Anything that can go wrong...

You know the saying.

This is a grump-fest post.  Please don't feel like you need to cheer me up or anything.  Sometimes I just need to write down some of the stuff banging around in my head to make it stop bothering me.  Believe me, once I finish this post, I will feel lots better and I'll be able to move on cheerfully.  First, though, a rant.

Why is it that bad stuff all happens a once?  I mean, really?!

• You already know my new car is in the body shop getting plastic surgery after an unfortunate incident that messed up its tail end.  Still not back.
• You also already know I hate my weenie-mobile rental car.  Now more than ever for reasons about to be revealed.
• Monday, Will drove to school and accidentally left the parking lights on in the Expedition, which killed the battery.  Dead as a doornail (what a weird phrase!).  Do you know how long it takes to use a weenie-mobile battery to jump start a big beastly Expedition battery?  A little over 40 minutes.  Since we were in the mostly empty school parking lot... no sweat.
• This morning, while Will was driving to school, the Expedition suddenly lost power everything (steering and electrics), then died on him when he managed to get it pulled mostly onto the side of the road.  He was blocking the right turn lane, but at least he was out of the middle of the road, right?
• Automotive gymnastics was not on my to-do list today, but I still managed to get the weenie-mobile nose to nose with the Expedition despite all the other drivers on the road looking at me like I'd lost my mind.  Oh, and to get the full visual, be sure to put me in pajamas!
• Trying to jump start an elephant like the Expedition with a mouse like the weenie-mobile in the middle of traffic during morning rush hour?  Not on my list of fun activities for the day.  It didn't work, of course, because we didn't have 40 minutes to sit around and wait for a big enough charge to build up.
• Don't you think tow companies are in the business of coming to the rescue of stranded motorists?  If you thought so, you'd be as wrong as I was.  I was told by two different companies that they "didn't have time to come out to tow my car".
• I can feel more expenses coming on with these new car troubles.
• Helena's phone is on the blink (it only works sporadically at this point), so she missed the text from her boss telling her that the shifts had been changed and why wasn't she at work today?  
• Helena also managed to fall on the stairs today while home alone and is now sporting wicked scabs and bruises all over her legs and feet. (I am truly glad it wasn't worse!  What if she'd broken a leg while all alone at home!  Poor girl.)
• Will's friend, Dallan, actually DID break his leg yesterday.  He'll require surgery that sidelines him for the entire skiing season.  Poor boy!  Dallan is Will's best skiing buddy, so I know Will's bummed, too.
• Will has been given an "Unexcused Absence" by his English teacher for leaving class early.  That freezes his grade until he goes to Attendance School TWICE.  An unexcused absence is considered a sluff and carries double penalty.  Each attendance school session costs $5.
• I've had a dead toe nail ever since the half Ironman back in August.  Could it just fall off already?!?
• And to top it all of?  I HAVE A STUPID COLD SORE!  Gah!  

See.  I feel better already.

PS:  I do need to say this...

As Will and I were stuck on the side of the road, desperately trying to figure out how to get out of the way of traffic and get the dumb Expedition back home, Liz M (Bill's niece) happened to drive by in her (nicer, newer, better-er) Expedition and asked if we needed a tow!

!!!!

Hooray for Liz!!!!

I sent Will home in the rental while I rode in our Expedition as Liz towed it back home.  She was my life saver this morning and completely turned a disastrous situation around!!!  (Note to self:  I was very impressed that Liz just happened to have a tow rope in her car.  I should get one and put it in my car, just in case...... whenever I get my car back, that is)

PPS:  I also need to say this...

When Bill got home from work this evening, he used his gargantuan work truck to jump start the Expedition and then left them hooked up charging the battery for a couple of hours.  That should keep the Expedition running until Saturday, when he can take it in to have the battery and alternator checked.

PPPS:  Really, I'm just about done...

Can you tell that some of my rants are just silly?  Those are my way of humorizing my life.  If you can't laugh at yourself, life is pretty grim.

All about the Kids

This post is a little update on the lives of my kids.

Matt still lives in San Diego and is still in the Marines.  From the tone of his facebook posts, however, both of those facts are about to change.  His term of enlistment is going to expire this year, and he does NOT plan to re-enlist.  Once he is out of the military, it sounds like he plans to move back home, so to speak.  Home, meaning Idaho, not his mom's house or ours.  I am glad!  You wouldn't think a trip to San Diego would be so difficult to manage, but it is.  I will be glad to see him back in the mountains and closer to us!  He finalized his divorce and he currently has a girlfriend named Autumn.  He seems head over heels in love with her.  I sincerely hope for lots of happiness to head his way!

Helena went to a job interview today at ... RUBIO'S!  Ooh, yeah!  It went well, and once the paperwork and orientation are done later this week, she should be working there by next week!  I think it will be great.  The manager, Eva, is VERY nice.  Bill and I are very happy for her and hope she has a great experience.  This is her first official job, you see.  Sure, she has 'nanny-ed' for lots of people, and house-sat.  But this is different.  And I am happy for her.  Also, I'm looking forward to ordering my dinner from her sometime in the near future!

While she was gone on her job interview, her friends stopped by and 'heart attacked' her room as part of a date invite!  Braxton wanted to ask Helena to the Valentine's Dance at school (also called the "Winter Social"?), so Megan and Dallan helped him decorate her room as the invite.  She didn't realize the 'heart attack' was an invite, at first.  She thought it was just her friends' way of cheering her up after a rough weekend, until she read the letter attached to the red rose laying on her bed.  It is a good thing she is a relatively neat person and her room was decent (although she says she would have cleaned it up if she knew they were coming).... no underwear on the floor, thank goodness!

Helena has been enrolled in an online Financial Literacy class ever since summer vacation and has had a hard time motivating herself to finish it.  So, she is now taking the more traditional approach and is now taking it at the high school.  We had to move Seminary to after school in order to fit it in.  However, her final semester schedule is still somewhat up in the air.  Her Advanced Photo class only has 8 registered students.  The school may drop the course because the numbers are too low.  If that happens, we'll have to go in and do some juggling of her classes to fill the void.  The school would take those students who still want Photo (like Helena), and add them in a Photo 1 class (which she has already taken), and have them take it 'seminar' style with a personalized contract with the teacher.  It is unlikely that she would learn as much that way, and much more likely she'd become a glorified TA to help the teacher with the photo 1 students.  Phooey.

Will has a science fair project looming large in his life right now.  Can I tell you just how much I HATE it when teachers take an event that is supposed to be voluntary and turn it into a mandatory class assignment?!?  It is like they sat around in a teacher meeting and said, "You know, we just don't get enough entries in the science fair to justify the cost and bother of running it... I KNOW!  We'll MAKE the kids enter it, then we'll look like our science department is freaking awesome because so many kids are participating!"  (Never mind that 90% of the projects are pieces o'CRAP!)

Yeah, well, here we are.  Doing a mandatory/voluntary project.  And yes, it is WE.  He is supposed to submit photos of himself performing the experiment.  So I became the photo journalist documenting him.  He also needed an assistant to help him time the reactions as he performed them.  And, of course, he needs a swift kick in the behind to remind him to get it done; because while performing the experiment is fun, processing and writing the paper is not.

Lacrosse pre-season conditioning starts tonight.  Will is there now.   And he is also over the moon about the new snowfall we received today.  I am sure he is going to want to hit the slopes ASAP.  He's the only one in the house truly thrilled to see winter finally arrive.

New Year's Resolutions

I am a big fan of them.  I always have been.

Not because I have always rocked them.  No, I am not that good at accomplishing all of them.  There have even been years that I failed at all of them.  Some years I have a bucket load of them, other years there is just one.

But I usually manage a few... and that always makes me feel AWESOME!  So here is this year's batch... in no particular order.

• Keep my training consistent and steadily build for the races I've signed up for.
• Move at least 2,012 miles for 2012! (swim/bike/run)
• Complete my first full marathon.
• Complete my first century bike ride.
• Complete my first long distance triathlon.
• Ski down the real slope at least once this season.
• Knit a blanket (or two) in double knit on the knitting board.
• Learn to single knit on a rake loom.
• Finish my first knit sweater by Christmas 2012.
• Complete two artworks.
• Stay on top of the weekly finances.
• Eat more vegetables.

This year seems to be a 'bucket load' type of year!

The first half of that list are all interconnected, and I am confident that they will all take place.  After all, I have already plunked down the money for two of the three events.  YES!  I am not only signed up for the Utah Valley marathon, I have now also officially entered the Provo Tri!  

AHHHH!

Can I tell you how terrified I feel?!?  I agonized over that registration and found it very difficult to click on the 'submit' button.

The Provo Triathlon is an unofficial half Ironman distance event.  Unofficial because it is not sponsored by the official Ironman brand.  But the distances will feel just as real, I am sure!

1.2 mile swim + 52 mile bike + 13.1 mile run

I am hyperventilating just writing that.

I feel pretty good about each individual piece of the whole.  I can do 1.2 miles of swimming.  Piece of cake.  I can ride a bike for 52 miles.  Very doable.  I know I can run 13.1 miles with the right prep work... after all, I did it twice last year!

But put them all together and what do you get?

The biggest goal I have ever set for myself.

I am pretty sure the 2,012 miles goal will take care of itself in all the training and races.  Especially with all the biking miles I'll be putting in to get ready for the third event that I have yet to sign up for... the ULCER.

ULCER stands for Utah Lake Century Epic Ride.  It is a 111 mile bike ride around the perimeter of the lake.  That will be happening just a couple of days before my birthday.  Happy Birthday to me!  Bill is going to do it with me, and we aren't going to 'race', just do.

The knitting and artwork goals are fun, down-time ambitions.  I enjoy doing them, it is just a matter of making time in my schedule for them.

And the finances and veggies?

I just know I should be better at them both.  So, I'll work on them.

AHHH!  It is a lot!  A lot.

I am looking forward to meeting the new me at the other end of this list!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Go make a list of your own and go for it!

The Best Christmas Ever! - 2011

I am sorry I am late posting this!  I would make all kinds of excuses about being busy (because I was), but truthfully, I have been putting off blogging this post for a specific reason.

I am running out of photo storage on Blogger.

If you click to some ancient-of-days post (say, from 2009 or something), the photos will be missing and will have a blank space with a minus sign where the picture used to be.  Phooey!!!  Blogger uses Picasa Web Albums for photo storage, and apparently, I have reached the limit of what Picasa is willing to store for me for free.  I either have to pay for more storage space (boo!), switch to another blogging forum (a definite possibility), or cull my photos.  I may switch my school website to some other platform and that should ease the photo problem, temporarily.

Anyways, this post is going to be photo rich, so I hesitated to put it out there, knowing it would destroy the oldest photos currently in existence on this site.  Ah well.  You can't have it all, I guess.

So, here goes;

Christmas Eve

 We set a more informal table for Christmas than for Thanksgiving.  Still, we pulled out the wine goblets and nice silverware.

 Thanksgiving dinner is always turkey.  Christmas dinner is always ham.  If you do anything other than that, I am sorry, but you are not from the 'true' family!  ;)  We had a side salad, green beans, and some twice baked potatoes, too.

 To drink, we had several different flavors of sparkling 'cider' and egg nog.

 Yes, Helena and I had fun taking pictures of our food, again!  Oi!  It was way too much food!  My eyes are always bigger than my stomach.  I need to mention, too, that dessert was yummy individual little cheesecakes made by Helena!

 Later that evening, Will decided to try mixing some egg nog and some sparkling cider.  Yes, I took a sip and yes, it tasted NASTY!  He ended up with a stomach ache later in the evening because it was. in fact, a BAD combo!

 Like most people, we have a tradition of giving PJ's for Christmas Eve gifts.  Here are Helena and Will in their new jammies...

 Notice how much taller Will is than Helena now?!?  She is officially done growing and is 5'6".  He is 15, still growing, and over 5'10" at the moment.

Group shots with the momma!

We finished up the evening with the traditional Luke 2 reading, then went downstairs to play a family game before bed.  Helena chose Cranium.  It has been so long since we played this one, that the playdoh in the tins had hardened and was unusable.  So we just skipped any card that said it was a scupturade.  We had a blast!  It doesn't really matter what game you play, it just matters that you play together as a family!

Oh!  I have to share this!  Helena and I were a team and we were doing a pictionary challenge.  I was the drawer and she was supposed to guess.  The word was 'dung beetle'.  I drew poop (it was a masterpiece, let me tell you) and a bug.  Her guesses?

"stink bug?" (I admit, that one was a good guess, but it goes downhill from there)...

"poop bug?"

"Fecal insect?!?"

I thought Bill was going to pass out he was laughing so hard!

No, we did not win that particular challenge, but who cares?  We had such a fun time!

Finally, everyone headed to bed at a shockingly reasonable time because we knew we had to be up, eat breakfast, and have the present opening all done before 10 am church.

Christmas Morning

Most years, there are some 'big' gifts sitting out from Santa.  However, this year, everyone got their 'big' gifts early.  That wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened.  So, most of the gifts under the tree were smaller, less expensive, but still very well thought out for each person involved.

 My favorite gift this year was from my son, Will!  He saw that I wanted a knitting board (from my recent blog post, probably), so he went to the local craft store and got me one!!!  AHHH!!!  Sweater knitting, here I come!  In the meantime, I am working on making a blanket out of squares of various knit patterns so I can learn them really well, first.  It is going to be awesome!  The colors are oatmeal, charcoal, and barn red!

There isn't a picture of it, but my second favorite gift was a secret stocking stuffer from my husband... a waterproof lap timer watch for swimming!  I've already tried it out and I found I push myself so much harder when I know I am timing myself!  Ah, what a killer workout!

 The kids gave Bill some snow shoes, so now, if it ever actually decides to snow this year... he'll be ready!

 Helena's reaction to a gift...

 This is the gift that had her so happy... a Harry Potter charm bracelet!  I got it off of Etsy.com.  Each of the seven book covers are attached to the front of scrabble tiles that spell out H POTTER, and there are silver charms in between that go along with the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling.  Yup.  It is good to know what makes your kids tick!

 Will in front of the fireplace looking through his stocking.  I don't have any photos of him opening presents this year, because he sat right beside me, and that is an awkward angle for photography.  Still, he was thrilled with his mostly weaponry themed Christmas.  I just hope the new CO2 powered airsoft gun doesn't lead to new holes in walls and fences!  He was also thrilled with his new tomahawk and arrows to restock the quiver on his bow!

 Here is a story for you.  Helena's favorite author is John Green.  She follows his youtube channel and has been eagerly awaiting the release of his new book, The Fault In Our Stars, set to come out January 10th.  I pre-ordered a signed copy and was planning to place the receipt in her stocking so she could anticipate its arrival.  But then...

I got an e-mail notification that my order had been shipped.

???

Then, John Green announced to the world that someone at Barnes & Noble had mistakenly shipped out the books EARLY!!!  He was devastated and everything was being done to stop the shipments, but that it was simply too late, the damage had been done and some of the books got leaked to the public before the official release date.

HELENA GOT ONE OF THE LEAKED BOOKS!!!  And I put it under the tree.

She had known about the leak and had been 'devastated', too, because she was worried about spoilers being posted, so she was over the moon when she opened the gift and realized that she had won the luck lottery on this one.  She was going to 'seal' it and wait until Jan. 10th to read it.  That only lasted a day.  She has now read it and is honoring the author's request to not post any spoilers out there for those who are still waiting for their copies to arrive.

Christmas Day

Last year, Will and I spent Christmas Day skiing at Sundance.  That was quite the experience and I truly had a blast!  Christmas day is the best day to go skiing because there are so few people up there.  So, Bill and I decided that we would make it into a family tradition!  After church, we geared up and headed up the mountain for a day for sunshine and snowy adventure.

 The pictures are all out of order, and I am too lazy to fix that, so you are getting a hodge-podge of the day.  These first two shots are actually later in the afternoon, during our lunch break back at the lodge cafe.

I can't begin to describe what a fun day it was!  All of us together on the mountain being active... nobody plugged in or shut off in an electronic world of their own!  

 Will is the only experienced skier in the family.  He took off for most of the day up on the real slopes, while the rest of us played around on the bunny hill all day.  He would come back and check up on us from time to time.

The bunny hill tow rope operator was named Casey.  He was friendly and helpful all day, especially to cute Helena, who was learning how to ride a snowboard for the first time.  Casey was 20 and very interested in learning more about Helena, too.  He took the photo of Bill, Helena, and I, then I took another photo with him in it.  BTW, Helena made her cute hat!

 This shot was actually taken at the end of the day.  The resort was shutting down for the evening, but Helena and Will wanted one more quick run down the final slope to the lodge, so they ran up the side on their own.

 Some shots of cute Helena giving snowboarding a try!

 She got compliments on her ski jacket from another woman on the slopes.

 Helena fell down plenty of times while trying the different tips and advice freely given to her by tow operator, Casey.  But she laughed it off and kept on trying.  She ended up doing really great by the end of the day!  I think she is ready to tackle the lift next time we go.  Bill is returning to skiing after a 20 year hiatus, so he didn't really need the bunny hill all that much, he just hung out with us anyways and went out of his way to 'crash' by going off into the bush instead of staying on the groomed hill.

 One of those rare moments when Will stopped by to see how we were doing.

 There has been no snow this year.  NONE!  Not even at the ski resorts.  It is pathetic, actually.  Last year there was tons of snow and the trees were all heavily laden with it!  This year, the only snow on the slopes is man made.  Still, we'll take it in order to have a fabulous Christmas day together!

I will admit, I am still a coward when it comes to skiing.  I ROCK the bunny hill!  I enjoy it immensely!  But when it comes to a real slope?  I am terrified!!!  Why do I want to strap boards on my feet and go careening at high speeds down a steep hill?!?  Because it is a fear I want to overcome.  So I will go back.  And back again.  And again.  Until I overcome that fear and am able to actually ENJOY skiing down a real mountain slope!

Christmas Evening

When we got home from skiing, we quickly changed and headed over to Erik and Deanna's house for a family party!  Peder and Jody are in town with their girls, so most the Weierholt siblings were there.  Only Trina and her family were missing.  It was a loud and boisterous night!  Most of the Weierholt cousins are young.  My kids are the oldest cousins except one.  Kai is older than Will, but not older than Helena.  But Kai is one of Trina's, and wasn't there, so most of the kids there were little.

Oh!  It was a great Christmas!  Full of fun and laughter, I can't wait to do it again next year!

Halloween 2011

It has been a roller coaster of a weekend, which I guess is just normal for life with teenagers in the house.

 Beautiful fall colors all around!  I took this on my walk up to the rec. center on Saturday.

 Helena and I were the only ones in the family interested in carving pumpkins this year.

 We got part of it done on Saturday, but then she ended up leaving for a date, so we finished on Sunday evening.

 Helena posing for the camera.

 Helena's pumpkin was so thick that she was only at this stage when I was ready to carve the face on mine.  She was blown away by how much 'meat' there was inside hers.  The guts filled it all the way to the top!

 Every year, we save the seeds and roast them after soaking them in a salt bath.

 These are the boys from the Saturday date... although Helena insists it wasn't really a date, they were just 'hanging out'.  Braxton is in the lederhosen, and Dallin is the nerd.  Helena and Megan were in the basement putting together a quick costume for Helena.

 Group shot before heading out.

 Helena's pumpkin design.

 My pumpkin design.

 Look at how Helena's pumpkin seems to be welcoming everybody to the door!

 Dinner tonight.  Homemade chili in a bread bowl, "butterbeer", and a caramel apple for dessert.

 I wanted to make sure the little trick-or-treaters could find their way to my front door (since our front walkway has been temporarily destroyed).  It worked very well.

 Super salty roasted pumpkin seeds.  I now have sores all over my tongue from eating too many of these!

 The candy bowl.  We ran out early in the evening (at about 8 pm).  The weather was so mild that we had more trick or treaters than usual.

 The secret "butterbeer" recipe... butterscotch/club soda + cream soda topped with whipped cream/caramel sauce mix.

So.  I had a great day today.  It was my day off, so I dedicated the entire day to enjoying Halloween.  After dropping the kids off at school, I built some homemade chili in the crock pot, then headed back to the high school for Helena's SEOP.  That's a Student Educational Occupation Plan, aka, let's-make-sure-this-kid-will-graduate-and-has-plans-for-after-high-school meeting.  That went well, so next I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some items for this evening.

I went back home and put in the first Harry Potter movie as background 'ambiance' while I roasted pumpkin seeds and made caramel apples.  I was just really, really happy to be home and making stuff for my kids and their friends, who I expected to come by and hang out tonight.

I had told Helena we were lifting part of her grounding since she had fulfilled most of our requirements.  She got her phone back and was allowed to enjoy Halloween weekend with her friends.  She was allowed to invite someone to Preference, and we registered her for a college retreat weekend at Dixie State College with her best friend.  So, things were getting back to normal.

After picking the kids up from school, things got a little sidetracked.  Helena wanted the house clean for when her friends arrived, so the harassed her brother about helping out.  He reacts badly when Helena 'bosses him around' and shuts down.  When I follow up with a request for him to help, he is slow to respond.  After getting that smoothed over, I took Will to get his Sundance ski pass for the season.  Today was the last day of pre-season discount price. While there, we discovered a SCREAMING sale on last year's rental gear, so Will ended up with an early Christmas!  We were going to get him skis for Christmas, but this was too good to pass up.  $96 total for skis, binding, and boots!  And they adjusted the bindings for free.

Home again.  Time to set up the paper lanterns and shred cheese to go with the chili.

Will took off for a friend's house to watch scary movies.  Later, I found out that instead of watching scary movies, they turned off the lights in the basement and were scaring each other instead.  During the screaming and mayhem, one of the boys accidentally 'butt dialed' 911!  Three squad cars showed up to investigate the emergency call of hysterical screaming!  Oops.

Anyways, to make a long story slightly shorter (I do have work in the morning), Helena's friends came over and had a great time.  They loved the chili and caramel apples, didn't like the "butterbeer", but were polite about it.

Then they wanted to watch a movie.

I have very clear rules about ratings.  No rated 'R' in the house.  The only exceptions are those rare times when the subject matter outweighs the rating.  Like Schindler's List.  Or Last of the Mohicans.  In those cases, I have allowed it because there is an educational quality to the movie that is significantly important.  But your run of the mill rated 'R' entertainment value only movie?  No.

It has nothing to do with the age of the kids.  They could be visiting me as 30 year olds and the rule would be the same.  My house, my rules.  I am the one paying for the streaming video service and I just don't want 'R' in my house.  That is all.  When they pay the bills in their own place, they can do whatever they want.

Helena wanted to watch a scary movie with her friends and complained that it couldn't be done without the 'R' rating.  I repeated myself.  No 'R'.  Her friends heard me, too.  No 'R'.

So, when Bill checked on them in the basement?

They are watching an 'R' rated movie.

Here is where the roller coaster takes one of those nasty nose dives.  Not only did Helena let me down, so did her friends.  They all knew they were disrespecting me after all the trouble I went through for them.  Was their desire to watch an 'R' rated movie that much more important than treating me with respect?  I admit, I had thought more highly than that of them.  I hate being forced into the 'bad guy' roll.  I told her to shut it off and that the party was over.

Now I have to play the role of disciplinarian again.  I hate that.  I feel like I have been manipulated and I anticipate another stressful week, now, because I can't let Helena drive and, oh! I wanted her to.  All the good feelings of making a fun Halloween are completely gone, because what I offered wasn't good enough for them.

Why'd I even bother?