Evie's Tree

Let's be honest here

My friend and fellow blogger Adie commented the other day that we (the Cbox girls/my internet blogging mom group) always look good in the pictures we post. We told her that of course we do because we don't let people take pictures of us in our sweats, flip-flops and hats, that pretty much make up our daily uniform. She didn't seem that convince (BTW Adie is a beautiful Irish lassie) so I took a picture of me today to prove to her that I can look as crappy as the next slack jawed yokel at Walmart. Looking at that picture inspired me to write this blog.




What I Did Today

Woke up around 7:30
Made breakfast which involved me pouring milk and cereal into a bowl
Packed two school lunches
Combed and styled Hanna and Grace's hair
Brushed teeth and put contacts in
Put running atire on
Made bed
Walked the girls to school then went running
Checked email/blogs/boards/FB and school district site for sub jobs
Talked to Karen
Cleaned kitchen, mopped floors
Put laundry in
Watered lawn
Got dressed in sweat pants, sports bra that smushes what little chestage I have, t-shirt and hat to hide bad hair
Put on flip-flops
Went over to Karen's to check on her water leakage problem and covet her new basement carpet
Made grocery list and went shopping at Walmart
Came home, sat at computer then ate a Lean Cuisine while watching TV
Showered (finally)
Picked girls up from school
More laundry
Watched Oprah
Made dinner AND dessert
Got the kids showered and ready for bed.
Watched The Hills (now you all know my dirty little secret)
Bed!

Obviously there were lesser activities going on between some of these but you get the general idea. I lead a very busy and exciting life. Tuesday and Thursday and generally a little more exciting because those are Karen's days off and her job is to entertain me. I actually shower before noon on those days.

Help me!

I didn't get to bed until midnight last night and then woke up around 6:30 a.m. not able to get back to sleep. This leaves me feeling pretty grumpy in the mornings. Before I went to bed last night I set out the girl's school clothes which I do to save me time in the morning. Just as I was falling back to sleep around 7 a.m. I feel a tap, tap on my arm and Grace says, "I don't want to wear that shirt this morning." Pick your battles Shea. I tell her that is fine because it's 7 a.m. and I really don't give a rats ass. I finally give up the idea of going back to sleep around 7:30 a.m. and get up to make them breakfast which is an ordeal in itself because Hanna doesn't like any sort of breakfast food known to man. They get dressed and then I start to do hair. I want to do two pony tails for Grace because it keeps her hair out of her face plus it looks cute. If you catch her on a good day she'll let me do this but if she's just not feeling it, we are in for a fight. She starts crying and I tell her, "You already got to pick out different clothes so I get to pick the hairdo." She yells, "It doesn't match my outfit!" So two ponytails don't match capris and a t-shirt? Ok Anna Wintour. I'm not going to give in today so after more crying and hair-pulling I finally win. I think I threatened her with no school today if she didn't let me do what I wanted. This would never happen because I'm getting my haircut today in Sugarhouse and I might pull a Britney Spears if it didn't get cut.

Today

Today is For Remembering
The day begins like any other day,
The busy-ness of people all around me
Going about the tasks of their day,
Will never know the pain
This day marks for me.
I have survived a difficult year.
I have endured more pain and heartache
Than I ever thought possible,
And I have survived.
And I miss you...
It may just be another day
To everyone else,
But today I remember you.

W.W. Roberts

Just thinking

I can't help thinking about Evie today. Monday will be her birthday and it takes my mind back to this time last year which was the worst time of my life. It's hard to put into words the feelings I have but what it basically boils down to is that I miss her. I wish she could have been born healthy in January which would mean she would now be crawling around the floor being chased by her sisters. I think I'm healing though because even though I think about her everyday, I don't start to cry or feel the pain I used to. Ryan doesn't catch me crying in the shower anymore which I'm sure relieves him. Mostly it is before I go to sleep at night when I think about her. Since we don't have a lot of memories of her I usually think of the same moments. Feeling her move inside me, keeping me awake when we were camping right before she was born. Little things like that. I try not to let my mind go to the bad memories but I admit I still go there at times. If it wasn't for my family, good friends, and therapy (ok I admit that the very occasional Xanax has been helpful) I don't think I would have been doing as well as I am. I'm still have my moments where I wonder why God let this happen but I think deep down I know He has helped me also. I'm lucky in that I've been disappointed by few and pleasantly surprised by many. As I write this I think I realize that I'm mostly saddened by the fact that I don't get to see this person grow up. I love Hanna and Grace so much and I know Evie would have been as amazing as they are. I hold on to the hope that I will see her again and she will be healthy and happy.

Morrissey Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

"Morrissey has no interest in returning to the days of yore with guitarist Johnny Marr and his ex-bandmates in The Smiths, not even for a deal that would line his pockets with cash."

Billboard reports:

"Morrissey's publicist has confirmed the artist refused a $75 million offer to tour under the Smiths name in 2008 and/or 2009, with the only mandate being that Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr would be part of the band. The Smiths also declined a multi-million dollar offer to perform in recent years at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif."

I don't get it? Doesn't money motivate everyone?!

Sunset in Santaquin

Ryan was sitting on the porch last night and called me out to see this. Pretty amazing. Click on image to see it full-size.

I hope this isn't typical

We had quite the eventful morning here at the Van Fleet house. It all started out pretty normal except Grace told me she didn't want a sandwich in her lunch and I started crying because I can't have two kids who won't eat sandwiches. I asked the girls if they wanted to walk home again today. Yesterday they walked home with Karen's son Noah (he's 11) and a few of his friends. Hanna said she didn't want to because yesterday Grace was a "brat" and didn't stay with Hanna. Grace starts to cry because Hanna called her a brat. I tell Hanna she needs to apologize to Grace so she says, "I'm sorry, but..." So she then starts to cry and tells me that she doesn't like walking with those boys because one of the boys they walked with (not Noah) teases her. She whispered to me that yesterday he said he could "see her boobs" because of the shirt she was wearing. By now Hanna is bawling and I'm pissed. Ryan comes out to see what all the crying is about and he gives them a long talk about picking nice friends and that you don't have to associate with people who are mean to you just because they are older and seem "cool". Hanna was fine with this but I think deep down Grace was thinking, "Hey these boys are older, cooler and that's good for my image." I told them I'd pick them up today so problem solved.

The next thing we dealt with was Hanna's loose tooth. We call it the "mutant tooth" because instead of getting two baby teeth on the bottom, she got one giant tooth. The tooth has been loose for awhile now and the adult tooth is growing in behind it. Hanna will not let us even touch any of her loose teeth and she has already had one fall out in her sleep and one she swallowed while eating a nectarine. Right before we were about to walk to school Ryan notices that this tooth is hanging by a string. That's it! We wrestled her to the ground. I plugged her nose so she would open her mouth, while Ryan held her arms and I pulled the mutant tooth out easily. I'm sure this sounds horrible but she was laughing through "most" of it. I told her the toothfairy gives extra money for mutant teeth. So by 8:30 we had both kids crying multiple times. I just talked to Ryan on the phone and he said, "I can't believe you ripped that tooth out of our poor little girl."

On a totally unrelated note here is a video of Hanna riding a horse at Charlotte and Mike's ranch in Wyoming.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

First Day of School

Hanna and Grace had their first day of school today. Hanna is going into grade three and Grace grade one. This is Grace's first year of all day school and I think it is going to be hardest on me. I did well today but I was busy most of the day trying to find an apartment for the Korean boy who is moving into Karen's house (long story). The girls both said they had great days and Hanna thinks her teacher is "so funny".

Grace

Hanna


I wanted to do something cute with Hanna's hair but she wanted it straight. She told me I could braid it tomorrow but not the first day.


Video before school.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Maybe I don't hate truckers

Why is the History Channel so awesome!?! If you haven't been watching Ice Road Truckers you are missing out on a great show. You might think that a show about truckers driving on ice roads in the N.W.T might not be that thrilling but I'm here to tell you that you'd be wrong. I didn't even know ice roads existed until this show and while the information about the ice roads alone is fascinating enough to keep me watching, the truckers featured are also quite interesting. We watched the season finale on Sunday and it said season 2 would be coming soon. Also if you want to hear some awesome Canadian accents this is the show to watch. In fact there are sprinklings of Canadiana throughout. In one episode someone spray paints "Grad 06" on a piece of equipment that is headed to the diamond mines. Ryan said, "That is such a Canadian thing. No one does that here." Boring Americans.

I Like the BYU Art Museum

Today I wanted to do some sort of family thing and it needed to be inexpensive. Usually this means we go to the mall and eat at Sam's club for less than $8. Since I'm trying to be less consuming (ok I don't think that's the proper use of that word but I like the sound of it) I ruled against the usual mall idea and instead we headed to the BYU MOA. I think it's a great resource for free entertainment. I checked online and they had a couple of new exhibits since we'd last visited. I really like Minerva Teichert plus they had an exhibit on ballerinas that I thought the girls might enjoy. We invited Nana and headed to Provo after eating pizza in Spanish Fork. I love museums because of the feeling I get when I'm in one. It's almost a spiritual feeling. I feel calm and happy. I wish I always felt this way in church but lately that fills me with anxiety. I think good art and good music are a gift that God has given us to feel closer to him. Both exhibits were interesting but I had to agree with Nana when she remarked during the ballerina exhibit that "women back the 17th and 18th centuries sure were ugly". I'm speculating that our ideas of beauty have changed, not the people themselves. After we were done at the museum I suggested we head to the Provo Library since it has a million more books than our Santaquin library. We all checked out a few books that we haven't been able to get in Santaquin and Hanna even put a book on hold. As we were driving home I say to Ryan "Look at us with our educational day out. The museum and then the library." He adds, "And pizza." Yes, I musn't forget the educational value of a good pizza.

A worthy adversary

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret...we're poor. Maybe financially challenged would be a better word or I could just tell you that Ryan works for the State of Utah. We get by but we don't have much, if any, left over at the end of the month. We could live more frugally but who couldn't? Because of our financial situation we have to pick and choose household things we want to buy carefully. We've done some impulse buying but for the most part every big purchase is well thought out. Over the 13 years we've been married we've bought a nice couch, tv, chair, mattress, dining table, armoire, bowflex, treadmill, trampoline, desk, two iMacs and a gazillion other little things. We rely on hand-me-downs for a lot of our furniture and since Ryan's grandpa was an awesome workworker I'm not complaining. There is one hand-me-down that I regret ever taking into our house. Now before I go much further I want to say that I'm grateful for all the little things that have been passed our way over the years. It's just that there comes a point in one's life where they would like to have a piece of furniture because they like it, not because it was free. I have always quite disliked our entertainment center.



We inherited it from Ryan's mom when we moved into our house. I know she spent a lot on it when she initially bought it and I admit that it comes in handy for storage. It's just not my style at all and it's such a huge piece in the house. I have complained about it for 5 years now but my cries have fell on deaf ears. In case you didn't know this, nice entertainment centers are not cheap even if you have the Karen connectiton at the R.C. Willey Outlet. Good ol' fate intervened when we were at IKEA in Calgary and led Ryan and I to an entertainment set-up that both he and I liked. We still can't afford it yet but at least it had Ryan talking about ridding our home of that oak monster. I think the end might be near for this worthy adversary. Maybe when it's gone, I might look back with fondness at the many hours I spent staring at it with contempt. Now on to the off-white fridge that won't die!

Ahh the the popo! I can't do another nickel!

I thought I'd share this Teen Girl Squad because it had me laughing hard in a few spots. Especially when Mrs. Tompkinsrobotmomerson tells the babysitter that she'll be "At a place until a time. My cell phone number is some numbers." Becky and I also liked "Ahh the popo! I can't do another nickel!" Becky was impressed that I knew "nickel" meant five years in prison. That's the kind of stuff you learn when you hang out with the homies.

Based on the 1 movies you've rated, we think you'll like these titles.

Blockbuster.com has a service where they recommend movies we like according to the ratings we give movies. I never do these rating things when they email them to me but apparently Ryan must have rated one movie. I'm a bit disturbed by some of the movies it thought we might like to view.

Saw II
I hate these gore porn type horror movies and I know we've ever rented or viewed one. I hardly made it through "The Ring" and that was nothing compared to some of these released recently.

Are We Done Yet?
"Having decided to ditch the city in favor of the suburbs, a newly formed family purchases a quaint "fixer-upper" that proves to be more trouble than they could have ever anticipated in a rollicking family comedy that's half sequel to Are We There Yet?"
Need I say more?

The Pacifier
Poor Vin Diesel must have needed to make a car payment when he decided to sign on to this movie. I know a lot of people said it was hilarious but I just can't bring myself to watch it.

Red Dragon
While I recognize that Silence of the Lambs was a great movie (pretty good book also) I don't think these sequels/prequels are up to par. No Jodie Foster is a deterrent and the fact that I still have nightmares from seeing the original. "It rubs the lotion on the skin."

Save the Last Dance
I think I saw a minute or two of this on tv once and that minute was a enough for me. Small town girl moves to big city and doesn't fit in. Falls in love with inner-city tough/hip hopping african american boy who helps her learn to love dancing again. I like Julia Stiles but she isn't enough to pull me into watching this one.

The Wicker Man
We actually rented this when in Canada and while Monti and Ryan watched it I spent most of the time on the laptop researching it. I did this because I was astounded by it's craptasticness and I was glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought this. It has to be one of the worst movies ever! Nick Cage must have sold his soul and satan was the producer of this movie. I imagine satan yelling "act harder!" to Cage througout this crap fest. It's almost worth the watch it's that bad.

Life will never be the same

My kids have developed opinions and it is cramping my style! Gone are the days when I could just buy them clothes and they would wear them without question. I decided this morning that we needed a family outing (just call me Amanda) mainly because I didn't want to just sit at home all day. We've never been to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake so I thought that would be a good place to have our outing. It's in a huge outdoor shopping mall so we could also do some school shopping. I've decided in an effort to reduce my stress and save money I'm letting the girls get one back-to-school shirt for now and then I'll worry about the rest when the need arises. After we saw the Dinosaur IMAX 3D movie, which was very good, and explored the planetarium, we went shirt shopping. Something you may not know about me is that I'm not a big fan of t-shirts with writing on them. Especially t-shirts with phrases like "I'm the Princess" or "I Like Spending Daddy's Money". This makes it hard for me to buy any t-shirt that has writing on it but for some reason my kids are always gravitating toward these. I nixed a couple of early choices they made at GapKids that had writing on them. I think they're learning because I heard Hanna telling Nana that "mom didn't like shirts with writing on them". True dat! I found this really cute shirt that I thought was perfect and Grace just looked at it like I was holding a dead rat and when I asked her if she'd like this one because it's really really cute, she said "no". They weren't going for anything I suggested or liked. We headed to Old Navy and Hanna did find a shirt there that both Ryan and I liked. Hanna is still pretty easy to convince but that's because she's the good child (take it easy I'm just kidding. kind of.) Grace didn't like any there either. She told me she "doesn't like dress shirts" which is what she calls anything other than a basic t-shirt. I'd had enough so I told her we'd continue the search another day. She was kind of tired so I'm hoping I can catch her in a better, more easily manipulated mood.

This is the shirt Hanna chose

They both liked this one

Maybe I like gore

For some strange reason I've been hot on the trail to see the movie 300. Yesterday I went into Blockbuster to exchange our mailed movie for another and I was planning on renting 300. My kids were begging me to get something we could all watch together but there was no way I was getting Firehouse Dog. Call me selfish but I just can't sit through that kind of crap. I was in a bit of a hurry since the kids and Great-grandma Evelyn were waiting in the car so I just grabbed 300 and headed out. One thing about our Blockbuster is that the employees are very free with their opinions on movies you rent. Yesterday it was "Flo" (we'll call her that because she is older with huge hair and a lot of jewelry) and she told me that 300 "had a lot of gore". I don't like the feeling that I'm being judged every time I come into the store, so I just said "Yeah I'm kind of into gore."

Thriller!

Wow! I recently put Thriller on my iPod shuffle for when I run and it brings back a lot of pre-teen memories. We owned "The Making of Thriller" video. Beat that! Here is an alternative version that I found fascinating.

Look at me! I'm an environmentalist.

I'm not really because I don't do much to help the environment but I have good intentions. I have been considering switching to cloth grocery bags. Thoughts? I get so many of these and while I do take them back to Walmart to be recycled I still wonder if it would be better to just give them up. You can buy cloth bags online that are inexpensive so it there wouldn't be a big cost involved. I just wonder how the checkers at Walmart would react when I whipped out my cloth bags?

On a totally different subject, we have a crazy fly in our house at the moment. Usually flys just buzz around and don't really bug you much but this one is insane! It follows me into different rooms only to buzz around my head. It's kind of freaking me out.

Vacation Hangover

Vacation 07 has come to an end and I have that familiar feeling that Ilike to call "vacation hangover". It's a combination of sleep deprivation and bad eating that leave me with a really bad headache/fuzzy feeling. Not having had many hangovers I don't really know if it compares to a real hangover but whatever, enough about the hangover thing. So sit back and enjoy some photos with pithy comments. Remember you can click on the photos to view them full size.

The first part of our vacation was spent in Magrath at my parents house. We were there during the blow-out that is Magrath Days which includes a parade. This is my niece Beth with Gracie. They are more interested in candy than in the parade and I have to admit this is a candy filled parade. Look at those Canadian chairs. Who says Canadians aren't patriotic?


That deer is looking at me! My parents had three sweet, little, cutie-pie baby deers in their yard. Two were twins. They were pretty freakin adorable.



Yep, we sit around and play the ukulele. Don't you?



Hanna and Gracie with my parents on their front porch. They love getting spoiled by them and I'm all for it if it means I can eat at Earl's in peace. Hanna was into being a cowboy this vacation.


Uncle Mike is a real cowboy and he was very happy to show Hanna and Grace how to be cowgirls. Hanna was a natural at riding.



I think Grace was trying to show me she could ride without hands or else she was just excited. She didn't get the hang of it quite like Hanna did but she had a lot of fun riding with a little help from Mike.
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When Hanna was riding Grace played mancala with Ryan. She was really good at it which made her happy. She's got my competitive spirit.


Charlotte cooking sour dough blueberry pancakes with the girls. I love the way Charlotte cooks mainly because it's healthy but tastes great. We had the best salmon with baked cauliflower. YUM!
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Hanna getting ready to ride.


Mike and Hanna heading off into the wilderness. It's very remote here which makes it even more fun to go to. I wish I
would have taken more pictures of the scenery since it's breathtaking. There are apparently a lot of Native American artifacts in the area.


That moose is looking at me! We saw three moose when we drove to Sheridan, WY.



That's pretty much it. After we left the cabin we went to Thermopolis, WY to visit Ryan's grandma and while we were there we watched a Native American ceremony that was really interesting. It was a good vacation but I'm glad to be back home and catching up on sleep.

Still Alive

I'm sure you're all worried about my lack of blogging this week. I know many depend on my daily witticisms to get you through. We're in Wyoming now with Ryan's Aunt and we spent Thursday night at their very rustic cabin. It is basically located in a place few white men have seen. Needless to say it had no internet access. It's beautiful there and we all enjoyed the horse riding. I'll blog more about it when we get home. The exciting part was that our van had a blowout while we were making our way out of the wilderness. We had no business taking our van down or up that road. It held up for as long as it could. All is well now but I did have to use nature's bathroom while Ry was changing the tire. Karen, I took off all my clothes(thanks for the tip). We're fairing it up tomorrow in Basin, WY then on Sunday we are going to visit Ryan's grandma in Thermopolis and head home from there. I've been gone almost a month! It will be good to get home and start working on the 5-10 lbs I gained eating "vacation food".

My Eating for Wednesday (mostly on the road to WY):

White toast with butter and jam
Shelby, Montana gas station egg salad sandwhich (on white bread)
Gummy bears
Dill pickle chips
Whopper Jr.(Hadn't eaten at Burger King in years. Felt remorse.)
Fries
Diet Coke
Popcorn with butter (at Charlotte's)