still a really good market here so hopefully they will sell with little trouble. We've looked at several homes on the internet and will start looking this Friday. All very exciting!

And speaking of exciting: Chelsea got her learner's permit on Thursday. She drives really well for being so new at it. Now to get her enrolled in driver's ed!

Well, I have a paper to write that is due tomorrow so I'd better get on with it!

He asked and I said yes!!!!

2008-02-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Space Needle hours before he popped the question!

Here is the ring, with the flowers he had delivered to the room.

No date set but it will probably be in 2008!

Ring

2008-02-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

Mike wants to know what size ring I wear and if I like white or yellow gold. Hmmmm..........

I love my boyfriend!

2008-02-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

On Saturday afternoon I was out shoveling snow (which is a daily chore these days) when my neighbor walked out of his house with a vase filled with a dozen roses, a teddy bear and some chocolates. I thought he was showing me what he got his wife, but in reality he was delivering them to me. I was gone when the florist came so they delivered to the neighbors. Mike sent them to me with a card saying: Beautiful flowers for my BEAUTIFUL lady! I love you on Valentines and every other day. Michael. Now isn't that sweet!
So this is exactly what I got! He told me I could give the teddy bear to Chelsea, and she was thrilled. She wants to know when we are getting married. Hmmm, he did say something about needing to talk to my dad......

We are off to Seattle on Thursday. And this is where we are staying, at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Isn't it beautiful! We are having dinner one night at The Fish Club, right in the hotel. It is owned by Todd English, a celebrity chef who has his own cooking show on PBS. I'm sure the food will be wonderful. Of course we are going to Pikes Place Market, the Space Needle, where I believe we will eat lunch one day, we'll probably take the underground tour and see the aquarium. That should keep us busy. My friends, Bruce and Joann, will come on Saturday and have dinner with us at the pub at Pike's Place market. It will be nice to see them again and for them to meet Mike.

Endoscopy

2008-01-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

Had my endoscopy today and found out that my esophagus opening is about half the size it should be. The Dr. took a picture and you can see where it is closed up. He had to stretch it quite a bit to get the opening big enough for the camera to go in. Guess that explains why I have a hard time swallowing sometimes. I did have a barium swallow test done about 3 years ago, but they didn't find anything wrong, although it is impossible to see the diameter of the esophagus that way, according to the Dr. I'm now seeing. I may have to go in and have it stretched out. In the meantime the Dr. took a biopsy to see if there is a bacteria that is causing it to close. I do have to say that it hurts like hell! The absolutely gross numbing solution only works for a few minutes and I can't take much of it so guess I'll have to suffer. Oh, and they still don't know what is causing my pain in my abdomen.

Bragging!

2008-01-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to brag about today. I'll start with my daughter. Chelsea text messaged me from the ski resort that she did a 180 and front grab on her snowboard for the first time. I know what a 180 is but I'm not sure what a front grab is, but I am sure it's hard to do and loads of fun. Now for Mike: I stopped at the bowling alley this afternoon and watched him bowl in a 9 pin tournament. That means that if you knock down 9 pins it counts as a strike. So I watched him bowl two 300 games! Now out of all those strikes, in the first game he had 5 "9 pin" strikes and on the second he had 6 "9 pin" strikes, so they don't count as a regular 300 (perfect) game, but it was exciting to watch. And it was fun to be the girlfriend of the best bowler in the tournament! Okay, now for Eline: She's doing so good in school that they are going to allow her to miss 4 days while her dad is here. She got a 3.7 GPA on her first semester report card! Okay, now for me: I got a 90% on my Nutrition test. Not fabulous, but hey, it's an A- so I guess I shouldn't complain. The average score was 82%.

Oh, and for those wondering about my health, I guess I have good and bad news. The good news is that my liver, gall bladder, colon, heart and all blood tests are in perfect order. The bad news is they still can't figure out what is causing my abdominal pain. On Thursday I get to go in for an Upper GI with small bowel scope. For some reason that doesn't sound like fun. I just wish whatever it is would go away or at least show up so the doc can do something about it. I'm tired of tests. I really am thankful that I have the best health insurance, so all of the tests, doctors visits and surgery in the past year have only cost me $184! It has cost my insurance company over $82,000!

I HATE American Eagle!

2008-01-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here's my rant about the worst company I've had to deal with in a long time!!!!

So, Eline gets a $50 gift card from Mike for Christmas. It came with a $10 off card for any purchase of $50 or more. Sounds good. On Jan. 12th Eline wants to go to the mall and spend her cards. She sees a really cute plaid bomber jacket, but unfortunately they don't have her size. A young lady checks the computer and sees that they have plenty online. So she calls the $%^&*( people at ae.com and tells them she wants to place a customer order. After giving them the item number and price she hands the phone to me. I give the person all the gift card info, $10 off code and my debit card info (for the $3.50 or so in tax). It's all good (so I think) so we go home excitedly waiting for the delivery of said jacket.

The next day I get a nice email telling me that the order has been placed and the jacket will be here in 5-10 days. Well, 10 days comes and goes with no jacket so I call the %^&* people at ae.com. I'm told there was a problem with the gift card processing so they had to cancel the order and were putting the $ back on the gift card. The lady even made me check to be sure I still had the card (which I did). She said it would take 72 hours for the money to go back on the card and I could call back and get the jacket. I make her check to see how many jackets they have in Eline's size and she tells me there are 55 available.

So, today I call back. I'm told the original order was canceled because the jackets were out of stock. What????? I'm also told that they can't put the money back on the original gift card, but they would be sending one in the mail in 5-10 business days. What??????? So I ask about the $10 off card that we used and was told that it expired so it wasn't any good anymore. What????? Three times I ask to speak to a supervisor and 3 times I'm told there is nothing anyone can do about all this, other than send a new gift card which will be here in 5-10 business days. Now, I'm supposed to believe this since so far everything they've told me previously has turned out to be untrue? So after insisting that I speak to a supervisor he tells me that he will give me 2 day shipping and 15% off on Eline's next order at ae.com. I assure him that Eline will never be ordering again from ae.com because their customer service is terrible. I insist that she get back not only the $50 gift card but the extra $10 off. Then I tell him I think it sucks that we have been at this for 14 days and all we get is where we started, and nothing for our crappy service, time and effort. He apologizes, says he'll put a note in the computer about the $10 off and hung up. You'd think that as overpriced as their stuff is they'd be able to do better than that. American Eagle SUCKS!

It's snowing again!

2008-01-24T16:01:00.001-07:00

On Monday I spent most of the day doing snow removal. I think we had about 14 inches. I used my snow blower, which was good, but got ambitious so removed the snow for 3 of my neighbors. I ended up removing snow from my driveway 3 times, but was too lazy to do the others after the first time!

I broke down and bought a Playstation 2. I was looking for a Nintendo Wii, but gave up the search. I really wanted to buy the Dance Dance Revolution game, which is not only fun, but good exercise, and Chelsea wanted Guitar Hero, which simulates playing an electric guitar. So after shopping around we got the game console and the DDR game, with two dance pads so we could have competitions. We couldn't find Guitar Hero so I got online and ended up ordering Rock Band instead, which comes with a guitar, drums and microphone so at least 3 people can play. I also got a few used games that use the regular controller. Chelsea and I have had loads of fun playing a winter Olympic game. I am so bad that we both ended up laughing so hard we were crying. As for the DDR game, I am totally non-musical so I don't have the rhythm to do really well. Chelsea, on the other hand, is very musical and so very good at the game. Fortunately there are different levels so I can play at the beginner and she can play at the more advanced stage.

Eline loves the PS2 also, and had several friends over last night to play. I think I have now sentenced myself to a life of teenagers filling the family room! That's okay, at least I know what they are doing!

School is going well, much less painful than last semester. Most of my classes are on Monday's which gives me more free time during the week.

Work is still good at Old Navy. I am working every Wed. afternoon and every other Friday afternoon. Not many hours, but just enough to give me some extra spending money and to let me have my discount.

Looks like Mike and I will be going to Seattle on Feb. 8th for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. Eline's dad will still be here visiting, but he's here to see her, not me, so this will give them some private time. Chelsea will stay at a friend's house so my girls will be taken care of while I party it up in Seattle! :)

I can't think of a title so I won't have one today!

2008-01-15T08:34:00.001-07:00

I had my CT scan last week and the spots on my liver are gone. That's the good news. The bad news is I'm still having abdominal pain so I'm going back in to see the GI doc tomorrow.

Chelsea goes to see the ENT doc today to see about her ears. She has lots of pain in her ears but the family doc can't see anything wrong, so hopefully the specialist can figure it out.

School is going well. So far I like all my classes, but there are a lot of papers to write! It just gets worse as I progress towards my degree!

Eline's dad comes in a couple of weeks and I'm starting to worry about having to feed and entertain him. I told Mike he'd have to come and eat dinner with us a lot. Of course Mike doesn't mind that since he likes my cooking.

I'm thinking there was more I wanted to post but can't remember right now, so I may update later today.

First Day of School

2008-01-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

Two classes down and one to go! Monday is such a long school day for me. I've been here since 10:00 this morning and will leave at 8:30 tonight! Oh well, that gives me lots of extra time the rest of the week.

On Friday Mike and I went to dinner at the Pie Pizzaria. We had a Greek pizza and it was great! Then we went to see National Treasure 2 which we both liked.

It snowed about 6 inches early Saturday morning so it was an adventure getting Eline to the high school for flag team practice. The plows hadn't hit any of the minor roads so my little car was not doing so well. The main roads were still a mess, too, but not as bad. By late afternoon the sun had come out and then all the roads were clear.

Yesterday it snowed about 3 inches early in the day, which Chelsea volunteered to shovel (she also volunteered to shovel on Saturday!). Later yesterday it snowed another 4-5 inches which Eline shoveled, although she wasn't exactly a volunteer! :)

Since the weather and roads were so bad there was nothing to do but play a game. Eline's mother sent her a game called "Mister X" which is a mystery game where two or more "detectives" look for the spy, "Mister X". Chelsea was X and did a great job of keeping Eline and me at bay. We never did find her, so Chelsea won the game.

I go in tomorrow for another CT scan. I think this is my 7th in the past 12 months. I just hate having to drink the barium mixture. Even though they put flavoring in it, it is soooooo gross! I read in the paper the other day that too many CT scans can lead to cancer. Great, just what I needed to hear. The CT is to see if the spots on my liver have grown since my last scan, which I think was in August. I also have blood tests to see if I have Celiac's disease or some other problems to explain my abdominal pain since surgery and colonoscopy didn't reveal anything. I still have the pain but I'm almost getting used to it now. I really want to find out what the problem is, but I am sick and tired of doctors, tests, scans and having a camera up my butt! All of that is almost as painful as the pain itself. I do have to say that I am very thankful for my health insurance. I've had over $40,000 in medical procedures in the past year and it's cost me only $275!

Mike and I have had some discussions about "if we were married". I think we are definitely headed that way, but we have a lot to think about. Mike met my family at Christmas and he wants me to meet his aunt and uncle (his parents both passed away several years ago). Don't know when that will be but of course I'm nervous.

We are also planning a trip to Seattle for a weekend. Mike gets every other Friday off and I am done with school by 11:00 on Fridays so we could get an afternoon flight out and come back on Sunday. Now to find somewhere for my girls to stay. Chelsea is easy, but with the exchange program it's a little harder with Eline. She definitely has friends she can stay with, its just getting all the paperwork and approval that's a pain. Eline's dad will be her from Jan 30-Feb. 9th and we even need to get approval for her to go to Las Vegas with him!

I'm going back to Weight Watchers with my friend Carol, starting this week. I'm below my WW goal weight but about 2 lbs above my personal goal weight. I really like WW and it will motivate me to get back into my healthy routine. I've struggled with that since my trip home.

I think I had at least one, if not two glasses of wine (and even three on occasion) most days while I was on vacation, and so I've had to get back to my "no alcohol during the week" plan which helped me with my weight loss the past few months. I am struggling though with not eating junk between meals. My meals have been pretty healthy, but on vacation I grazed on baked stuff and candy the whole time and now my body wants to keep it up. I know I'll be up way more than 2 lbs if I don't quit! I also have been a slacker when it comes to exercising and there is no excuse! Well, except maybe the weather, but I could get my lazy butt up and go to either the university gym or the base gym. I just hate running indoors, but if it doesn't clear up I will have no choice. I can feel the flab on my legs getting worse!

Okay, enough of that. That's why I'm going back to WW to get my motivation back! Well, it's time for a Social Work club meeting and my last class of the day! I can't wait to get home and relax!

It's good to be home

2008-01-03T18:53:00.001-07:00

We had a great time in N. Idaho, but there's no place like home. I love my family in Idaho, but I know I could never live there again. I had the opportunity to reconnect with my two best friends from High School.

I have been friends with Debbie since 3rd grade. She got pregnant when we were juniors in HS and dropped out. She later got her diploma at an adult HS. She eventually had 3 kids with her husband who also dropped out as a junior. They got married and then he joined the Air Force. This was the catalyst for my decision to join. I wanted to be close to Debbie and the recruiter assured me that was a real possibility. Well, of course we were never any where close. Her husband got out after about 12 years and they returned back to Idaho. It was then that they got into drugs and alcohol. After seeing them for the last time about 5 years ago I decided it was better for me to move on from that friendship. I am happy to say, however, that Debbie seems to really have cleaned up her act. She divorced her husband and has purchased her first home. They never had any money before and now that she has straightened out her life she can finally afford a house. It was just so nice to reconnect. We visited for about 4 hours and I feel confident that we'll stay in touch.

Jan and I became friends in about 10th grade but got close in 11th grade when Debbie dropped out. We've been friends ever since and have seen each other every time I've been home. She now lives in Montana with her husband. It was nice to catch up with her and I also saw her parents and one of her sisters, whom I hadn't seen in about 15 years. They all look the same!

I've been busy working at Old Navy and getting ready to go back to school on Monday. I had a list of projects I wanted to get done during my break, however with being sick and then extending my vacation I really didn't get much done. Oh well, none of it was absolutely critical.

I want to get some scrapbooking done tonight so I'm going be done blogging and get busy scrapping!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

Chelsea, Eline, and I are enjoying a very white Christmas in N. Idaho! We have had a great visit with all our family. Eline has fit right in with the rest of our family. She and my dad have enjoyed sharing their jar of pickled herring. (YUK!!!) We all gathered here at Mom and Dad's house on Christmas eve, as we do every year. We had a great meal and then opened presents. Everyone was very spoiled by my parents, and we all had a wonderful time. We went to my sister's church for the candlelight service which was beautiful as usual. Later everyone went to their own homes, and Chelsea, Eline and I went back to Mom and Dad's. The girls watched National Treasure and the rest of us went to bed.

On Christmas morning the living room was filled once again with presents. These were mostly my presents to the girls and to my parents. Mike arrived around 9:30 and we had to wake the girls up in order to open presents. For all of those anxiously awaiting: Mike gave me beautiful diamonds for Christmas, a necklace and earrings. I was thrilled and relieved, because I am not ready for anything else right now. He got along well with all of my family, but had to head back to Montana today because we got about 8 inches of snow last night with more coming. Chelsea was thrilled with her presents also. She got a laptop, which wasn't a surprise since she paid for half of it, plus many other gifts. Eline was thrilled because I spent the same on her as I did on Chelsea, with the exception of the laptop. That was fair because she got about the same amount in $$ from her father for Christmas. I really don't think Eline expected anything so it was fun to see her face when she saw the pile of gifts for her.

The girls are now at the movies with all my teenage neices. They went to see National Treasure 2 and then they are going to the Resort for "gooies" which are some sort of huge ice cream dessert.

I am just chilling and enjoying the quiet.

Mom is doing much better, but is dreading her second surgery on Jan. 10th. I wish I could be here to help out, but unfortunately the girls and I all need to return to school.

Eline goes back to Utah tomorrow to spend some time with her best friend, and Chelsea and I will return on Sunday.

We hope all of you had as wonderful a Christmas as we have had. You can't ask for anything better than spending the holidays with family and those you love.

Crazy!

2007-12-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy busy around here! Finals took up much of my energy but they are over. I got sick with a cold last weekend and am just now starting to feel better. I think I'm done with all my shopping and am pretty much packed for our trip tomorrow.

My mom ended up back in the hospital for a day and a half because she still couldn't keep any food down. She's back home now and doing better. Scared me though when my dad called to tell me. He rarely calls so I instantly got scared when I heard his voice. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and all is well now. I'll be home tomorrow afternoon so I can help dad take care of her. I told the girls that our job isn't to relax and be lazy, but to do all the cooking, cleaning and waiting on Grandma. They both agreed that that is what we need to be doing.

Mike and I are going to a party tonight so I'll take some time to relax. I baked and delivered goodies to my neighbors, volunteered at the local domestic violence shelter, made a few gifts, cleaned the house, ran the girls around, shoveled snow and now I think its time to chill for a few hours.

I'm sure I forgot something but that's okay. I'll probably take a little time at Mom's to blog about how Mike's visit with my family goes. He's pretty nervous, although I've told him my family is very laid back and easy-going. I think he's more nervous about my dad, who has informed me he has some questions for Mike. :) We are flying home this year, because after totaling my Highlander on last year's trip home, I've been forbidden to drive home in the winter. Wonder why? That's okay, besides the expense, I actually prefer driving. But I bought the tickets in July so they've been paid for for a long time, so all is good.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Well the weather outside is frightful....

2007-12-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I don't have a fireplace to make it delightful, but I do have a nice furnace which is keeping my house warm while it continues to snow. I woke up to about 2.5 inches of snow and there is now about 3 inches on the ground and it is steadily snowing. We definitely need this moisture so I'm not complaining.

My mom had surgery on her cervical spine a few days ago and thankfully it seems to have turned out well, although she is still having issues with nausea caused by the pain medication. She and I share that problem, which pretty much means we don't take prescription pain medication unless we are really in a lot of pain. We both have real tolerance for pain so this only comes into play when we have surgery, and unfortunately that is all too often for both of us.

I was talking to my dad while Mom was in surgery and he asked me how things were going with Mike. I told him everything was going well, and for the first time in my life Dad gave me relationship advice. He and Mom have been married for almost 50 years (Aug. 2 will be 50!) so I think he knows what he's talking about. He asked me if I loved Mike, I said yes, then he said then you need to make it work, because you can overcome anything if you really love the other person. He said not to expect anyone to be perfect, and sometimes its just easier to keep your mouth shut when you are angry and just go out into the garage for a few hours (at least that's what he does) and usually things can be worked out when you are calm. He also said that he and Mom had had their tough times but their love had pulled them through. Now my dad isn't one to go around talking about love, but he even got a little choked up when he was talking about how much he loves my mom. The fact that she was in surgery at the time probably is what brought that on but it was obviously heartfelt. That conversation means a lot to me and one I'll always remember, especially when things aren't going perfectly with Mike, as I'm sure sometimes they won't.

Okay, now a little funny: The other day I told Eline that I was going to the store and if she wanted anything to text me. So I'm shopping and I get a text from her and it says "I need chopsticks and maybe some cookies for after school." I'm wondering about the chopsticks, but she is in an art class and a pottery class (she has 30 more credits than she needs to graduate so she gets to take mostly electives) so I thought she might need chopsticks for that. As for the cookies, that girl can put down some Oreos! I have never seen anyone who could eat a whole pack in a day and not gain an ounce! That is one thing I will be mailing to her when she goes back to the Netherlands in June! So, I get home and give her the cookies and the chopsticks and ask what she needed the chopsticks for. She looks at them with a blank look on her face, the I see the "clue light" coming on and she starts laughing. She meant Chapstick! But when she says it she does pronounce it like chopstick and the text program on her phone automatically put an "s" on the end. :) So now we have a pack of chopsticks for the next time I get Chinese food, and Eline still needs Chapstick.

The other day we started decorating for Christmas. As you can see Chelsea the Clown is responsible for putting the beaded garland on the tree. That is one silly girl!

Eline was surprised to see that we had an ornament from The Netherlands, from out trip to Europe in 2000. I let her put that on the tree. I am giving her an ornament from Utah to take home with her, for her tree.

We celebrated St. Nicholas Day the other day. Since we don't have a fireplace the girls put their shoes in front of the tree. They put carrots in them for St. Nicholas' horse. Unfortunately Scruffy (our cute, veggie loving dog) ate the carrots so the horse went hungry.

St. Nicholas did manage to find our house and left the girls some small gifts and some treats.

On Thursday the girls made a Gingerbread house. It was Eline's first time doing this. I think they both had lots of fun.

Here's the final product. Looks great don't you think? As you can see we are all doing well and are getting along great. Life is so good!

End of the semester

2007-12-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

I hate this time of the school year! I just finished a research project which ended up being almost 30 pages. YUCK! But at least its done! Now to finish several other projects/papers I need to get done! By Friday they will all be turned in and I will have two finals to take next week, then it's vacation time for me!

This week has been good. Things seem to have calmed down a lot with Eline. We are all getting along really well. The girls went snowboarding today and it was much better than last time, since we got some new snow the past few days.

Mike and I are dating again, for those who don't know. A few weeks ago he took me to dinner, apologized, explained himself, declared his undying love for me and begged forgiveness. My mom says everyone deserves a second chance so I gave him one, with the understanding that there are no 3rd chances with me. It is so nice to be in love again. Of course, I never fell out of love with him, just accepted that he was gone forever, so I thought.

He is treating me like a queen and I really could probably ask him for anything right now, but I'm not taking advantage. I am enjoying the attention and his declarations of love. So we'll see how it goes and I'll keep you updated. So far so good, but it's only been two weeks, so we'll have to take it a day at a time.

Lots to be thankful for

2007-11-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, don't worry, I'm not going to post a list of everything I'm thankful for. I usually feel like I am the most blessed person I know and it is probably true.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Dale, Candy and their kids. I don't think Eline really liked most of the food, especially the stuffing and the green bean cassarole, but lots of American kids don't like them either!

There was no snow so the kids didn't get to go snowboarding as planned. They played the new updated version of the Game of Life and played soccer on the X-Box. It was a nice, quiet day.

On Friday I had to work at Old Navy, which was my first exposure to Black Friday shopping. It was crazy! People actually stood in line, in the cold, for up to 4 hours to get a cheap little mp3 player loaded with Old Navy music! It might have been worth $20 at most! We did have some good deals on clothes, though. When I got off I even took advantage and did a lot of Christmas shopping. With the deals and my discount I did pretty well.

We had a house load of girls over on Friday, and that went well. I think we'll do that once a month. But I need some ideas for games or activities the girls can do because movies get boring after awhile. So post a comment if you have any suggestions.

Eline is doing well, except she just found out that the Exchange program is probably not going to allow her father to come here to visit in February. This has nothing to do with the recent issues, because her father has known this for about a month and didn't tell her. They told him they think she'll want to go home with him if he comes. I don't know if that's true or not, but in reality he doesn't need their permission to come to the US, so we'll see if he comes anyway.

It is the last two weeks of the semester so I have tons of papers to write and finals to prep for so I'd better get off the computer and head to school. Mary

Good Day

2007-11-20T22:48:00.001-07:00

Today was a good day! Eline's parents and AYUSA have completely supported me so I think things are looking up in that area. She will be getting a warning letter from AYUSA so she will know just what she needs to do to be able to stay here.

I am accepting some responsibility (not all, by a long shot) and we have both agreed to work harder to make this situation work. On Friday I am having "Girls night" at my house. Both Eline and Chelsea can invite 3 girl friends to come over and watch "Chick Flicks". We will have pizza, sodas, snacks and movies.

I am also going to work to get to know Eline's best friend better, so Becca will be eating dinner with us at least once a week.

Eline is currently grounded for missing her curfew, but I will make an exception for "Girls night".

I did tell her, however, that if she misses her curfew again she will have no TV, computer, telephone (except with her parents) and I will notify AYUSA who will probably put her on probation, which is one step away from sending her home. AYUSA did say that sending Eline to another family is not an option at this point. They reviewed my rules and chores and have determined that Eline will not have an easier time with another family.

So, I am hoping things will get better after this. If it doesn't I know that I've done everything I can to make it work. Mary

I'm about fed up!

2007-11-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

With Eline! She complained to the exchange program rep that I am too hard on her when it comes to chores. She told me a few days ago that she had cleaned the downstairs bathroom which she shares with Chelsea. I went in to do some laundry (it's also a laundry room) and saw there was still toothpaste in the sink and a big wad of hair on the floor. I told her she had to go back in and take care of those two things, and she got really upset and told Chelsea I expect too much from them.

As for her chores, she and Chelsea rotate chores, which are really pretty easy. One week Chelsea cleans the bathroom downstairs and dusts and vacuums the family room. The next week she takes out the trash, and on trash day takes the can to the street (its on wheels so it's easy to move), and dusts and vacuums the living room. They alternate these chores each week. I think you can see that each girl really spends only about 20-30 minutes each week on chores.

I had told Eline and Chelsea I arranged for tickets to The Nutcracker Ballet so Eline could see it. So the other day she comes home and telles me she went to the ballet with a friend so won't be going with us. She spent the weekend in SLC with her friend, and came home last night and said she wanted to go to Idaho for Thanksgiving with her friend, even though I had told her we had made arrangements to have Thanksgiving dinner with another family. Heck, I practically invited us over so Eline could see a big Thanksgiving dinner, and now she wants to ditch us. Well, honestly, at this point I don't care. Unfortunately for her AYUSA requires 10 days notice and a written request for exchange students to travel with someone other than their host family, so she's probably stuck with us.

I did a survey from AYUSA last week which asked: Does your student regularly shown their gratitued for being hosted by your family? I had to honestly say that besides the first day when she thanked us for having her she has not thanked either of us in any way. I finally decided it was because she probably feels shortchanged. All the other AYUSA host families in our area are wealthy. And I don't just mean they have a bigger house (which isn't too difficult). All of them (5) are very wealthy families and two of the students live in houses with housekeepers, and have no chores at all. Two of the families are taking big trips (one to Disneyland and one to Hawaii) and paying all their student's expenses.

Eline wants to be part of the flag team at school and asked me to pay the $250 fee. I told her she needed to ask her parents and her mother actually told her to ask me for the money. This is not what I signed up for. The program requirements are for me to provide food, shelter, an American family experience (I am supposed to treat her like a member of the family and not as a guest) and to reasonably accomodate for school activities (like driving her to practices, etc.) In return I receive no money. The only thing host families get is the experience of having someone from another country in their home and giving them the opportunity to experience American High School.

Eline makes it difficult to fulfill my commitment to make her part of the family. She is gone much of the time and if I tell her she needs to stay home complains to the program rep or she stays in her room, or goes to a different room to use the computer or watch TV. Even if Chelsea and I are watching the same program on TV that she is, she still prefers to be in a different room.

I guess it's time for ME to call the AYUSA rep and maybe consider a new placement for Eline. This is putting a lot of stress on me that I don't need and I don't think Chelsea and I are getting anything good out of this. Okay I'm done for today.

Lots happening here!

2007-11-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe that its been since Oct. 23rd that I blogged last! I really am a slacker!

On the 27th Chelsea and I went to see the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert in SLC. It was a sold out concert, but we were lucky enough to get floor seating which put us about 20 feet from the front of the stage catwalk. We saw everything really well and Chelsea had a great time. Because they taped a segment of the Hannah Montana show the night before, the whole cast was at our concert and they were about 10 feet from us. Miley's sisters were with sound booth guys so they were only about 2 feet from us. So I guess it was worth the $56 per ticket it cost. There were people in our section who paid $800 a ticket! Now I love my daughter, but I would never pay that much for a concert, for her or anyone else!

My mom and dad came to visit the same day and we had a great time visiting. Dad put up a rack for Chelsea's snowboard for her and mom cooked dinner most nights, including her world famous meatloaf! I didn't get much homework done while they were here but that's okay, I just have to work a little bit harder. :)

On Halloween Chelsea and her friends went trick or treating. I told her this was the last year, she is definitely too old for this. Eline went also with one of her friends. Lots of people told her she was too old, but when she explained that she was from the Netherlands and this was her only opportunity to trick or treat they gave her loads of candy!

I went for an ultrasound on the 22nd, I think and they didn't find the spots on my liver, so I am having a colonoscopy tomorrow to see if they can determine the cause of my abdominal pain. What fun!

School is going well. It's getting close to the end of the semester so I have lots of papers and projects coming up. I hope I can get some of it done tomorrow after my procedure. Hope I'm not too drugged up! :)

Work is good. I just got trained to be a cashier at Old Navy. It's amazing how these new computers/cash registers work now. There is very little for the cashier to do, as long as you push the right button! I think I actually prefer working the floor, folding, straightening and helping customers. At least you get to move around. Standing in the same spot for hours really hurts my back. But it's a job and it's paying for Chelsea's trip to Disneyland, so that's okay. I really like the managers and the other employees, so it is a fun place to work.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to be a better blogger in the future! Mary

I'm a Blog Slacker

2007-11-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

I just noticed it's been about two weeks since I have written anything on this blog. I am in a hurry to get off to school so I won't be able to update right now, but for you faithful readers here is another blog for you to read. If you aren't laughing so hard you are crying, in about 30 seconds after starting to read this entry I think you might be dead. Just a parental warning: The "A" word is used several times and the "F" word is used once, so I guess I'd give this a PG-13 rating, although any respectable 3rd grader has heard worse! Enjoy and let me know if you thought this blog was funny. To get to the blog I'm talking about, just click on the title above: "I'm a Blog Slacker". There's a link to the other blog there. Mary

Great Weekend

2007-10-23T09:24:00.001-06:00

My weekend started off with Wine Tasting which was fun. It was nice to visit with friends from church and enjoy small tastes of many different types of wine. The hostess liked my Merlot so much I think she actually drank about 3/4 of the bottle! Good thing she wasn't driving! :)

On Saturday we went to a party for foreign exchange students. We had lots of fun and Eline met a few new friends, a girl and a guy from Germany and another girl from the Ukraine (who is originally from Russia). We had a chance to taste food from all the countries represented and Eline and I made Speculaas, which are Dutch Spice Cookies, which are traditionally made for Dec. 6th (St. Nicholas Day). Later we went to a Social Work Club social, which was held at one of the member's barn. It was snowing and cold, so we enjoyed some chili (Eline's first opportunity to taste chili, which she really liked), and headed home. We rented a couple of movies, put on our pajamas and the three of us just chilled and watched a movie, before turning in for the night.

The other exciting thing happened was that Chelsea had to bring home a baby doll on Thursday that actually cries and that you actually have to feed and change diapers. It was fun until Saturday night when Chelsea came to my room crying because the baby kept waking up. That baby woke up every 45-60 minutes that night to eat. Now, I'm no expert but I haven't met a baby that could eat that much! Then on Sunday night the baby couldn't be soothed, no matter what she did. Chelsea came crying again around 2:30 in the morning, but I sent her away because there was nothing I could do. On Saturday night I did feed the baby four times, but I wasn't about to sit up all night Sunday rocking a doll, especially since it was her project, not mine. Needless to say, both of us where happy to see Sheldon (Chelsea's name choice for the doll) go back to school! Chelsea told me yesterday that she gets the goal of the project and she definitely doesn't want to have kids. I just told her to hold that thought for about 10 more years!

Last night we went to Chili's for dinner to celebrate Chelsea's 15th birthday which is actually today. Unfortunately Chili's is about the only chain restaurant that doesn't sing and make fools of people. They just give you a free dessert. So that's a heads up for those of you who want to go out for your b-day but don't want to be embarrassed!

Around 8:30 we went to "flock" my friend Michelle's house. It is her birthday this week, and she has been cancer free for a year, so pink was our theme. We went with another friend, Teri, and put flamingos and pink balloons in her yard, and then we used pink streamers to "TP" her trees. Chelsea rang the doorbell and then we all took off running. Later we realized that was pretty silly because we left a sign near her front door which had our names on it! I did discover, however, that Chelsea is very knowledgeable about how to "TP" trees. Hmm, I might need to ask her where she learned that skill! :) By the way, Michelle, if you are reading this, the whole thing was Teri's idea!!!

Thanks for the well wishes for my health issues. I went to have my ultrasound today, and after two techs tried to find the spots on my liver they finally gave up. I was happy to think that maybe they'd just disappeared until they told me that sometimes things don't show up on ultrasound that do show up on CT scans. This probably means I'll have to have another CT scan, which sucks because I hate that barium liquid I have to drink. It makes me sick just to think about it. I'll call the Dr. on Thursday to get the results of my ultrasound (which I already know) and see where we go from there.

Tonight is Chelsea's Soccer Banquet for High School soccer so that should be fun. She just started indoor soccer again, which is nice to watch in the winter because there is no rain or snow (like there was this past Saturday for her outdoor game!). Unfortunately her games are Monday afternoons and I work so won't be able to attend any of them. Oh well, she doesn't seem to care, she just wants to play!

Well, I need to head off to class. Bye for now! Mary

Starbucks!

2007-10-16T09:18:00.000-06:00

They opened a new Starbucks across from my school, so since I was going in early today I thought I'd stop by. Well I went through the drive thru and ordered my coffee. There were two vehicles ahead of me. Finally, after 10 minutes, I got up to the window. The girl at the window said "I'm sorry for the short wait." As she handed me my coffee I told her the wait was actually 10 minutes. She then yelled at me and said "I'm the only one working the drive thru today!" She then proceeded to slam the window closed. Hmm. Someone's having a bad day! Needless to say, I'll be saving myself some money by not bothering to go back there! This is only the second time I've had poor service from a Starbucks. The previous time worked out well for me though so I wasn't upset. About two years ago Chelsea and I were heading to visit family and we always stop at the Starbucks in Missoula, MT. It took about 5 minutes to get our order, and the girl in the window offered us pastries, as well as certificates for free drinks on our next visit. Now that is customer service!

Medical Stuff

2007-10-15T20:16:00.000-06:00

Saturday was an interesting day. I went to Eline's soccer game and she tripped and then was kicked in the head. When she finally got up, with help from the coach and another player she was obviously dizzy and out of it. Needless to say I needed to rush her to the emergency room. After a CT scan the Dr. determined she didn't have a concussion which was great, but I think Eline was a little disappointed because telling your friends you have a concussion is more exciting than just telling them you have a bump on your head and the doctor just gave you Tylenol for the pain! :)

Well, today I finally had a follow-up with my gastroenterologist. This was to check up on the spot on my liver and also to look at the pain I've been having in my side for over a year. I thought the pain would be taken care of by the surgery I had in August to remove scar tissue. Although plenty of scar tissue was removed I still have the pain. So, I go to see the Dr. today and he tells me that I have not just one, but two spots on my liver. The one on the left is about 2 inches in diameter and the one on the right is about 1 inch in diameter. I am going Friday for an ultrasound to see if they've changed since the last CT in June. As for the pain, if the liver isn't the cause then I will have to have a colonoscopy. I really have no idea what the plan is for my liver. The good news was that my blood pressure was lower even than normal and my resting heart rate was 52. So at least my circulatory system is working well!

Oh well, guess we'll see sometime next week what they are going to do. As long as I don't miss any school I'm okay with whatever needs to be done.

Good Day

2007-10-09T21:48:00.001-06:00

Today I found out I got an "A" on two tests. Yay for me! And then I came home and both my girls had cleaned their rooms (which I asked them to do) and Chelsea had cleaned the girls' bathroom and Eline had dusted and vacuumed the living room (which I didn't ask them to do). What a nice surprise to end a very long day! So I have a very tough test tomorrow and need to get busy studying, after Boston Legal, of course!

Teenagers!

2007-10-09T07:23:00.000-06:00

AARRGGHH! So Eline's curfew is 9:30 on school nights. She was late about a month ago and I had a talk with her. She was late again last night. She called at 9:35 to tell me she was going to be late, although by then I'd already figured that out. She got home around 9:50. She does depend on rides from friends but I've told her several times to call me if she needs a ride, but she needs to call by 9:15 if she is going to be late. Basically it takes around 15 minutes to get here from her most of her friend's houses so by 9:15, if she isn't already on her way home, she is going to be late.

So this morning I explained again what I expected and then told her that her curfew is now 9:00. I'll still go and pick her up if she can't find a ride, or if I know I won't be able to pick her up she'll just have to stay home. Needless to say she thinks I'm being unfair and went to her room crying. My biggest problem is that if I let her get away with coming in at 9:50, how long will it be before she starts coming in at 10:00 or later? Plus I have another teenager in the house who is watching all of this very closely.

I also announced that the girls would have to start doing their own laundry because I just don't have time to do it. Yes, I know, they probably should be doing it themselves anyway, but laundry is one chore, along with dishes, that I don't mind doing. In fact, I actually prefer them over any other type of household chore. I just don't have enough time to do the laundry for both of them, especially Chelsea, who sees to go through clothes like crazy! So needless to say, that didn't make either one of them happy. I suggested that they take turns, one do both girls clothes one week, and the other do it the next week, and that didn't go over too well either. Oh well, it's up to them to work out.

So enough of being the mean, evil mom today. Now I need to get a paper finished.

Sunday again

2007-10-07T07:56:00.000-06:00

Looks like my weeks fly by! Well, soccer is finally over, at least for high school. Chelsea is in the process of making some hard choices about soccer which will affect her future. One of her HS coaches plans on starting a competition team and many of the girls on her HS team will be playing, and Chelsea's been invited to play also. She is already on an AYSO All-Star team (basically a comp team that plays by AYSO rules). Since this team follows many rules that regular competition teams don't the level of play is a little below that of comp teams. However, her AYSO team has been selected to play in the National Games in Hawaii in July 2008. Although she wants to do both, I don't have the time or money to pay for it all, so I've told her she needs to choose. Personally I'd like to see her stay with her All-Star team because she's played with them for 2 years, the coaches are great, the parents of the girls are great, and I love the AYSO philosophy which emphasizes fair play, positive coaching, letting everyone play equally, etc. Of course, the philosophy of a comp team is to win, win, win.

If I wanted Chelsea to get a soccer scholarship the choice would be easy because recruiters attend competition tournaments regularly. Personally I'd rather her not play on a college team. I know some college athletes and sports really takes a lot of their time and affects their academics. Plus, other than the Olympics, there is really nowhere to go with women's soccer after college, so concentrating on academics is more important. She can always play on a recreation league if she really wants to.

But, I am letting her choose and then she has to live with her decision. There will be no turning back once the choice is made.

Now for Eline's news. She has had her cell phone taken away for the second time. If it happens again she will be suspended from school and will most likely not be allowed to return. Since she is a foreign exchange student the school doesn't get any money for her, so they have no reason to deal with discipline issues with her. I told her I'd prefer she leave her cell phone at home, but she has decided to to leave it in her locker. I told her she could make that decision, but we talked long and hard about the consequences of getting in trouble again. I am also going to let her parents know. She takes it out to look at the time, so I am going to have her get a cheap watch so she will know the time. She is a good kid but she really doesn't comprehend how we can have such a "stupid" rule. I've explained that the teacher has no way of knowing if she is looking at the time or at a text message, either one being distracting to the teaching environment. She still thinks its stupid, but there you have it.

We went to SLC yesterday and found a Dutch store which sells all kinds of Dutch food and other products. The owner is, of course, Dutch so Eline enjoyed talking to him for a little. She especially enjoyed being able to buy things that reminded her of home. I bought some frozen sausages and some mix to make crepes because she was really trying to decide how to spend her money and even though she wanted them she decided not to get them. She was really happy and appreciative when we got home and she saw what I'd purchased.

We also went clothes shopping. Eline needed some warm clothes and has recently discovered the American art of sitting around in sweats. I personally rarely wear sweats, but I know lots of people do wear them, and I am trying to discourage her from wearing them to the store or to school. I did tell her I won't take her to the store with me if she's wearing sweat pants or pajama pants. Chelsea doesn't wear them out of the house either. I guess it's really not so bad if you take some time to do your hair and clean up, but I just see too many women and teenagers who literally look like they just got out of bed, didn't bother to comb their hair or brush their teeth, and decide to go shopping. Not in my house! LOL! Chelsea bought herself a new hoodie and some new shoes so she was happy also.

Chelsea is looking to earn some money for her trip to California with her HS band. She is going to Disneyland and Sea World. I am making her earn some of the money to pay for the trip. And I won't let her sell overpriced cookie dough or wrapping paper. She has created a flyer offering to babysit, do yard work, pet sit, bake (she's a good baker) or other odd jobs. She also collects aluminum cans. If you or anyone you know needs some work done, let me know.

Well, it's time to get the girls up for church so I'd better go. It takes a while to get these two moving in the mornings!

Sunday

2007-09-30T14:56:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy week with work and school. I am an expert folder at Old Navy. So far I haven't used my employee discount but that will probably change this week.

I have several tests this week in school so I'll spend loads of time studying. This is the last week of High School soccer for Chelsea so we should have a little more time together which will be nice.

This time of year is Stewardship season at our church, and many other churches as well. As I pray about how much I will be giving this year I decided to look at other options. I already give 10% of my retirement and disability to my church, and now that I have a job I will have some of that money to give as well. So I am giving via a website called www.kiva.org. It is a micro-loan site. It is designed to provide small loans to people in third world countries to start or expand a business. The smallest loan amount is $25. If you think about it, that isn't much money, but combined with loans from other people throughout the world it can add up quickly. The recipients pay back the loan, usually in 12 months. Then you get your $25 back so you can help someone else. You can loan to just one person, or to as many as you want at a minimum of $25 each. So I've decided that I will take one day's pay each month to help out people via Kiva, and then I will take one day's pay and help out a local organization. October will be for the Christmas Box house. My friend, Kelly, shared this quote in church this morning: Don't count your blessings, share them. So that's what I am going to do.

Yes, I am working at a low paying job, but it's to send my kid to Disneyland, not to pay the rent or put food on the table. My family is truly blessed with so many good things and great people. If I spend a few hours folding t-shirts or jeans in order to share my blessings with others, then I will do it with a joyful heart! I feel great already! And isn't that the funny thing about giving? Who actually feels better about it, the person who receives, or is it really the person who gives? Try it and see for yourself!

I have a job!

2007-09-25T08:17:00.000-06:00

I just got hired to work at Old Navy. I will work 10-15 hours a week, probably Mon, Wed. and Friday afternoons. That works out perfect for me and will give me some extra $ to pay for the extra expenses of having another teenager in the house and to pay for Chelsea's band trip to Disneyland and soccer trip to Hawaii. Plus I get a discount and they have some cute clothes right now.

This is me coming in for the finish at the Standard Examiner 10K. I am smiling but that is just because I knew my friend was taking the photo!

This is Eline with her date for the Homecoming dance. She got ready at a friends house and they came by just so I could take photos.

I wanted to upload some photos of Chelsea but for some reason this site won't let me right now, so I'll try to do that this evening or tomorrow. Now I'm off to school!

My 10K race!

2007-09-22T10:40:00.000-06:00

I am so proud of myself for running my 10K race today! I exceeded all my expectations! I wanted to run an average 11 min/mile and actually ran 10:04 min/mile!! I also didn't want to finish last. I not only did not finish last, I wasn't even last in my age group! Today I am officially a runner, and NOT a jogger! I am just so happy it's hard to explain. I guess when you exceed one of your life goals it's a big day!

I'll upload a photo of the big finish when my friends email it to me. And speaking of my friends, I want to thank Bob and Carol for encouraging me, especially Carol. She told me over and over I could do it, said it like she meant it and kept on saying it until I believed it. She even told me I'd run faster than 11:00 min/mile and predicted I'd run at least 10:20. So thanks, Carol, for all your encouragement.

Another thing that was encouraging to me this week was yesterday when I saw my shit-head ex-boyfriend (I tried to think of a family friendly term for him but was unsuccessful) at a friend's retirement ceremony. He came up and said "Man you look good!" (I've lost about 12 lbs since he dumped me and my hair is longer, and I do look good! LOL!) Anyway, I said "thanks" and walked away with a smile on my face. I just ignored him the rest of the time. It was especially rewarding since he's been starting to email me again, which might mean he wants to get back together. Now that is not going to happen unless I suffer from a major brain injury, so it was all the more satisfying that I look so much better than I used to and that I could just give him a small taste of what he did to me. :) Okay, enough of that, I have lots to do today (2 papers to write) and a party to go to this evening, so I'd better get into the shower!

Busy, busy, busy

2007-09-20T08:32:00.000-06:00

Oh, life has been so busy. We've been going through some growing pains with Eline. She has tried to push the rules somewhat and is now very unhappy because I won't let her do whatever she wants. To be fair, I think she could do whatever she wanted at home, but I've been very clear on the rules so she shouldn't be surprised.

Last Saturday she spent the night at a friends house and then on Sunday afternoon I couldn't get a hold of her. She wouldn't answer her cell phone, which was the only phone number I had (I've since remedied that situation). I went over to her friend's house around 4:00 and told her she had to come home. She wanted to go to the church youth group and hadn't done some of her chores, which were supposed to be done on Saturday. So I brought her home and she did her chores and then I talked her again about my expectations.

Then again last night she went to a Powder Puff football game. Before I dropped her off I asked if she had a ride home and she assured me she did. She is supposed to be home by 9:30 on school nights. Well 9:30 came and went and she didn't come home. At 9:40 she calls and says she needs a ride home, but she can't tell me where she is at. She was at a friends house but couldn't give me directions, and said she would walk to another friends house. I found her and picked her up and needless to say I wasn't too happy. I told her that she should called before 9:30 to tell me she didn't have a ride. Her explanation was that she thought she would have a ride at 9:40 but that fell through. I told her that even if she'd have gotten a ride at 9:40 she would still be late coming home and she didn't call to let me know. I told her that from now on, if she doesn't have a ride home at least 20 minutes prior to her curfew she needs to call me so I can pick her up. I don't mind giving her a ride, but part of the reason for the curfew is so I can go to sleep without worrying where my girls are. When we got home she went to her room, slammed the door and wouldn't come out. So we'll talk after school today.

Am I being too tough? Feel free to comment, since this is my first try at parenting a 17 year old. So far I haven't punished her or restricted her because I think she's still learning but I do think I will have to do something if she doesn't start following the rules more closely. Her curfew on the weekends is 12:00 which is the curfew for Roy City. For special events, such as prom I'll probably go with 1:00. So tell me what you think?

Okay, now for the rest of the news: I have applied for several jobs because I want to earn an extra $300 per month to pay for Chelsea's band trip to Disneyland and our trip to Hawaii this summer for the AYSO National Soccer Championships. I do save money each month, but the recent renovations on my basement took up a big chunk of my savings account and I don't want to have to dip into my investments (for my real retirement and Chelsea's college) if I don't have to. So a little part time job seems like the answer. The good thing for me is that there are tons of job openings and just not enough people to fill them. Of course they are all part-time, $10 an hour jobs, not enough to support a family, and of course no benefits. Lucky for me I don't need any of that. So wish me luck today.

Chelsea is doing well in school except for one subject, surprising it's not math this time! We are working on that, though so hopefully it will be better soon. She made a goal at Thursday's JV game and of course I was at school so I didn't get to see it. :( Isn't that the way it always goes? Well, speaking of school, I need to get there!

Soccer and Softball

2007-09-15T19:53:00.001-06:00

This morning we got up early and went to watch Eline play soccer. She got the first goal of the game, but her team eventually lost 4-2, I believe. Oh well, at least the weather was nice and she had fun. Then Chelsea and I went to play softball with a group from church. It was so much fun! My team got creamed! I think the score was 12-3! But everyone seemed to have fun and that's what counts.

Now I need to get busy and get some homework done, so off I go!

Another week gone by!

2007-09-14T16:31:00.000-06:00

I have been meaning to blog more often, but school and two teenagers are kicking my butt! But I love it all! School is going well, but I have tons of homework to do this weekend. Eline played her first soccer game last Saturday and made two goals! Yay! It was so fun to watch her reaction, and the reaction of her teammates!

Saturday night some of my friends helped celebrate Eline's birthday. She had fun and was surprised to receive gifts! Thanks so much to those of you who were able to come and help make her American birthday something to remember!

I'm back taking guitar lessons again. This time they are free and my pastor is teaching. We are learning simple cords and have already been given our first 3 songs to learn! Hopefully I'll actually learn some of them!

Chelsea is still busy with high school soccer. Sad to say her team isn't doing too well. But as long as she's having fun, that's what counts.

Eline has a best friend now, Melissa. She seems to be a really nice girl. She was actually born in the Netherlands, about 5 miles from Eline's home town. Her parents were in the military at the time. Melissa doesn't know much about the Netherlands but I won't be surprised if she goes over to visit Eline some day!

I know there is tons more to report but it's Friday, so I'm going to try to give my brain a break for a little while and even cook some dinner.

Oh, tomorrow I am playing softball (or maybe it's baseball) with a bunch of 30-40 year olds. Just a game for fun, not for any particular reason, except Carol wants to play once in her life so she organized this "play date". And I have been training to run the Standard-Examiner 10K and have actually run the 6.2 miles twice already. In fact, today was the 2nd time. The third, and probably last time will be next Saturday for the race! I am hoping to run at least an average 11 minute mile. Now don't all you runners start laughing. I'm short so my legs don't carry me as fast as your long legs. Actually I just don't want to be last, but if I run my best race and I'm still last, that's okay. I'll have accomplished a major goal!

Okay, now to do some cleaning of the kitchen and get dinner started.

I'm back!

2007-09-07T09:36:00.000-06:00

It has come to my attention that I've been neglecting my blog! :) To say I've been a little busy is an understatement!

So, since I blogged last I've turned 46. Not a bad age really. I am living a life I could never have imagined and it is wonderful. I'm healthy, financially secure, getting a great education, have a healthy, wonderful child and a great foreign exchange student. Who could ask for more??!!

Okay, let's see, what to talk about first? How about Eline? She just turned 17 yesterday. She got a great big package from her mother and a few days ago she got one from her father. Her room is filled with wrapping paper and boxes! Chelsea and I got her some clothes and will be having a party for her on Saturday. Some of our friends will be there and hopefully some of Eline's friends will also come as well. She has made several new friends in the past week, which is nice. One of them asked if Eline wants to go to the football game tonight so hopefully that works out. Eline has her first soccer game tomorrow morning, so that should be fun.

Speaking of soccer, Chelsea has been busy on the Roy High team. Unfortunately they haven't won any games and have only tied once. But she loves being on the team and playing so that's what is most important. Today Chelsea is going to get 4 fillings. AARRGGHH! This doesn't make me happy. She was told at her last check up that she had a pin head cavity and she needed to pay special attention to flossing. Obviously that didn't happen. But I think after today she'll learn her lesson!

The Roy High band is going to Disneyland in March. I've told Chelsea that she has to raise at least $100 on her own in order for me to come up with the other $400. She hates fund raising and doesn't get enough babysitting jobs to earn any real money, but I think it's completely fair to ask her to contribute. Some of the kids in the band have already raised all of the $500 it is going to cost, just by selling cookie dough.

School is going well for all of us I think. I am way busy with my 6 classes. (What was I thinking!) I took my first test yesterday and got a 90% and my second today and got an 85%. That's not going to help me keep my 4.0! I guess it takes at least one test to see how the professor is going to do his/her tests. So now I know for these two classes. So far Chelsea is enjoying all of her classes. For biology she has had to collect bugs. She has to get 5 more, I think to finish. I can't wait for her to take them out of our house! Eline seems to enjoy school as well, now that she has people to eat lunch with. She especially enjoys her American sign language and peer tutoring classes. Peer tutoring is working with students with disabilities. In Holland they have separate schools for disabled students so this is her first exposure to these kids. She wants to change her schedule for next semester so she can continue working with them. Who knows, maybe she will work with handicapped people when she returns home.

Well, I need to head off to class so better go for now.

I ran 6.21 miles today!

2007-09-01T19:18:00.000-06:00

I am very proud of myself for running 6.21 miles today! I am running a 10K race (I'm not actually racing, just want to finish) on Sept. 22nd and I have been running pretty faithfully since May.

Chelsea and Eline, along with some of Chelsea's friends, went to the Roy vs. Weber football game. It's a rivalry game and Roy beat the pants off of Weber, so to speak. Chelsea had a blast, but Eline didn't really enjoy herself. In fact, she really wanted to stay home and watch MTV but I strongly encouraged her to go. If she sits at home she'll not only miss the whole American high school experience, she'll have a tough time making friends. Chelsea is babysitting tonight, so Eline is upstairs right now watching MTV!

We didn't really plan anything for this weekend because Chelsea was supposed to have a soccer tournament. That didn't happen so we are left without anything in particular to do. Oh well, I have loads of homework anyway!

My first day of school

2007-08-28T07:24:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was my first day of school, and I have to say it felt good to be back! I have two classes that should be fun and interesting on MWF and only go from 10:00-12:00. On Tuesdays I go from 10:00-7:30 with a break from 2:30-4:30 and on Thursdays I go from 10:00-2:30. Of course I already have homework (reading) and I'm sure it will pile up pretty fast. But that's okay. I did take a very heavy load this semester, 16 credit hours, but since I am not (currently) working I should be okay.

Eline went to a friend's house yesterday evening and had a great time. Her friend's grandparents are actually from Holland and speak Dutch. They are also Catholic, as Eline is. She had a good time but came home very concerned about LDS men having more than 1 wife. I had to assure her that it's no longer acceptable and that it hasn't been for at least 100 years! Seems the old guy is very anti-LDS and felt the need to fill Eline with all kinds of misleading information about the LDS religion. I told her I have a book that has lots of information about the LDS church and their beliefs that I would let her read.

I am glad that she has friends and is keeping busy. Her friend, Christine, even came and picked the girls up for school today so they didn't have to ride the bus.

Well, I'd better get my lazy butt in gear and start getting ready for school. It's actually only 7:30 but I want to get at least some of my reading done before school today, and get some laundry started as well.

My scrap room!

2007-08-25T10:18:00.000-06:00

First let me say that if you haven't read my blog in a while you need to check out the previous post which is full of photos. This will just be photos of my scrap room, so if you aren't interested in that sort of thing, just skip this one!

My friend, Michelle, came over and we reorganized my scrap room. I had my basement painted, along with a bathroom renovation, a couple of weeks ago so my scrapping stuff had been out in the garage for quite a while. I finally have most things sorted and it's crazy how much stuff I need to get rid of! Anyway, here are the photos with commentary:

Here is my computer desk and you can see my new Silhouette on the right, sitting on the iris cart.

This is the right side of my room. I have loads of photos, memorabilia, themed paper and embellishments, foam stamps, sewing machine, albums, etc. stored here. You can also see my pen storage on the left side of this photo. It's actually a wine rack with plastic glasses in it, filled with my pens. The thing on the wall is an Indonesian puppet cut from chipboard and intricately painted. I got this when I was overseas several years ago.

This is the left side of my room. I have a great poster from a Wash. winery, my Air Force teddy bear, Xyron, magazines, adhesives, embellishments, photo storage, cardstock and pattern paper, cards and envelopes, etc.

This is my work table. You can see my new rail system from IKEA. I love it. It holds my rub ons, stickers, and loads of other stuff.

Here's a closer look at my long rail. Yes, I did drill a hole through my paper cutter.

This is my shorter rail, which holds my tool like scissors, reading glasses and smaller embellishments. The whole system, including both rails and all the baskets cost less than $25!

Here are my purchases yesterday. I didn't spend much, thank goodness, and the IKEA catalog was free!

Here is the first thing I cut with my new Silhouette! Pretty, huh?

Loads of photos

2007-08-25T09:53:00.000-06:00

I am going to over load you with photos today! So here goes!

This is Eline's room. Turned out pretty nicely, I think.

Chelsea making a sign for Eline's arrival.

At the airport.

Eline at "home" for the next 10 months.

This is Chelsea playing on her high
school soccer team.
Unfortunately they didn't win.

Eline mowing a lawn for the first time in her life! Chelsea is really happy to have someone to share her least favorite chore with!

Chelsea on her first day of high school. That's her truck "Maria" in the back.

Eline on her first day of American High School.

My two high school girls. They are both so beautiful! I am going to have to watch out for boys this year for sure!

And lastly, this is the sky a few evenings ago. As you can see the clouds show the potential for a tornado. Fortunately it cleared up soon after.

First day of school over and second day has just begun!

2007-08-23T08:18:00.000-06:00

Well, we had mixed reviews of the first day of school. Chelsea had fun seeing old friends and new ones. No complaints about her classes, yet. She already has projects to work on. My least favorite: collecting bugs for biology class!

Eline likes her sports class but isn't that excited about Sign Language and wants to drop her English class. She says the boys in that class are too big and talk tough. I think dropping it is a good idea, for a different reason. They will be studying Shakespeare and reading classic novels and I'm not sure her English (although very good) is good enough for her to be able to read, interpret, and write reports without a lot of extra tutoring. She is going to see her counselor today to see if she can get that changed to something else.

Eline is also unhappy with her lunch time with starts at 10:45 and runs for about 45 minutes. She says it's too early and she isn't hungry. Yesterday the girl who agreed to have lunch with her walked her around rather than eating. I talked to her about not expecting people to give up eating lunch because she doesn't want to eat. When she got home from school she made herself a big snack and then didn't eat dinner. Of course she was hungry around 9:00. So I had to be the mean "mom" and tell her she could have a small snack after school but if she doesn't eat dinner then she cannot have another meal later in the evening. I don't let Chelsea do this so can't have exceptions for Eline. My neighbor found another girl to eat with Eline today, and I told her she had to eat something. The high school has lots of choices so even if she has a small salad or fruit that's better than nothing. So we'll see. I think this could all be nerves which is completely understandable.

My friend Michelle came over yesterday and helped me organize my scrap area. It looks so much better! I am going to take photos later so will upload them. She gave me some homework to do, sorting through embellishments, memorabilia and photos, so I need to get that done later today. This morning I am scrubbing my tile floors and cleaning the grout. I usually us a Swiffer mop to clean my floors but about once every 3 months I get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floors. The Swiffer is quick, but doesn't get the floors as clean as I'd like.

School starts tomorrow!

2007-08-21T15:11:00.002-06:00

I am glad school starts tomorrow. My girls will have something besides the computer and TV to keep them busy. The girls went to Lagoon on Sunday and I enjoyed a nice day alone. Haven't had much alone time lately!

Yesterday we went up to the school and went through each girls schedule twice, so they know where there classes are tomorrow. We met a girl who is a Senior to eat lunch with Eline tomorrow, so hopefully that will work out. Several of Chelsea's friends also offered to sit by her, so at least she won't be alone, but I'm hoping Eline makes friends with some Seniors soon. I think she is tired of hanging out with 14 year olds, and I know Chelsea wants to spend some time alone with her friends also. So far they've gotten along. Let's hope it stays that way.

Chelsea has a soccer game this afternoon, so we are getting ready to go watch. It is only supposed to get up to 89 degrees today, which will be much nicer than the 97 degree days of last week. This will most likely be the last Tues. game I'll get to see because next week I start school and have class from 10-7:30 on Tuesdays. That makes me sad because I've never missed on of Chelsea's games before, unless I was out of town. Not much I can do about it now though, and soccer will be over in a month, so no use trying to rework my schedule at this late date or drop the class. It's a film class so on days when we are just watching movies, I'll see if I can rent it to watch later.

Well, I'm off to sit in the heat to watch a great soccer game.

TGIF

2007-08-17T19:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we went to Spanish Fork for Chelsea's soccer game. What a long drive, at least 1.5 hours. The varsity team won but the JV team lost. Chelsea shot 4 times but didn't make any goals. She was nervous, I think, to be playing on a high school team. Eline thought they played very well for Americans. :)

Eline has been surprised by lots of things here. She thought all Americans ate huge breakfasts, with eggs, sausage, hash browns, etc. She was happy to find out we didn't eat like that, except on rare occasions, and even then it was more likely we were eating that way for dinner rather than breakfast.

She loves the sunsets. She says they are much more beautiful here than in Holland.

We stopped at IKEA on the way home and she showed me her bedroom furniture, which her parents bought for her from IKEA in the Netherlands. She bought some Swedish chocolate and I bought some long, wavy mirrors for the girls' rooms. I'd love to be able to afford to empty out my house and start over will IKEA furniture and accessories! I took her to eat at Sonic for dinner. She asked why they make everything so big in America. She ordered a Sonic Cheeseburger-the regular size one- and thought it was huge! She also tried tator tots. She said, "I think I do like these!"

We went to the commissary (grocery store) on base today and she saw several items that looked familiar. We bought a few items and will buy more when we go back in a week or two. On our way home this afternoon it poured down rain. In fact it pelted rain so hard it hurt when we got out of the car. I still have loads of stuff in my garage so couldn't park in there. I did pull the back of the car up to the garage door so we could get the groceries out without getting too wet, but when I went to move the car so we could close the garage I got soaked! It was nice to have some rain, can't remember the last time it rained here. It also cooled things off which was nice. Unfortunately it didn't last long and the sun is out once again! I can't wait until the high temperature is 80 degrees, and it is crisp and cool in the mornings!

Chelsea and Eline are going to one of Chelsea's friends house to watch movies and hang out. There will be 10-14 kids there and Eline is nervous about meeting them. I am sure she will do just fine. I'll report more on that later.

Fun day yesterday!

2007-08-16T08:40:00.000-06:00

We had a fun day yesterday. We picked up my friend Wendy's son, Tyler, who is 7 and took him with us to SLC. Wendy is looking for a job here and it looks like she found the perfect match, so she took the day to look for a private school for Tyler.

Chelsea, Eline, Tyler and I went first to Summerhays Music to pick up Chelsea's clarinet. It cost almost $100 to get it repaired. Wooden clarinets are a real pain! The repair tech said it seems that the wood is finished shrinking and it shouldn't need repair again for cracks. Good thing because that expensive clarinet just keeps getting more expensive!

After that we went to the Gateway mall. Both girls did some school clothes shopping and Chelsea just dreamed about the day when she has a job and can buy anything she wants. I'll let her dream about that a little while longer. Little does she know it doesn't really work like that. Eline had never been to a Taco Bell, but wanted to go so that's where we ate lunch. She seemed to like it well enough. She worries about getting fat, though so doesn't eat a lot. After that we came home because Chelsea had soccer practice. Oh, almost forgot, we also signed Eline up for AYSO soccer for the fall and spring. This is another way she can get to know kids around here, plus get some exercise so she doesn't gain too much weight. I guess the Exchange program people told her that most kids gain around 20 lbs. in the year they are in America.

Last night Wendy took us all to dinner and we had a fun time. When they lived here several years ago Chelsea always called Tyler her little brother, because they spent a lot of time together. So last night Chelsea said, "Now I have a brother and a sister!" which seemed to make both Tyler and Eline happy.

Today we are going to watch Chelsea's first high school soccer team. She is on the Jr. Varsity team and is happy because she gets to play forward, which is her favorite position. Hopefully she'll get to play today, since she's missed the whole first week of games.

Eline is here!

2007-08-14T08:49:00.000-06:00

We picked up Eline on Saturday. We love her! She is such a nice young woman. She is homesick, which is to be expected, but she is starting to adjust. She is outgoing and friendly and her English is very good. Since she has already graduated from High School in the Netherlands she gets to take a bunch of fun classes here. She is taking Sports, food and nutrition, photography, psychology, travel and tourism and a bunch of other elective courses.

I am also signing her up for a COED soccer team which should keep her busy. She hopes to join some clubs at school also. Guess I'll be busy driving, although I am sure she'll make friends with other Seniors and most of them will be able to drive.

It is too hot here for her so we are hoping it will start to cool down soon. I hope so too, as my electric bill is very high this year.

Chelsea is busy with her high school soccer team and I will be seeing her first game on Thursday. Hopefully she'll get to play because she was gone all of last week so she missed 3 games.

Chelsea absolutely loved her mission trip to Seattle. She said it was one of the best weeks of her life. She's learned a lot about the homeless and now looks at them very differently. She would like to go again next year.

Chelsea and Eline get along very well and enjoy watching TV and listening to music together. I hope that continues. The more we get to know each other the better it gets. I know there will probably be some problems but I do think this is going to be a great year for all of us!

Chelsea's Home!

2007-08-11T07:51:00.001-06:00

Chelsea came home last night. It sure was good to have her back! She said her mission trip was the best time of her life! We were up until 2:30 talking. I can't wait to hear more of the details. She said she is going to camp again next year even if she has to pay for it herself!

Eline comes "home" today. There is still much to do and the house is still in disarray, although it looks like the basement will be finished today. That is, everything except putting the family room together, which will mostly happen tomorrow evening when friends are available to help with the heavy work.

Well, much to do and only a short time to get it done! Later, Mary

Busy!

2007-08-08T08:28:00.000-06:00

The guy who is working on my basement fixed my lawn mower and I learned how to mulch the grass! Can't believe I've had that mower and never knew how to mulch. The front lawn is looking shaggy so I may need to mow that this evening or tomorrow.

Last night I went to get some vinyl for my new bathroom and Chelsea's truck broke down. Fortunately my neighbor, Earl, came to my rescue. He took me to Home Depot to get the vinyl while I contacted my insurance and arranged a tow truck. Fortunately I got the towing protection when I insured the truck. Looks like it needs either a fuel filter or a fuel pump. It will be awhile before that gets fixed though because I need to pay for this basement first!

I have about a half hours worth of work in the basement before I can put down the plastic and cover the windows for painting. It probably won't get painted until tomorrow, so hopefully it will still be done by tomorrow night so I can get most of the big furniture back in. My scrapbooking stuff will have to wait a little longer so I can sort through it all. I have way too much stuff!

I am moving a book case from my room to Eline's room today and then getting a small table so that I can set up the computer in my room. I really don't want it there but the only other option is the dining area, and I definitely don't want it there. There will also be another computer in the family room. With 3 users in the house we need at least 2 computers. On my wish list is a laptop, but that will have to wait.

Eline left the Netherlands today and will spend a couple of days in NYC getting an orientation from our host company, AYUSA. Her mother sent me a sad email. I dread when Chelsea goes off to college, so I can't even imagine what it would be like to send her to another country for 9 months.

Well, I have plenty to do today so I'd better get started.

Home alone!

2007-08-06T16:56:00.000-06:00

Chelsea left for camp. I took her to the church for a "lock in" Saturday evening and they left around 4 am Sunday morning. She started getting cold feet about going on Saturday, but she decided to go, and late Saturday night she called and said she was glad she decided to go. She just made the HS soccer team and will miss the first 3 games. This is also her first year not going to "traditional" camp. She is going on a mission trip to Seattle to work in a homeless shelter, rather than spending time at the camp, swimming, singing, and hiking. She decided to do this trip in order to help others. I think the unknown about what she'd be seeing and doing on the mission trip scared her a little. I'm proud that she decided to go, though.

Eline's room is pretty much done, with the exception of decorations. It looks pretty bare right now, but I want to give her the opportunity to decorate it how she wants. She'll be here Saturday afternoon, so I need to make sure everything is ready for her.

Several friends came over last night and emptied my basement in a matter of 20 minutes. I can't believe how quick it went. Putting it all back in won't go so quickly because I'm rearranging everything and it will all have to be cleaned as well. Can't wait for the new bathroom to be done. All is supposed to be complete before Saturday!

I was mowing the lawn this morning and my stupid lawnmower quit! The rope won't pull at all. So tonight I'll be trying to figure out what is wrong with it. I hate when stuff like this happens.

I went to a promotion ceremony for a friend of mine. I had a great time there because another friend was introducing me to a guy and his wife and he asked if I was her sister! I just laughed because I am 15 years older than her. When I said I wasn't and that I used to be her first sergeant in the Air Force he said, "I could've sworn you were her younger sister!" His wife nodded in agreement. I told them they were my new best friends!

When I got home my house was hot, which scared me because I was afraid my A/C wasn't workig. Thankfully the problem was that the power had gone out for awhile so I'm sure the house heated up quickly from that. The power just went back on about 10 minutes before I got home so it will most likely be a warm evening. Hopefully it will cool down outside tonight so I can sleep with the windows over again!

Well, enough for today. I'm off to help myself to some sushi and white wine for dinner, then to tackle my lawn mower!

The Dr. Called

2007-08-02T11:11:00.000-06:00

After getting mad, I finally got my Dr. to call me. It seems there was lots of scar tissue and my bowel was twisted almost to the point of obstruction. The spot on my liver looks like a hemangioma to her, but since that's not her specialty she took a photo for the gastroenterologist to look at. So today is a good day. I am feeling lots better, but am still too bloated to wear my regular clothes.

Chelsea and I are minutes away from completing the extensive paint job on Eline's room. We will both be glad to finish that. I did all the trim work and Chelsea is doing the rolling. It looks really nice and I just hope Eline likes it.

This weekend Chelsea leaves for camp and I need to empty out my family room to get it painted, along with the new bathroom. If anyone wants to help just give me a call! I know I sure could use it. Everything is covered with dust from concrete work, sanding and sheetrock, so it all would have to be moved to get cleaned anyway. This way the basement will be all white, look much better and I'll just move things back in as I get them cleaned.

We are going to be busy today getting stuff for Chelsea's new soccer team and cleaning Eline's room once all the paint is dry. Then I think I am going to take it easy for awhile! Yeah, right!

By the way, today is my parents 49th wedding anniversary. Wouldn't you know it but I forgot to mail them a card. Well, they can join my two sisters-in-law and my niece who also didn't get a card from me this month. Sorry! I have been thinking of you all! I promise!

So Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Happy belated Birthday, Tammy, Dianne, and Samantha! Love you all!

Chelsea is a Lady Royal!

2007-08-01T21:19:00.000-06:00

Chelsea made her high school soccer team after three grueling days of tryouts! I am so proud of her! She was sure she wasn't going to make it so it was wonderful when she came home tonight and said "I'm officially a member of the Roy High soccer team!"

Surgery

2007-07-31T14:48:00.000-06:00

Had my surgery this morning. Now I'm home just trying to relax. I'm not in any real pain, but am puking my guts out due to the pain meds they gave me at the surgical center. No word on what they found because the Doc got called into another surgery before I woke up. So hopefully she'll call tonight. Can't be too bad though because I'm home, with a follow up in 3 weeks.

Chelsea is at her second day of tryouts for the high school soccer team, so any prayers/good thoughts/good vibes would be appreciated.

Expensive few days

2007-07-29T13:59:00.000-06:00

I went to Home Depot yesterday to buy all the rest of the stuff needed to finish the basement. When I got home we discovered there was quite a few things that I wasn't charged for. A part of me wanted to just say "oh, well, not my problem" and just enjoy the savings. But the other part of me won out and I went today and paid for those things. It added up to almost $400! My wallet is much lighter and so is my heart. Chelsea said "God is looking down on you right now and he thinks you rock!" I have such a good kid!

On top of that we bought paint for the new bathroom, a bright yellow. Not what I'd pick but I did tell Chelsea she could paint it any color she wanted. My mistake! :)

We also bought primer and paint for Eline's room. The bottom half of the room is currently painted a dark, flat blue. We will be painting two walls firecracker red (yes, I let Eline chose the color!) and two walls white. So that was another $120!

Actually Chelsea will be doing the painting. She asked to have this as her project, so I'll help out where needed and otherwise stay out of the way. I hate painting anyway so this works out well for both of us.

Oh well, I think most of the really expensive stuff is out of the way now. And it sure will be nice to have everything done before school starts!

Update

2007-07-28T13:08:00.000-06:00

I've been pretty neglectful of my blog lately. Guess I've been preoccupied with other things.

We had our ice cream party last week and it went great. We met several neighbors we hadn't known before and had some other friends come by too. In the end we only had about 1 container of ice cream left. Not too bad.

The basement bathroom is coming along. I went today and bought pretty much all the odds and ends to finish it up. The guys say they'll be done by next weekend. I sure hope so. My basement is filthy and I want to do a deep cleaning before our exchange student comes. She should be here in two weeks.

I'm so proud of Chelsea. She's taken on the redecorating of the spare room all her own. She has stripped wall paper, sanded and will be painting as soon as Eline lets us know what color she wants. She called this morning but I wasn't home (I was out running) so hope she calls back again soon.

Last night we went to dinner at a friends house. They adopted a little boy two years ago and I am his Godmother. Some other friends from church were there also. We had a nice time, I just love that boy!

Chelsea has a party to go to this evening so I think I'll relax and do some scrapbooking. Next week Chelsea has soccer tryouts for High School. I sure hope she makes it. She is a great player and has really put a lot of work into this sport so hopefully it will pay off.

I am having my surgery sometime on Tuesday and then plan on taking it easy for the next few days. Then Chelsea is off to camp for a week, so I'll have a little "me" time again before school starts.

Praise God! Jon Francis' remains found!

2007-07-25T21:37:00.000-06:00

I know many of you followed the story of our missing youth director, Jon Francis. He went missing in the Sawtooth Mountains in July of 2006. His remains were found yesterday. This finally brings peace to his family, friends and the kids he touched every day.

Our local CBS station came out to the church this evening and did an interview with some of the kids and one of the searchers. Chelsea was among those interviewed and I was so proud of how she handled herself. This is a tough day for her.

Thanks for all the prayers. Mary

I finally did some scrapbooking!

2007-07-21T09:42:00.000-06:00

I had a great time last night scrapbooking with old and new friends! And I even got two 2-page layouts done! Right now my whole scrapbooking area is covered with sheets which are covered with concrete dust and soon to be covered with sheetrock dust and sawdust!

My friend, Michelle, who has recently started Weight Watchers, asked me to post this recipe. It's a favorite and I've served this many times for company. Chelsea loves it! So here it is:

Spaghetti with Parmesan and Bacon

The eggs and milk create a rich, creamy sauce that coats the pasta. The key to the creaminess is tempering the eggs - heating them gently so they don't cook too fast and curdle. Do this by slowly whisking in the hot water in which the pasta cooked.

1 pound uncooked spaghetti
12 bacon slices, chopped (I use Oscar Meyer Center cut bacon which is only 25 calories a slice)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk (I use 1% milk)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large eggs
1 cup frozen petite green peas, thawed
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/2 cup hot cooking liquid.

While pasta cooks, cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in pan. Discard remaining drippings; set bacon aside. Add garlic to drippings in pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

Combine milk, salt, pepper, and eggs, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add reserved hot cooking liquid to milk mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add pasta, milk mixture, and peas to skillet; cook over low heat 3 minutes or until sauce thickens. Add bacon and cheese; stir to combine.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)

CALORIES 359(28% from fat); FAT 11.2g (sat 5.6g,mono 3.6g,poly 1g); PROTEIN 18.9g; CHOLESTEROL 99mg; CALCIUM 315mg; SODIUM 721mg; FIBER 3.3g; IRON 2.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 44.6g
Cooking Light, APRIL 2003

Since I use center cut bacon and 1% milk the actual calorie and fat counts are lower. I also use Barilla PLUS pasta, but you can use whole wheat also. I love this stuff. Enjoy and let me know how you like it.

Mary

Thursday

2007-07-19T18:06:00.000-06:00

I got up this morning and ran my own private 5K race. I wanted to see how fast I could run it in preparation for my 10K in September. I did pretty well (for me) and averaged 11:05 min. per mile.

I came home, showered and then relaxed on my deck. I read the lessons from the Bible for this coming Sunday, then I finished a novel I've been reading "Predator" by Patricia Cornwell. A little freaky (its a crime novel). I was notified that my Harry Potter book has shipped and I expect it here on Saturday.

I received the cooler with 12 cartons of Dreyers Ice Cream for the block party I won for my neighborhood. It's packed in dry ice and is supposed to stay cool for two more days. I will keep an eye on it so I don't have a bunch of melted ice cream! :)

I got an email from the mother of our foreign exchange student. It is really coming true. Her name is Eline (not sure how to pronounce it) and she is 16. I pretty much have the spare room cleared out and now need to take down the shelves, remove the wall paper border and then I'll have to prime the dark blue paint. I am waiting for an email from Eline to tell me what color she wants it painted. I'm pretty much open to anything except black.

The guys are working on my bathroom again. I think they pretty much have the plumbing done, which is the hard part. Shouldn't be too long before they get busy with framing and drywalling.

Chelsea is having loads of fun in TX and I'm enjoying my break, although I do miss her. She's my baby, after all.

Home alone!

2007-07-18T07:57:00.000-06:00

I put my baby on the plane yesterday. At 14 she has traveled all over the world and has been flying by herself since she was 7 years old. It is still hard to see her walk on the plane without me. I know she knows what to do and were to go but it is still hard. And sweetheart that she is, she knows it's hard so she turns and waves and blows me a kiss, even though it isn't cool! She was fine with it all and did just fine. We have this routine down. She waits to get on until quite a few people have boarded. Then she looks for a young woman or a family to sit by. She had a 3 hour layover in Las Vegas (this is the first layover longer than 1/2 hour). She called me as soon as she got there (gotta love cell phones for this reason!), found her gate, then walked around for awhile. She had her iPod and a portable DVD player, teen magazines and her cell phone so she had everything she needed to pass the time. I think we talked at least 3 times during her layover. She had a good flight to TX and is now having loads of fun!

I didn't get much accomplished yesterday, besides a visit to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, and some yard work in the back. I almost cut my finger off with some new pruners I was using to cut some shrubs that belong to my neighbor. They are growing through my fence and I don't like the looks of that so cut them back. Boy, those pruners are sharp!

My construction guys were here and my house smells like concrete dust! They had to jackhammer the floor in the bathroom so they can re-plumb to make room for the shower and move the location of the toilet. I have drop cloths on everything, but I can see it is going to be a mess! While they were making all that noise I went and bought some stuff for door prizes for the scrapbook night I'm hosting at my church on Friday. Joann's had a great sale and I had some coupons so I didn't end up spending too much. I had planned on using stuff from my stash, but it is all covered and almost impossible to get to. Luckily I haven't unpacked my supplies from my trip home, so I have something to work on Friday night.

Today I am working on finding new homes for all the stuff in our spare room. Chelsea and I are going to paint it and get it ready for our foreign exchange student. We are both excited about that. Well, I'd better get to work before this day gets away from me!

Still Hot!

2007-07-16T20:09:00.000-06:00

I went and spent over $1000 today on stuff for my basement bathroom. It is exciting to see things start coming together! Can't wait for it to be done!

Chelsea leaves tomorrow for a few days in TX with her friend, Grace. This is the 6th year they have traveled to spend time together! Grace's family is moving to Alaska in a few weeks so it looks as though another trip up there is in order. We can also visit our friends, the Lange's, who live near Anchorage. They have decided to become permanent residents rather than to move back here. Not surprising since they now have two kids in high school and that is a hard age to move.

It is hard to believe that school is coming soon. With that will be our foreign exchange student. I am excited to meet her. I am planning on a very successful school year! The power of positive thinking and all that!

I still have several projects I need to get done before the summer is over so hopefully I'll do some of it while Chelsea is gone. I am going to try to get the spare room cleared out and ready to paint, but I'm waiting until Chelsea gets back so she can help. She loves painting and I HATE it! If it wasn't costing so much to remodel the bathroom I'd pay someone to paint it! But after the bathroom project I am going to be a very poor girl!

It's hot again!

2007-07-13T10:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was so nice. Chelsea had soccer games at 8:00 and 3:30. The temp. at the 8:00 game was about 73 degrees, just perfect. And at the 3:30 game it was only about 78 degrees. Today we won't be quite as lucky. Her first game is at 12:30 and the second is at 3:30. Right now it's 10:30 and it is already 78 degrees.

On a different topic, last night I threw out a loaf of bread that had gotten moldy. This morning I went out to my deck to enjoy a cup of tea and read the paper. I looked at my lawn and saw the bread bag, empty. Not good because obviously Scruffy had gotten it out of the garbage in the middle of the night, and ate the whole loaf! It actually was a whole loaf because we get bread without preservatives and it went bad quickly. And, if that isn't bad enough, Scruffy is allergic to wheat, which is why he is on expensive, prescription dog food! So far he looks okay, just a little guilty. I guess I'll be going shopping for a trash can with a lid! Darn dog!

When I posted the other day I realized I'd forgotten a photo of my younger brother! Now how could that be, since he was the one who grilled up all the burgers and dogs on the 4th! So here he is:

My brother, Bruce, the chef!

Interview

2007-07-11T10:30:00.000-06:00

No time for a long post today. We are expecting a rep. from the foreign exchange student organization at 2:00 so we want our house to be spic and span! We have selected a young girl from the Netherlands, so as long as everything goes well she should be here in time for school to start next month. Today the guys are coming to start remodeling the basement bathroom. We need another shower in our house, especially since we are adding another teenage girl. When Chelsea gets back from TX we are going to redo the spare bedroom for our guest. I've been using it for an office so will end up moving my school computer to my bedroom. Lots to do so I'd better get started.

Home again, finally!

2007-07-08T14:30:00.000-06:00

We sure have done our share of traveling. So far, since May, we've been to Las Vegas, Cedar City, UT, Wash. DC, NYC, and N. Idaho. It is good to be home, even though we've had lots of fun, especially spending time with friends and family.

On our way to N. Idaho we stopped in Idaho Falls and saw this flag procession. According to a woman in the gas station we were stopped at this is a parade of 2000 flags, supposedly the largest of its type in the US. They were taking these flags to a park to display for the 4th. It took several minutes for everyone to pass. There were people from small children to senior citizens carrying flags. It was a beautiful sight and this photo just doesn't do it justice.

On the third of July we went over to my sister's house and her neighbors put on a small fireworks display for us.

On the 4th we went to the parade. Don't these girls look excited?

This picture shows the Perfectionots. This is a group of locals of all ages that play in a marching band. This was started many years ago when the local high school band decided not to march in the parade. If you look closely, near the center, the girl in the pink dress is my niece who plays the flute. As you can see most of the band members dress up and my niece is no exception. She is dressed as a doll, how cute!

One of the crowd favorites is "The Red Hot Momma's" which is a local group of women who dress up and perform. They have even marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Later we had a BBQ at my brother's house. Here is my sister, mom, sister-in-law and me.

Some of the kids played a mean game of badminton, while some of the older kids played a game of croquet.

This is my Dad, in the center, my brother in law on the left and nephew on the right.

This is my brother, sister in law and their granddaughter, Dakota.

We had loads of fun and can't wait to see everyone again in December!

Blaaggkk!

2007-06-29T12:12:00.000-06:00

That's how I feel about drinking the barium solution for my CT scan. Just the thought makes me want to puke! I hope I don't have to do that again.

Last night I enjoyed an evening of wine and water with my friend, Mylitta. We sat in her hot tub and enjoyed each other's company while catching up on our lives. We haven't spent any real time together for quite a while (other than between services at church) so it was nice to relax and chat.

Besides the CT scan my day is being filled with preparations for out trip up north tomorrow. This will hopefully be a relaxing vacation. I need to finish the laundry and run some errands so I'd better get off this computer!

More surgery

2007-06-28T10:49:00.000-06:00

Oh my gosh, I hate having surgery and I really have it way too often. I am scheduled to have exploratory surgery on July 31st to see what is causing the pain in my right side. I've had this pain for almost a year, off and on. Nothing seems to make it better and I can't really determine what makes it worse. When they were looking at my ovaries via CT scan they noticed a spot on my liver which may be a hemangioma (a wad of blood vessels) which is no big deal. They've now done 3 different diagnostic tests and still can't decide if that is what it is. I am having another CT scan tomorrow to see if it's grown in the past 4 months. When the OB/GYN does my surgery she'll also check out the spot on my liver to see if she can tell what it is.

I did get some good news though. In the time span of one month I've gone from pre-menopausal to post-menopausal. The OB doc says that when hormone levels get to where mine are they rarely go back so since I missed my cycle this month she says I should consider myself done with perimenopause! I guess this is pretty rare, except in cases of early menopause like mine. Now, as for the night sweats/hot flashes, I could continue to have them, although they haven't been as bad the past couple of weeks. We discussed Hormone Replacement Therapy and if the sweats/flashes get worse I'll go ahead and try that. It seems that the bad risks from HRT are really aimed at women over 65 who have been on hormones for more than 5 years. Since I'm 20 years away from that and she thinks I probably only need to be on HRT for a year the risks are very low for me.

I need to run to the hospital and get the barium for my CT scan tomorrow, get the oil changed on my car and the tires rotated, so all will be done when we leave again on Saturday. Guess I'd better get out of the house!

We're back from Wash. DC/NYC!

2007-06-27T09:29:00.001-06:00

OUR TRIP (The condensed version)

We had a blast visiting Washington DC and NYC! I know I'm exhausted from all the site seeing, but it was so worth it! On the first day we went to see the Arlington National Cemetery. Very moving, but don't know that I want to be buried there. This is part of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We also visited the Women in Military Service Memorial located at Arlington.

Then we walked across the bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. We also saw the Washington monument which is on the opposite side of the mall.

We visited the Vietnam,Korean and WW II memorials. This is a great view of the WW Memorial

Next was a great tour of the Capital, hosted by Sen. Hatch's office. This is a view of the ceiling of the rotunda, where Presidents are laid for viewing after they die.

The next day we went to NYC with a friend and her two daughters. We actually stayed in Jersey City, in the Hyatt, which had a wonderful view of the city. Our first stop was the World Trade Center. Very sobering. It is, however, amazing that only the actual site of the WTC buildings still looks destroyed. All of the surrounding buildings, which were also terribly damaged in the attack, have now been restored.

Our next visit was to the Empire State building; long lines but a nice view of the city. We also went to Times Square, which the Chelsea loved. We also went to see the musical "Mamma Mia!" It was a fun show to watch, with the story based on songs from ABBA, an '80's pop group. You can see the advertisement in the lower left of this photo. Later we took a horse and buggy ride around Central Park. It is such a beautiful area right in the middle of all the chaos which is NYC!

We took a boat trip out to Liberty Island and saw the Statue of Liberty. You can no longer go inside the statue due to security reasons.

We also went to the Washington National Cathedral. What a beautiful church! When we got there they were having a noon service and I wanted to take communion, but since I wasn't there for the whole service decided against it. The church and the grounds are so amazing! I took this photo of the Last Supper and plan on enlarging it to 11 X 14, framing it and putting it in my dining room.

Our last tourist stop on this trip was to the Air Force Memorial. What a beautiful design. It represents the plumes from the AF Thunderbirds when they are doing their demonstrations. If you've ever seen the Thunderbirds perform at an Air Show you'll know just what I mean.

I also loved the statues of the Air Force Honor Guard. Since I am still a member of the Honor Guard here it meant a lot to me. As my friend pointed out, of all the different things they could have commemorated at this site they chose the Honor Guard. I plan on enlarging this photo, framing it, and giving it to the local Honor Guard flight.

This was definitely a trip of a lifetime, one of many we've been fortunate to go on! I can't wait to print out all my photos and get started on a scrapbook of this trip. All this was made possible by our friends who put us up while we were there. Thanks so much Nasima and girls, and the Kepharts! Mary and Chelsea

We've been busy!

2007-06-16T18:42:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday Chelsea and I left to go to Cedar City for the Utah Summer Games. We drove down with two mom's and 3 other girls so the SUV we were riding is was more than full! We got a condo in Brian Head to stay in, and the best part was that it was free! That saved us a big chunk of change because the hotels are extremely expensive during the Games because people usually book a year in advance.

Chelsea's team lost their first game 1-0. They won their second game 2-0 and lost their third game 1-0, which meant they were out of the running for a medal. We went to the Opening ceremonies on Thursday and were part of a new Guinness Book of World Records record. We were the largest group ever to play "Simon Says". It was fun and the fireworks were fantastic!

We got home yesterday and as I was checking my email I saw that I had won and Ice Cream Social for my whole neighborhood! I had submitted an essay on my neighbors and why we deserved to have an Ice Cream Social and Dreyers picked my entry. I will get a "Party in a box" which includes invitations, bowls, spoons, scoops, napkins, coupons for free ice cream for my neighbors, % off coupons and on top of all that they are Fed Ex-ing 12 of the 2 qt. ice cream containers packed in coolers with dry ice! I am so excited because I really do have great neighbors. I am going to invite about 15 families and the fire fighters who will be on duty that night, as well as the local police officers. I am going to the city to see if I can close off my street. It is a dead end anyway so I'm sure they won't mind! We are going to have music and hopefully loads of fun!

I went to the Dr. on Monday to check out my night sweats and it is most likely my hormones. They did blood tests and my levels are all showing that I should be post-menopausal, but I can tell you my body doesn't know that. My hormones are really out of whack! I have an appt. in 2 weeks with an OB/GYN as a follow-up for the pains I've been having on my right side so maybe all of this is related. So we'll see.

We got notified that we will get to tour the US Capitol while we are in Wash DC but couldn't get into the White House. Oh well, we'll at least walk by and take photos!

I think that's enough info for now!

My daughter is a college student!

2007-06-10T08:16:00.000-06:00

Or at least she was! We just got paperwork today that said WSU has awarded her 4 college credits for her Principles of Engineering course! Not too bad for a 9th grader! Typically you can't do concurrent enrollment until 11th grade but they made an exception because this course is often taken by 11th or 12th graders and the school made the argument that if the older kids can get college credit for this course why can't the younger kids? It's the same course taught by the same teachers, with the same requirements. Guess it worked! And the best part is it didn't cost me anything.

Chelsea got back from Band Camp on Thursday and they had a blast as usual.

This is the group of kids she hung around with. She didn't have any photos of them actually playing their instruments although she did say they practiced around 6 hours a day. I went to the final concert and they sounded pretty good so they must've actually played for a few hours a day! I'm just glad she had fun and isn't too cool to do these sorts of things! And yes, I did notice there are 4 boys and 4 girls!

Friday we went to a Scrapbook conference and met up with Cindy, Savannah, and Paxton. The girls hung out in the hotel room and the pool and Cindy and I shopped and cropped. I didn't do too much shopping or even cropping but the projects we did were cute and fun and I am motivated to get some cropping done tonight!

Well, I want to get the paper read before I go pick up Chelsea from a sleepover and head off to church! Later!

Home alone

2007-06-06T09:11:00.001-06:00

Well, Chelsea left for band camp on Monday, so I'm home alone until Thursday evening when I go to pick her up and watch their final band concert.

After dropping her at the school on Monday I went and got her truck registered. She is now the official owner, with her name and mine on the registration and title! After that I took the truck, loaded with stuff for the church yard sale and dropped off tons of stuff. Then the truck wouldn't start! I think its the fuel pump since it eventually started that evening and then once I got it home it wouldn't start to put it in the garage (yes, believe it or not there is now room for two vehicles in my garage!). Then on Tuesday morning it did start again. It's now parked in the garage until my mechanic can get to it. I really can't complain because we paid only $500 for the truck and the book value is $1180, so we have a long way to go before we are losing on the deal!

Yesterday I got up, ran 3 miles, finished mowing the back lawn (there is a section Chelsea refuses to mow because a few weeks ago there was a snake there;we have an irrigation canal near our yard where there are snakes!), then mowed the front lawn, cleaned up the grass, trimmed the trees in the back and did laundry. I took a break after that and got some layouts ready for a scrapbook conference I'm going to this weekend.

I'm being lazy today, with nothing much planned. I will be doing an exercise video, "Dancing with the Stars" workout which a friend loaned me, then I'll head out to the base to have a thyroid test done. It's been a year since my last one and I've recently been having problems sleeping, waking up feeling like my body is on fire and unable to sleep. Although it's almost certainly periomenopause it could also be a thyroid problem so I'll have it checked. If anyone has any ideas on how to relieve the hot flashes at night please let me know. I don't really have them during the daytime, though.

Oh, and just for the record, Mike and I are no longer seeing each other. I really have no idea why, as he hasn't really said and I haven't heard from him for about 3 weeks. Those of you who know me know that I do love him, but that I am also okay with being alone. I don't really mind spending time alone and I will not beg anyone to be with me. I know that the right guy is out there and I'll just wait until he comes along.

Photos!

2007-06-03T20:54:00.001-06:00

As promised here are some photos of Chelsea's visit with her aunt, uncle and cousins from her father's side:

This is Chelsea with her cousins, Jonathan, Tariq, and Jasmine

The next is of her uncle William, Chelsea, Jasmine, Jonathon, Tariq and aunt Dionne. Dionne is her father's sister.

Here is Chelsea with her aunt and cousins. As you can see Chelsea doesn't get her height from her father's side. Jonathan is 13 and Jasmine is 19 and both are way shorter than Chelsea.

I do have to say that this was a wonderful visit and as you can see everyone was very happy and got along really well.

Work!

2007-06-01T19:25:00.001-06:00

Boy did I work yesterday! I decided that since we now have two vehicles we should be able to park both in our two car garage! Little did I know just how much work that would entail. First Chelsea and I completely emptied the garage. Then we swept and vacuumed it out. Lots of dead spiders and webs, cottonwood from our trees and other dirt, etc. Then we started the sorting. Our church is having a yard sale this month so we separated out all the stuff we didn't want and loaded that in Chelsea's truck. Then we threw away a bunch of other stuff, fulling our garbage twice (good think the garbage truck came yesterday!) and then we cleaned and put away the rest. I am proud to say that our garage now holds Chelsea's pickup and my car.

Speaking of my car, I picked it up from the body shop today and the bumper looks good as new. But I had to look at the door ding from a parking lot incident the day before we left for Las Vegas. Someone with a white car opened their door pretty hard against the driver side door. And of course they didn't leave a note. So maybe later in the summer I'll take it to Maaco to get it fixed. It is much cheaper to have work done there and since it's small it shouldn't cost too much.

Chelsea is at a birthday party so I think I'll go downstairs where its cooler and sort out some scrapbooking stuff. I am hosting a crop at my church tomorrow night so I should have something to work on.

Great time in Vegas!

2007-05-29T16:32:00.000-06:00

Chelsea and I had a great time in Las Vegas. The drive down was uneventful, just as we like it. We stayed in a Super 8 Motel the first night, clean but nothing fancy. We stayed there because everywhere else was over $200 for Saturday night, probably because it was Mem. Day weekend. Even the Super 8 was $100. On Saturday Chelsea met her Aunt Dionne, Uncle William, and cousin's Jasmine, Jonathan, and Tariq. They are a very nice family. We all hit it off right away. The kids were very well behaved and very easy to get along with. Jasmine is 19, Jon is 13 and Tariq is 8. Tariq was born at 23 weeks gestation and was only 1 lb. 8 oz. when he was born. Needless to say he has some developmental problems, but he is so cute and just a really nice kid.

We went to Fremont Street on Saturday, after eating at the buffet at the Luxor on the Strip. Chelsea got a spray on tattoo and plans to keep it all summer with the help of a Sharpie!

On Sunday we went to stay at the South Pointe, our hotel on Las Vegas Blvd. This is a relatively new hotel and very nice. We ate breakfast at the buffet and then hit the pool. Later Chelsea's relatives wanted to relax so we went to see where I used to live when I was stationed in LV from 1985-88. Boy things sure have changed! I did find the apartment complex, which was still in very good condition and Chelsea was impressed.

Later, we went back to get her cousins. Her aunt and uncle had a wedding and reception to attend. We went to the Coca-cola store and the kids enjoyed trying out the "Taste of the World" soft drinks. There were 12 different kinds and some were good and some were horrible. We all agreed that the "Beverly" from Italy was the worst. It tasted like cough syrup. We checked out a few other places and eventually headed back to the hotel. Chelsea spent the rest of the night with her cousins while I relaxed in our room.

On Monday Dionne and family had to head back to San Diego. Chelsea and I slept in and then went to the Fashion Show mall and did a little shopping, then we went to the Stratosphere and went to the top. We saw the amusement rides but neither of us were stupid enough to get on them. Then we found the nearest In-n-Out burger and got lunch and set off for home. Again, another uneventful ride home.

As we were approaching our neighborhood Chelsea said she had a great time but was glad to be home. Isn't that the way it always is? You have fun on vacation, but there's no place like home.

I'm a slacker!

2007-05-25T17:49:00.000-06:00

I just realized I haven't blogged much this week! I can't honestly say I've been that busy. I did have some guys come by and give me an estimate on completely remodeling my basement, including putting in a shower in the bathroom. It will cost $10410! That is more than I thought it would cost, since the whole basement is only 985 sq. feet. But they will have to take up the concrete floor in the bathroom and re-plumb and rewire the whole bathroom. We'll see. I'm not sure if I can find that kind of money, although my mutual funds have done well so far this year. I just hate to dig into them for anything. The good news though, was I had my friend Natalie did a comparison market analysis and my house is already worth about $10000 more than I thought it would be. That means it is half paid for!

Chelsea got a "B" in physics and is on the honor roll again for the 4th quarter. She's been on the honor roll every quarter this year. She is sad that school is over but is looking forward to high school.

We are heading out to Las Vegas tomorrow to meet Chelsea's aunt, uncle and 3 cousins. It should be a fun trip.

Oh, and I made the honor roll again this semester with a 4.0 GPA. That's all for now!

Rainy Monday

2007-05-21T08:23:00.000-06:00

It has really cooled down today and is even a little rainy. Actually I love days like today, especially after it has been so hot!

On Saturday Chelsea played her last AYSO game for this season, but with summer tournaments coming up she will still be playing plenty of soccer!

I drove to Burley, ID to go scrapbooking with my IdahoScrapper friends and had a blast. Those ladies are such a kick, and I actually got two layouts done! I'll try to get them scanned and posted later today.

Since it's raining today I can't get anything done outside so I'm going to see if I can get Scruffy (my dog) into the groomers, get Chelsea's truck registered and get some strength training done. Chelsea has guitar lessons and a scrimmage soccer game this afternoon so I hope I have time to get everything done.

TGIF!

2007-05-18T12:32:00.000-06:00

I went to a friend's retirement today. Can't believe it's been over two years since I retired! It was nice to see so many people I used to work with. And it was really nice to have so many people tell me how good I look! I've put on a few pounds since I retired, but I've let my hair grow long and probably look a little more relaxed than I used to, especially considering I don't have 500 people to worry about any more! It was a nice ceremony and everything went well. I sure do not miss being on active duty!

I finished up Harry Potter #5 today (for the second time). I think I'll take a break from HP for a few weeks and then start #6 again. Then I'll definitely be up to date and ready for when HP #7 gets here in July, thanks to Chelsea!

Tonight I plan on getting stuff together for my trip to Burley tomorrow. Can't wait to see my IdahoScrapper friends again!

Lazy day

2007-05-16T19:55:00.000-06:00

I was lazy today, with the exception of running 3.5 miles. I wore my ITB strap today which seemed to help.

When I got home I went out to my deck and read for about an hour. Then I spent about an hour just surfing the internet. I finally decided to do something and shampooed my stairs and family room. Now I'm done shampooing so will return the cleaner tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am taking Chelsea and a friend to Lagoon. They both were on the honor roll so the school lets them have the day off. They could take the bus but have decided to pay me for gas so I could drive them.

I plan on fixing some bare spots on my lawn and getting ready to go to Burley, ID on Saturday to scrapbook with my friends from IdahoScrappers. I've been scrapping up a storm since school got out, and I love it. To think I was considering packing up my stuff and giving it all up!

Busy day!

2007-05-15T09:36:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a busy day for me. First I went running. 3.04 miles before my IT band told me to stop. Then, after showering I went to Costco and got a burning bush for my front garden. It is the same size as the one I got last year so it will balance out nicely.

Then I started cleaning carpets. I borrowed a carpet cleaner from Tammy, basically it's a home edition of the rug doctor. Worked great. My living room carpet looks like new! Today I plan on getting the bedrooms done. Of course, in Chelsea's room I'll have to just do the part of the floor I can see!

I am going to plant my new burning bush, level out the bed, put down weed barrier and then mulch. I also got some edging to put down so hope that works out. I know I didn't get enough so will have to run to Lowes to get some more, but I should hopefully have most of the work done today.

I've finalized plans for Chelsea and I to go to Las Vegas on Memorial Day weekend to meet her aunt Dionne, on her father's side. This will be the first family member from her father's side that she's met. Dionne is very nice and searched us out several months ago. She's sent photos and calls on a regular basis. Her husband is in the Marine Corps and they are moving to Japan in July so this will be the only opportunity for Chelsea to meet them for several years. If all goes well we just might take a "hop" to Japan sometime to visit them.

Well, if I'm going to get anything done today I'd better get started!

My Grades

2007-05-13T21:33:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm bragging again. I worked hard this semester. Here are my final grades:

31398 CHF 1500 SS Human Development A
30023 CHF 2400 Family Relations A
30209 GERT 3600 SI Social Statistics A
34150 LIBS 1704 TD Information Navigator A
30116 SW 2100 Human Behavior & Social Enviro A

Mother's Day

2007-05-13T15:38:00.000-06:00

So far I've had a nice Mother's Day. Chelsea gave me a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble. I just love that because I love to read, but rarely buy myself a new book. Most of my books come from WSU library book sales or thrift shops, so it will be nice to get a NEW book. I plan on getting the new Harry Potter book coming out in July. I have read all the HP books through at least once and 1-4 at least twice. I am on #5 for the second time, and will read #6 before the new one comes out. That's the trouble of reading a series, you have to keep the older books fresh in your mind!

Chelsea got her Girl Scout Silver Award yesterday. I am so proud of her. She has stuck with GS since she was a Daisy in kindergarten. She will be moving up to Senior GS in the fall and will then work on her GS Gold Award, which is equivalent to the Boy Scout Eagle Project. She will have 3 years to complete it.

I am going to go out and move some plants from my front garden to the back, spread some mulch and do some weeding. The wind is blowing so it's not too hot and I really want to get this done.

I just need to start taking public transportation!

2007-05-12T17:28:00.000-06:00

The roads just are NOT safe for me. Yep, another accident, but not my fault. I know that's what everyone says, but in this case it's true. I was rear ended by a 16 year old girl. She thought it was funny, but like I told her, her parents won't think it's too funny when they get their next insurance bill! I was pissed at the cop who was about 26. He said he wasn't going to give her a ticket because he didn't see the accident, although I don't know how you can rear end someone without following too close, especially in the summer. I didn't hit the car in front of me, and the car behind her didn't hit her. I asked Chelsea if she knew why the girl didn't get a ticket and she said, "It was because she was hot, huh?" The mini skirt probably didn't hurt, either. When she filled out the paperwork she said she didn't have any other occupants, so I asked her what she'd call the other teenage girl in her car. She actually said, "Oh, I didn't know what occupant meant." Then the cop offered to help her fill out the paperwork. Hmm.

Oh well, her insurance company wanted me to use one of their body shops, but I've never heard of any of them so told them I want to go to Ken Garff. The local Toyota dealers don't do body work but send all their clients to Ken Garff. If they don't do it I at least want it to go to a body shop I've actually heard of.

No one was hurt and there was only minor damage to my bumper but I will be getting it fixed. Man, my car only has 7,000 miles on it! Bummer!

I forgot the most important thing!

2007-05-09T09:12:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention that Chelsea got an award yesterday for being on High Honor Roll every semester this year! This is really a great accomplishment considering all the trouble she had with Physics! I am glad this school year is almost over for her! I am very proud of my (not so) little girl!

DUT--And the Beck Diet Solution

2007-05-09T08:56:00.000-06:00

I think there should be an addition to the Utah Penal Code. This morning I was out running and was almost hit by a car because the girl, who was about 18, was texting while driving. This is at least as dangerous as many other moving violations. I think we should have DUT's in Utah and the punishment should be no access to any electronic device for 30 days, and also some sort of rehab for the offender!

Okay, enough of that. I did go running this morning and had my best day yet since my return to physical activity. I do have to say that my side pain has all but disappeared, with only minor twinges the past few days. I mostly ran today, again with my ITB strap, and accomplished 3.25 miles. I was very slow, but that is just how I run. I've accepted that I will never win any type of award for running, but I enjoy it and that's all that counts.

My friend, Carol, told me about the book called "The Beck Diet Solution" so I ordered it off of Amazon and it came yesterday. It's not a "diet book" but rather a book on how to think like a thin person. Now if you think this is just another gimmick book, as I did when I first heard about it, check out her credentials. She has a PhD. in psychology. She wrote a university level textbook on Cognitive Therapy, she runs the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research and is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. So she does know what she's talking about in the area of cognitive therapy. Carol has had good success using this book, so I'm giving it a try. I've spent $$$ on Weight Watchers (which actually works as long as you attend meetings) and other diet books, so a few bucks isn't too much to spend on this book. As a social work major I like this kind of approach anyway, and who knows, I may learn something to use in my practice when I finally get my master's in 3 years.

One of Mike's friends is coming over to give me an estimate on remodeling the bathroom in my basement. It definitely needs work and I am seriously considering selling and moving to a slightly bigger house so that would be a good selling point.

Wednesday is my scrapbooking/laundry day so I need to hop in the shower so I can get started.

It's Monday

2007-05-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

About 10 minutes before she was supposed to leave for school, Chelsea announced that her ride wasn't able to take her this morning. If her school wasn't 7 miles away I'd have made her walk! So needless to say I got dressed in record time (because the only time I'd wear my PJs out of the house is if it were on fire!). She got there just as the last bus had pulled up so I suppose she wasn't too late.

I went for a run/walk again today and did great. No pain! I wore my ITB strap on my left leg and did fine. I don't know if it was the strap or just resting that took care of the IT pain but either way I felt good. I'll wear it a few more times and then try without it to see how I'm doing. I just read that the Standard-Examiner 10K is now Sept. 22nd so that is my goal. I ran it in 2004, which is when I hurt my IT band and couldn't run for 8 months. This time I will practice downhill running so I'll be better prepared.

I spent the rest of the morning pulling weeds in my front garden. UGGHH! There are so many morning glories and I don't think I got them all. Even though I was digging prior to pulling I am sure I didn't get all the roots so that will probably be a big battle.

Mike and one of his friends is coming over this evening to fix my sprinkler system. Guess I was supposed to close some valve prior to the winter, and since I didn't I broke two valves. I've never actually done anything to winterize my sprinkler system before and since I've lived in this house for 8 out of the 13 years I've owned it, and this is the first problem I've had, I guess I'm lucky.

Well, I need to get in the shower since I need to pick Chelsea up in about 1/2 hour to go to guitar lessons. Later

It is cold!!

2007-05-05T18:07:00.000-06:00

Today was the Grace Race, and although it was very cold, it sure seemed like a great success to me! Everyone seemed to have fun, but I just have one complaint! Neither Chelsea nor I won an prize!!! Not even a loaf of bread!! Oh well, better luck next year! I know Bob and Carol are glad it's over, but they did a great job. I've never seen such an organized event!

Chelsea had a soccer game right after the race so we ran home, she changed and I made a cup of hot tea, and we were off again! I ended up getting a parking space on the front row, right up to the field so I stayed in my car the whole time. It was just too windy and cold for my old bones. Fortunately the rain stayed away until just as the game was ending.

Last night Tammy and I watched "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". I think I saw it once before when it came out in the late 70's or early 80's. It was rated "R" and rightly so! Good think Chelsea was downstairs with her friends when it was on. I ended up staying up until almost midnight and then getting up at 5:45 this morning. Needless to say I took a nap this afternoon and will probably go to bed early tonight. You'd think I'd learn by now!

Organ donation

2007-05-03T19:11:00.000-06:00

Now I know that is a strange title. But I have a reason. Today I went and saw a woman who I used to work with in my previous life. Her husband received a heart transplant on Saturday. There were some complications with the surgery so he is in a medically induced coma for now, although he seems to respond to his wife's voice.

Just before he went into the operating room he told everyone not to worry about praying for him, but to pray for the family of the donor, who passed away in order for my friend's husband to get a heart. What a thoughtful man.

So, if you haven't yet checked the box (organ donor) please seriously think about doing it, and then communicate your wishes to your family members, especially if you have one designated on your durable power of attorney, to make your medical decisions for you if you are unable. Even if you have checked the box, if your family refuses they cannot harvest your organs for transplant, so it is very important to let people know. Rest assured the medical community will do everything in their power to save your life and not make you a donor, however if you are going to die anyway (and hopefully go to a better place) your organs, including your skin and eyes, can be used to save someone else's life. In fact you could save many peoples lives. What better way for your family to heal their grief than to know that your death had some positive aspect.

What are you waiting for????

Gardening day

2007-05-01T18:45:00.000-06:00

Got lots of weeds pulled today, and even planted some petunias in my flower boxes. I have more petunias and lobelia to plant this evening.

I went running again this morning however my knee hurt even with the band, so I'm taking tomorrow off. I am also doing some strength training when it gets a bit cooler. I am going to do that while watching Dr. Phil. I have several TIVO'd so need to get some watched.

I am declaring Wed. as Mary's scrapbooking day. After a work out I will spend at least two hours scrapbooking. I have thousands of photos to get put into albums, but my first priority is an album for my friend Candy's daughter Megan. She got to see Shaun White in Park City for some sort of snowboarding competition and asked me to create a scrapbook for her. I have soon really cool paper and some great ideas for this. I just hope she likes it.

Oh, I do have to say that today at Costco I saw something that just really pisses me off! There was a young woman with two kids. The oldest was about 4 and he was kneeling on the front seat with his hands on the dash right where the passenger air bag is, and of course he wasn't even buckled in (should've been in a car seat in the back!) The little one was about 2 and in a car seat but the straps were really loose so it served no real purpose. I felt like running after the car and asking the mother why she was using her kids as crash dummies! I think I need a bumper sticker that says: Kids who aren't properly restrained are just expensive crash dummies!

Okay, I feel better!

Big news today!

2007-04-30T12:25:00.000-06:00

Our neighbor, Earl, has an old pick up he is selling, and..............Chelsea is buying it! With her own money!

It's a 1989 Jeep Comanche 4 X 4 pickup. Earl has owned it since it was new, it only has 132,000 miles on it and he has kept it in really good condition. I've actually driven it many times since I need something to haul stuff in.

He doesn't need it any more because he has a new pick up. So he's selling it to Chelsea for $500. The book value on it is almost $1000 so she is getting a good deal. And now I'll have a pickup to haul stuff in!

Chelsea gets her learners permit in about 5 months, so she'll learn to drive in this Jeep rather than in my new car! She is really excited about being a car owner, and I'm excited because she is using her own money, well, mostly.

I am going to pay $100 of it so that I can use it whenever I need to for hauling stuff. I might even drive it to do errands and keep the mileage off my new car. Plus I am paying for insurance. Fortunately I don't have to put her on the insurance until after she actually gets her license which is almost 1 1/2 years away.

In other news, I went running today, however I had to quit because my left knee was bothering me. When I go tomorrow I'll wear my knee strap. That's always worked in the past. I'll just have a funny tan on my leg!

Today is window cleaning day. The outside is done and now I need to do the inside. I really need new windows because condensation has been forming for years between the panes and there are hard water deposits in between the glass and no way to clean it. But that is on hold for now until I get some extra $$.

Chelsea has her first guitar lesson today and she's really excited! Well, enough procrastinating, I need to get back to those windows.

Scrapbook Pages

2007-04-28T21:30:00.000-06:00

This is a layout about Chelsea's 13th birthday. If you double-click on the layout you can see a larger version. Check out the "belly ring" on Chelsea. She's had that since she was about 7 or 8!

This layout is of Chelsea and her friend Grace. They created a cafe' and made dinner for me. They even did dishes afterwards. Chelsea has known Grace since they were 6 years old. They take turns visiting each other in the summer. This year it is Chelsea's turn to visit and she can't wait to see Grace again.

Yes, Chelsea is actually reading this way! I'm not kidding, this wasn't staged for a photo. I walked into my bedroom one day and there she was, reading! I did make her keep her pose until I could get a picture!

Insurance

2007-04-28T16:48:00.000-06:00

As most of you know, I totaled my Highlander in December. I've been dreading the renewal of my auto insurance ever since. I was at fault for the accident since it was a single vehicle accident so was sure it would go up dramatically. Well, all that worry was for nothing because my insurance only went up $5 per month. I can definately live with that!

Chelsea had a soccer game today and her team won 4-1. It was an especially sweet victory because the team they play has never lost before.

Other than that today has been a quiet day. I mowed the front lawn while Chelsea studied for a Physics test and then we went to the mall so she could spend some of her money. She's been babysitting quite a lot lately so she had to spend some of it. At least she bought clothes that I approve of and I didn't have to pay for them!

I'll be scanning and posting two layouts I finished last night so check back tomorrow!

I'm Back

2007-04-27T13:49:00.000-06:00

I just took my last final exam today and hopefully it was enough to get me an "A" in this class. I should have an "A" in all my other classes so I am hoping for another 4.0 semester!

The weather is just beautiful! I am so excited that I'll finally have time to enjoy it. I have lots of yard work to do, as well as work inside my home. Funny how it gets neglected when there is anything else to do!

Tonight I'm going to the Social Work Club picnic where it will be announced that I am the new Treasurer! Fortunately for me we don't have much money to worry about so it shouldn't be too tough of a job.

On April 2nd I decided to go 30 days with no alcohol, no soda and no candy. I really thought I'd actually lose some weight with this but so far I've lost .4 lbs. Not 4, but .4! How sad. But I am keeping to my commitment and sticking it out. I really miss soda the most and cannot wait to have a Diet Pepsi again! I need to restrict my intake of carbonated beverages because it is really bad for the bones and with my osteopenia I don't need any help in destroying my bones!

Chelsea and I have a busy summer planned this year. She has 3 soccer tournaments, band camp, a church camp mission trip to work in a homeless shelter in Seattle, and a trip to San Angelo, TX to see her friend Grace. We both will be going to Wash. D.C. to see the sites and visit friends and also to N. Idaho to see my family. Sometime during the summer we are going to try to see Chelsea's aunt before her family moves to Japan for 3 years.

I have an appt. to see my Dr. about the pains I have had in my abdomen. They seem to have decreased lately, but I still need to find out what is causing them. As for my liver issues, my Dr. still believes it is just a hemangioma but I have an appt in June to see a specialist to get a biopsy just to make sure.

I have been doing some scrapbooking lately and hope to get my most recent layout scanned and then uploaded here so you can see.

It is good to be back.

Probably last post for awhile

2007-03-21T19:09:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't been very good lately about posting so I think I am going to take a break. With my health issues (nothing terminal!) plus school, and the way too many things I've volunteered for I don't seem to have time to post. Thanks to everyone who was a regular reader. I know you have other ways to spend your time than to check out my blog every day. If you are interested in getting an email if/when I post again please drop me an email at: MJWaddell1@aol.com Mary

Silver Award photo

2007-03-18T20:46:00.000-06:00

This is my daughter, second from left, and her fellow Girl Scouts at the G.S. 95th Birthday Party Chelsea organized for her service unit. It was a Hollywood themed party and the girls had a lot of fun. This was Chelsea's project for her Silver Award, which she will receive in May.

Spring break is over

2007-03-18T20:29:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow it's back to school! But there are only 7 more weeks of school. I am looking forward to the summer break.

I still have a couple hundred boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my garage and hope to get rid of them by Tuesday, which is when we have our last scheduled cookie booth.

I haven't been feeling too great today, my stomach is hurting again. On Wed. I go to Nuclear Medicine for the tagged red blood cell test for my liver.

It's outdoor soccer season again and Chelsea has her first game on Saturday. At least the weather has been really nice lately, although it could turn cold again at any moment!

Nothing really exciting going on here, as you can tell. I should be making Chelsea's reservations to visit her friend, Grace, in Texas this summer. Chelsea has known Grace since they were both 8 years old. Each summer they take turns visiting. Chelsea will be going to TX in July. We also hope to be able to go to Wash. DC and to N. Idaho this summer, so there won't be a lot of sitting around at our house.

Mike's daughter is coming to visit for about 6 weeks so we'll be busy entertaining her as well, however we will only be around for about 3 of those weeks. She'll be here from Jun 24- July 30 or thereabouts. All of our trips will most likely be during that time, unfortunately, because of band camp, church camp and 3 soccer tournaments which we have to schedule our trips around.

Well, I need to get my stuff together for school tomorrow so I need to get off this computer.

I've been warned...

2007-03-12T17:14:00.000-06:00

...by the blogging police! I know it's been awhile since I've written, so here is a quick update:

The OB/GYN is pretty sure my pain is caused by scar tissue, but she wants to eliminate my ovary as the cause so she is having me take the Pill for a month to see if my pain stops. If so, it's my ovary and if not it is most likely scar tissue and I'll have to have surgery.

As for my liver, none of the tests so far have been conclusive so I will have a tagged red blood cell test to see what that shows. If it is inconclusive they will most likely take a biopsy of my liver. Keep in mind that all my blood tests and my liver function test are good so it is most likely a hematoma and nothing to worry about.

I have been asked by a friend and new member of my church to be the Godmother for her 5 year old daughter. What an honor. She'll be baptized on Easter Sunday.

I am on Spring Break and have been busy today with washing comforters and blankets. Spring cleaning my bedroom and doing some shoveling in Chelsea's bedroom.

Speaking of Chelsea, on Saturday she completed her Girl Scout Silver Award Project. I am so glad that is over. We have our cookie booths this Friday and Saturday and hopefully we'll be done with that!

That's about it for now. Sorry for being such a slacker!

My Girl Scout

2007-03-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Chelsea and I went to SLC for the Girl Scout recognition ceremony. Chelsea received her 10 year pin. I can't believe it's been 10 years since she was a little Daisy Girl Scout! There were several Senior Girl Scouts who were now in 12th grade and so done with scouts, and there were about 10 girls who received there Gold Award which is equivalent to an Eagle Scout award for Boy Scouts. Chelsea was so inspired by their projects that she is determined to get one of her own. She completes her Silver Award project next Saturday. I think both of us will be glad to see that done.

I talked to Tammy last night for about a half hour and she is coming over tonight for some "girlfriend time". Six months is a long time not to see your friends. She's spent the last three days with her family so now she can see me without feeling too guilty. Plus she gets the next two weeks off for R & R (rest and recuperation) so she'll have plenty of time with them before she has to go back to work.

Chelsea and several of her friends, including Caitlyn and Megan, will be singing in church today. Mike is actually going to come and watch. I know he's not that excited but hopefully it won't be too painful for him!

Well I need to get myself ready for church, and another beautiful, sunny Utah day.

It was a bad day and it was a great day!

2007-03-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in so much pain that I had to break down and take 2 Vicodin. I had this left over from a surgery about 8 months ago. I didn't need it then, but I need it now. Good thing I didn't flush it.
Mike came over for dinner (Chelsea cooked, Mike cleaned up) and when he left he told me he loved me!!! That made my pain go away for at least a few minutes. I pretty much knew he loved me, but it was really nice to hear it from him.
I have to brag on Chelsea. Not only did she cook dinner, but she also got 100% on her Physics test. Physics has been her worst subject this year and so this was a great accomplishment.

I need to get to school so I'll write more later!

Hmmmmm

2007-02-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

Went for my CT scan this morning and when I got home from school there was a message requesting that I call the radiology dept. So I called and they need me to come in Thursday for another scan. This will be three in three weeks. I asked them if everything was okay and the guy said "well we just need to have another look, a different perspective." I don't know about you, but it doesn't sound great to me. It could be nothing but now it is really bugging me. And the worst part is this doesn't have anything to do with my pain. Hmmm. I think I'll lay down and take a nap so I don't think about it.

Forgot to mention that I am going with Chelsea to sign her up for High School this afternoon. My baby is growing up!!!

How many points does Barium have?

2007-02-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

I started back at Weight Watchers on Thursday. I am going during the day since my nights are usually busy. They had a sign up looking for people to work there so I may call them this week and see if they have any on-call openings. I used to work for WW and was at my lowest adult weight when I did.

All this dating really doesn't help with trying to lose weight, though. On Friday Mike took me to a Chinese restaurant for lunch, and it was difficult but I had a chicken dish with lots of veggies and very little rice On Saturday Mike and I went to Eric and Gail's for a BBQ, and of course there wasn't anything low cal on the menu. On Sunday we went to the RV show and then to Hooters to eat. We were with Mike's friend's, Mike and Annie. They all had hot wings (which I love) and I had the grouper sandwich without the bread. I did have one hot wing, which I figure was 4 pts. all by itself!

I have another CT scan today so all I've had since midnight was a big bottle of barium, with one more just waiting for me! This stuff is gross tasting, especially after the first bottle! This CT is to determine if the blood pooling in my liver is just winding blood vessels or something else. As I said in an earlier post, my liver tests were all good so I'm not really worried.

I could not get into an OB/GYN doctor until Wed. March 8th. I called 3 different places and it seems these people are usually booked a month out. Women in Utah need to quit having so many babies so I can get in to see a doctor!

I got a nice get well card yesterday from my IdahoScrapper friend Courtney. She's the youngest member of our group and such a fun young lady! I see a lot of myself in her, in my younger days! It was nice to be thought of!

I need to get ready to leave for my appt. and then off to school! Just thought I'd better update or I know I'd be getting an email from Carol telling me to get busy! :)

Still hurting but help is on the way!

2007-02-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm still in pain, but my Dr. has put in a referral for me to see an OB/GYN to get to the cause of this pain in my side. I did get my referral for a CT scan on my liver today, so I am going to call in a few minutes to see when I can schedule that.

Mike started his job yesterday and seems pretty happy with the guys he works with, except for the 50 year old virgin (his words!). Guess this guy live with his mother and doesn't even make an effort to learn people's names. Mike is probably going to Alaska in May. Hopefully it will be once I'm out of school and maybe I can go with him. My friend Fran lives there and it would be fun to see her and her family.

Chelsea and I went and got new cell phones yesterday so now I am the proud owner of a red RAZR phone! I love it and it matches my car! Chelsea has a pink Katana. Cute, but not as cute as mine!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Tonight we will be going to church and having ashes placed on our forehead to remind us that we are dust and to dust we will return. It is a very somber service, as is the whole season of Lent. I use this time to reflect, repent and forgive. And I LOVE Easter! It is the whole reason for Christianity and my beliefs. Of course this is my opinion and you are welcome to yours. :)

Glad this weekend is over!

2007-02-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

This has probably been the worst 4 day weekend I've ever had! I am feeling better, but am still having pain on my right side. Hopefully I can get into the Dr. tomorrow afternoon. I really can't afford any more time off from school, so won't take a morning appt.

Last night Chelsea and I went to a movie with our friends Laura and Caitlyn. We saw Freedom Writers. It was a great movie. After that we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe in Layton. Our food was very good and our server was a nice young man trying to make his way in the food industry in Utah. I think we made his day when we asked to speak to his manager and gave him rave reviews for his customer service. It was fun to see someone feel good about their job. After that we went to Barnes and Noble and got the book "Freedom Writers" which the movie was based on. I'll read it after Chelsea finishes it.

Today Chelsea went snowboarding and I went to lunch with Mike. He turned down another job in Arizona. This one offered him significantly more money than the job he starts tomorrow. I told him if he wanted the job to take it. He asked me if we'd still see each other and of course I said no. I just don't do long distance romances. I'd probably see him once a month, if that and I am sure that in time we would drift apart. Not worth the agony, as far as I'm concerned. So he said he wouldn't take it. He knows my life is here and at least for the foreseeable future I am not moving anywhere out of Utah.

Tonight is the Financial Peace University class at church. I really don't feel like going but since my co-facilitator is out of town I don't have much choice. I know I'll be okay once we get started and we'll have fun, but its the getting out of the house that I don't feel like doing! Plus the church will be freezing since no one's been in there today! Guess I'd better go early and turn the heat on!