By the Way

It was my Anniversary today.................worst Anniversay ever!!! Happy 10 years to me. (Please refer to the story below)

Storytime.......

Do you see the set pieces above? They are large and they are very very heavy. This is the preface to my story..........Tracy is coordinating a convention at the Ogden Marriott for War Lords from all over the world that are coming to Ogden ( I know, don't ask.....I don't get it either) anyway he is using my very large set pieces as part of the "decoration" for this convention. This afternoon we got my dad's trailer and as we were driving on I-15 to take them up the Hotel, one of the very large and heavy walls (the one on the left with the red sign) caught wind and broke the bungy cords holding it down and it went flying (as I let out a string of profanities like I have never let out before and my children were in the car, I am going to hell) the set pieces flew and landed on our flower delivery van that was following us up there. It bounced off the wind shield of the van, bounced again off the top of the van and landed on the freeway in 200 pieces. Now--- this was very scary and I think I almost had a heart attack. My brother in law (who was driving the van) managed to get it pulled over to the side before the tires blew and some how avoided being hit from behind after he slammed on it breaks going 60 mph. We pulled the larger pieces off the freeway without being killed. A highway patrol officer pulls up and I am thinking I am so getting a ticket and he rolls his window down and says to me, "is there damage to the van", I say yes but it is my van as well," he says," Oh ok, is there anyone hurt," I say, "Thankfully No." and he drives off. Gotta love that. We re-secured down the three remaining set pieces with the bungies that were not broken and droven 30 mph to the Ogden Marriott. Now that this tramatic event is past and everyone is okay there are two funny side notes:

1. just as we left my studio with the set pieces I said in jest to Todd my brother in law, "Todd please follow behind me so if one of these fly out it hits you and not somebody else and Oh by the way if one of these hits you it will probably kill you." .................kind of funny now, not very funny when it happened.

2. As I was putting Hayden to bed tonight I was thanking him for listening and being so patient during the whole fiasco (my kids were in the car with me for 5 hours during this whole process) and he said to me, "mom when that police man pulled up Anna started to cry because she thought he was going to take you to jail for letting that wall fly out." ...............so there sat my poor 5 year old in the car thinking I am going to be hauled away to jail and she can't get out of the car because I threatened them and told them they could not get out on the side of the freeway. My poor kids, the crap they have to go through with me as their mom.

The Last Harrah!!!

The monday before we left to take Kell to DC we had one last family boating trip up to Pineview. We had fun watching Kyle do flips and Kelly ski. We were so happy that Ally (look Stacie I spelled it right) like the boat. Anna did too.....she didnt have a choice it was either get in the boat or be left alone on the shore......she choose the boat. We are making progress with her and the boat-----Finally!!




(apparently Hayden really wants peace--he must be a democrat)

I know a little inappropriate but really funny.

First Day of School '08

September marked the first day of school for '08. My Hayden is in 3rd grade and that frankly makes me want to throw up. The means only three more years until Junior High. Oh sweet mother...... He is working so hard on reading. He hates it and we struggle but we are trying so hard. I am so glad he likes school. With the difficulties he has he could easily hate it and he doesn't. He works hard and I am so proud of him.




This marks Anna's first year of Real School. She started Kindergarten this year and she is so exited. Her teacher has Breast Cancer so they hired a new teacher that just graduated from WSU and Anna loves her. She is young and the girls think she is the bomb. Anna loves to learn and is starting to read and she is learning to be nice. She is my little performer and has a performer attitude. We have to keep a good eye on that one. We love her so much!! She keeps me laughing (and crying) everyday what more could I ask for. My mom recently told me I need to keep my blood sugar level in order to raise her or it could get ugly. So no more sugar for Mom.......

New York!!

So my mom, sister and I went to New York a couple of weeks ago and had the time of our lives. My little sis is doing an internship with Senator Bennett (she is so smart) so we flew into DC and got her into her new apartment (which smelled weird) and then we took an 4 hour bus ride to New York City. It truly was the trip of planes, trains and automobiles (including buses). We flew in, metroed in DC, bused to New York, did the taxi and bus in NY, bused to DC, metroed in DC, and few home. Way to many modes of transportation. In one 24 hour period we did the taxi, bus, metro and plane. Here are some my personal highlights of the trip. A lot of great photos are on McKell's camera which is in DC and she doesn't have the internet at home so it might take awhile to get those. That girl takes more pictures (that include her) than anyone else I know. I love her


(This photo does not accurately display the amount of people in Times Square on Saturday Night. It was Labor Day Weekend and the Weekend before all the colleges in NY started. It was insane. I have never seen so many people in my whole life.)

(McKell wanted to see Legally Blonde so bad and since I couldn't get even one tiny little ticket to Lion King we all went to see it and it was so funny. I was really glad my dad was not with us but we laughed so hard. Loved it!!)

(Frankly this picture disturbs me a little......enough said)

(We went to see the Saturday Matinee of Hairspray and I knew I would like but I more than liked it I LOVED IT!!!!!! I was frankly blown away by it. Loved the sets, the choreography, most of the actors (Norm from Cheers played the Mama and he was so great), the direction was fantastic. Man--I enjoy good theatre.)

(Please notice Kell's arm around my neck....this is how she takes every picture with someone. She tries to choke me when taking pictures. It frankly began to bug and I started choking her back. )

(See me holding her hand down so she cannot choke me. I love Rockefeller Center.)

(This is my favorite self portrait of the three of us. Mckell is the queen of self portraits. She has it down)

(Notice the choking......This is were I finally got mad at her and told to stop. This is the enchanted fountain and we met this nice guy from Egypt who would not stop talking to us. If was fun for a minute and then we were like .......dude--- we got ta go!!!

We had so much fun. We also got to see Wicked, which of course was amazing, and Grease which was only fun because it had some contestants from the reality show in it. Cute show but not what Broadway should be. Kelly has the photos from Wicked if I get them I will post them.

Thanks Daddy for giving me your tickets!! It was so much fun.....the three of us have never done this before and it was amazing!!

Family Pictures

We have been trying to do a family picture for almost 3 years and finally got it done!!

Bear Lake Family Fun

So we spent a week at Bear Lake with the fam...........here are the highlights!


Grandpa's Floating Island

Grandpa's Boat
Too Much fun in the sun I think......Anna Crashed on the beach so of course someone had to cover her in sand

We had tons of fun with the family here things I really loved:

*Way too much food
*Watching Hayden try water-skiing (No i don't have a picture because I am a crappy mother) he even got up for a few seconds

*Minnie Mouse (the pat rat who was living in the grill) I found it when i opened it to cook dinner. She kept coming back.........I think she was trying to find a place to have babies.

*Circling the lake over and over trying to find Tracy's license, My license, Tracy's credit cards, My credits and $80.00. Yes, they all feel out of his money clips into the lake. We only found Tracy's license.

*Watching Carson throw up after circling the lake looking for the licenses and credit cards

*Anna spending up to 7 hours playing on the beach to avoid riding on the boat and Hayden spending 7 hours on the boat just because HE LOVES IT

*Having all of my sister in laws and sisters reading a Stephanie Meyers book: we had someone reading; Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and The Host

*Hand and Foot games with Kelly, Adam and Mom. Oh by the way Mom and I finally did win.

*Shakes at La Beaus

*The Annual Tracy, Kristin, Kelly tube ride with Dad (this is where we lost the money clip)

It was a great time..............we love Bear Lake