Hunger-Induced, Excessive Random Spewings

Fall soccer is in full swing.  We’ve got games and practices every night during the week (except Friday) and games every Saturday.  I think three kids involved in sports at the same time is my max.  Katie will not play soccer until someone else is done or can drive themselves.  Thankfully we have some carpooling options we can fall back on when I can’t run the entire show on my own.  I’ve been taking pictures, but don’t really feel inspired to look through any for this post.  What would make me really excited about soccer pictures would be getting a sweet new zoom lens – what’s $2,000 when you’d be able to capture amazing shots of your children to be cherished for generations to come?

My sister and I decided that I would take all the pictures in Hong Kong and send them to her on DVD’s.  I finally got them all on disk and in the mail on September 6th – it’s been 3 weeks and she still hasn’t gotten them.  She lives in Utah so it should only take a few days, right?  At what point would you consider them lost? 

My siblings can attest that I had a reputation as a child for still having Halloween candy at Easter.  I’m not quite sure how to describe that – was it hording?  I think it was more logical and necessary rationing.  We didn’t usually have candy around the house so Easter and Halloween were my only opportunities to stock up for the year.  To a much lesser degree I still exhibit some of these same tendencies.  So what do you think would possess me to open up (and empty) one of our last boxes of macadamia nut chocolates from Hawaii?

Our neighborhood has a facebook page where people post about free tickets to sporting events, objections to the new low-income housing project going in nearby, missing cats, etc…  Sunday morning the page was plastered with comments about the massive manhunt in the neighborhood early that morning. 

To read a news article, click – here -

So apparently, my street was blocked off and covered with officers outfitted with night vision goggles and armed with weapons.  A helicopter circled overhead for hours using thermal-imaging equipment to locate the six dangerous escapees.  Our neighbor said the rooms in his house looked like a disco party with all the spotlights shining in from every direction.  And me, I slept through the whole entire three hour ordeal.  It’s not a surprise that Justin would sleep through all the lights and noise, but me?  I’ve got mamma ears.   If my kids get up and use the restroom I know about it, but having the entire police force, K9 unit, and helicopter right outside my house – nothin’.  Our friends were interviewed on the Sunday evening news and Monday afternoon when we left to walk Jason to the bus stop they were interviewing another neighbor for the Monday evening news.  I did my best to walk around them so I wouldn’t be on camera, but they were filming my whole street.  Thankfully, they didn’t include the kids and me on the segment, but my house was still in the background.  I’m totally bummed I missed all the action – how much cooler of a story would it be if I could tell if from a first-hand witness?  (Yes, the whole idea of dangerous juveniles being housed nearby is disturbing as well.)

We’ve lived here 18 months and have yet to see a bear; I think we might be the only family in the neighborhood who hasn’t seen a bear since we moved in (we saw one the first time we looked at houses in the area though), even the new families that have only lived here a few weeks have crossed paths with the bears.   When my little brother was here last fall he saw a bear just walking down the street.  What’s up with that?  Not that I’m at all comfortable with the idea that we have bears, coyotes, and cougars roaming around (oh, and don’t forget the hardened criminals), but I feel like they are toying with me. 

A few weeks ago, in a nearby neighborhood, someone shot and killed a bear that was rummaging through his garbage.  Apparently, this isn’t the first time the guy has shot at a bear.   Perhaps we need to stop killing the bears or relocated the cougars so they can keep our forests safe from the criminals?

I was asked by an acquaintance this week if we own any guns.  I informed him that Justin isn’t at all a gun-kind-of-guy; is it strange that I can see myself being a gun-kind-of-woman?

Justin’s car is dying.  It’s safe to say it’s been dying for years; he bought it before we got married.  His car has so many quarks and issues (a future post of it’s own I’m sure), but it keeps on going (98% of the time).  And since we know we won’t get anything out of it we need to run it until no amount of revving the gas will get it to go.  Hopefully, none of us get injured in this process.  Justin has started dropping in on a few car dealerships recently though, I think he’s secretly praying for a quick passing. 

I love, love, love Halloween.  It may have something to do with the massive amounts of candy and chocolate my kids rake in, cause the whole decorating the house or dressing up in costumes isn’t my thing.  Okay, my LOVE of Halloween is totally 100% about the free candy.  We’re skipping Halloween this year – sad, huh?  But we’re going to Hawaii instead so I think that might make up for it.  Besides I’ll get to replenish my stock of macadamia nut chocolates.

I’m volunteering in Jason’s classroom on Friday and I’m really excited.  Before we moved I volunteered regularly in the girls’ classrooms (ever since Abigail started preschool), but when he moved here it became more difficult.  I’d have to find someone to watch my younger kids, and in turn watch someone else’s kids so it would be “fair”, drive 20 minutes each way to the school, etc…  And to be honest, I was a bit burnt out.  I’ve made arrangements to swap childcare with another mom so I can be at the school a few times each month.  It’s only a few hours, but I’m glad I will no longer be the uninvolved Mom that the teachers never see.

We had our family pictures taken on Saturday – I’m anxious to see them.  We haven’t had professional pictures taken since before Katie was born so it was long overdue.  Hopefully we get at least one that turns out.  As you know I’m not one for fancy hairdos and I’m clueless about accessorizing – we just threw something together that we already had.

I used to call Justin and I cheap – we are not cheap, we are frugal.  We like nice things, but purchases are usually very researched, analyzed, and we try to make sure we are getting the best deal possible.  A resent illustration:  while traveling in Oregon this summer we decided to purchase a few things we’d been eyeing since we could get them there tax-free.  We have a 9.5% sales tax rate here so that is quite the savings.  One of our purchases was a waffle maker.  We lugged it around during our trip, but didn’t use it till we got home since it usually takes me a while to accept that I’m not going to return everything we purchase.  Shortly after we used it we got a coupon from the store that would make it even cheaper.  I called the store and they couldn’t do a price adjustment so I let them know that I would be purchasing another one with the coupon and returning it with the old receipt.  They said that wouldn’t be a problem.  They have a 90-day return policy and I figured I was actually being nice cause I was keeping the one we’d used and returning the new one unopened.  What do you know, a few more weeks pass and said waffle maker is the featured item on the website and is even cheaper – so that resulted in us owning three identical waffle makers.  

I think Justin was a little embarrassed (though it was his idea) when he carried two waffle makers and a large pot that we also found cheaper into the store to return with three different receipts spanning nearly two months, plus a few other smaller items we were returning or exchanging.  Excessive or smart shopping?

Speaking of being frugal, I bought a dress at the Gap Outlet last week for $0.99 + tax, regularly priced at $69.99.  I wore it to church on Sunday and felt incredible.  It’s a simple dress, but I think the price tag made me feel that it was the most attractive article of clothing I own.

Today is my Dad’s birthday.  Fourteen years ago today was his funeral.  Last year we made a birthday cake and I shared his testimony of the gospel with my kids.  There’s no cake today.  Our stake has asked the members of the stake to participate in a 40 day fast for missionary work in the area.  Each family is asked to fast one day during these 40 days.  I thought today would be an appropriate day for our family.  I didn’t realize at the time how tricky it would be for the girls since they would be at school all day (apparently, we’d have to notify the school why they wouldn’t be eating anything at lunch) so they started their fast after lunch instead.   They usually come home from school STARVING so I expected lots of complaining this evening.  I know they were hungry, but they did awesome!   Me?  My stomach is growling so loudy that I'm heading up to bed to dream about caramel macadamia chocolates.