An Attitude of Gratitude

Things I am grateful for this most fabulous of Thanksgiving days (in no particular order):

• Edward
• Gty
• New tires (it's like I'm driving on air now, srsly, you gize)
• The good friends who are going to watch our kids whilst we cruise the Caribbean.
• The baseball scene in Twilight.
  
• Diet caffeinated beverages
• Spell check
• PedEgg
• The ability to fall asleep quickly
• Two funny boys
• A nice little girl
• That scene in Twilight when Edward first walks into the cafeteria.
  
• A Dad who knows how to make perfect pie crust & has now departed his knowledge to me.
• Cell phone
• Blogland (I'm just going to assume it's so slow these days because of the holidays so I don't get too sad)
• My Laurels
• Biosilk
• Costco & Target (it's a toss up)
  
• That I get to hang with the Morgan Sisters on Friday
• The part in Twilight when Edward has his sunglasses on & is walking through the school parking lot.
• The DVD player in the car.
• Sonic
• That I have no desire to hit the Day-After-Thanksgiving "sales."
• bullet points

Here's hoping you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family & friends!!

Fave Foto Friday: Beach Bums

Just in the nick of time!!


Here is Memzy, our CousinAnnie & I at the beach. I'm guessing it was 1985ish? I forget. I think this is right before they would have shipped us off to the Uglies Dorms. Awkward! ::said all singsongy::

(The purpose of this post is to get your minds off Twilight for just a moment. It's not really working on me, but maybe it will on you? Seeing it twice does not take away from the magic, you gize. I'm guessing three times wouldn't either.)

OH MY GOSH, YOU GIZE!!!!!

Loved it, loved it, loved it!

I'm starting to think they kept the trailers all lame & melodramatic so gullible people like myself would take their expectations to a whole new low & then BAM! they'd hit you with an awesome movie.

Why am I such a sucker?

I don't care why.

I loved it.

So artsy in its cinematography. So hip in its dialog. So.... I dunno.... real, but not real.

Perfection.

I'll be dreaming of Edward tonight. No doubt.

I'm crushin' all over again.

::sigh::

I may even wake Gty up. tee hee.

Things That Make Me Happy Right Now

Here come the bullet points:

• Gty is home this week. We went out to lunch today after taking pictures of each other for our Christmas card. We went to Rumbi Grill.
• The Mahi Platter at Rumbi Grill.
• This picture of BeeBee: It's the "Living Doll" done to perfection.
  
• 
• Individually vacuum packed frozen chicken breasts. They thaw in their own little packages... no nasty chicken juice all over the place. Plus, there's no trying to get these huge clumps of chicken apart. It's all very good.
• People who flash their brights to warn on coming traffic of a cop. It's so old-school, I love it. I mean, what's in it for them? It's pure selflessness. Or they are cop haters/ex cons. Either way, me no getty a ticket.
• Making my Christmas cards. Now that I have a plan, I love the execution.
• That I've gained 3 lbs. in three days doing nothing differently. K, that one is sarcastic. At least if Imma pay the price I'd at least like to be eating well on a vaycay or something.
  
• My new chore system. Memzy is just waiting for it to fail. I can almost guarantee it will not. I found a note in TBone's backpack today... a little something written on a folded up post-it note "Deer Jack, I wont mor chors." See? Unrelated side note: I think we need to sign Tbone up for Sylvan (?).
• Online Christmas shopping. The gifts are arriving at my doorstep daily.
• The fact that I'll be seeing Twilight at the first possible moment (w/o going to a different time zone, that is) wearing an authentic Forks, WA hoodie. ::keeping expectations low::
  
• SpagBol

Has Brains, Will Play Football

We're rolling out an amazing chore chart tonight for FHE. It's based on points. The boys will get a penny for every point they earn. Jbird was thinking he would try to earn 100 points per day and therefore earn $1/day (this is impossible, though you gize . . . don't tell Jbird).

JBird: Soooo.... in five weeks I could have.... ::doing calculations in his head::
Me: $35
JBird: Yeah cuz...
Me: 7x5 is ::counting on fingers:: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35
JBird: OR you could do 7, 14, 21, 28, 35
Me: Isn't it easier to count by 5s?
JBird: It's easier for me to count by touchdowns.

FFF Bonus: Milly's Birthday!

Today is my MIL's birthday people! I think she checks my blog about twice a month so ::crossing fingers:: hopefully it will be today!

In honor of Milly (that's her code name... get it? MIL-ly? Get it?) I've decided to do a dedicatory post to her. This is partially for posterity & partially for kicks because she is one funny lady. Literally one of my favorite people ever.



Things I love about Milly:

• She is so much fun to talk to. She could literally sit and talk to anyone for hours. And we do.
• She is the ultimate worrier. She worries about stuff constantly. She worries about stuff that I probably SHOULD worry about but don't-- like my kids getting carbon monoxide poisoning because I turn the car on in the garage (with the door open, mind you) and then run back in and get my scriptures for church. She worries about it because she read in the newspaper a few years ago about someone dying that way. Steel trap mind, that one.
• She is so thoughtful. Every couple of months we'll get a package in the mail from Grandma Milly with seasonal stuff for the kids & newspaper clippings she cut out and thought we might be interested in. This tells us that she is always thinking about us which is awesome.
• Her favorite sayings are "Oh SPARE ME!" and "whatEVER" (emphasis on the ever).
• She either will say she's going to bed and then not go to bed for another 4 hours while we all stay up and chat, or all of a sudden at 10pm I'm like "Where is Milly?" and she'll be in her bed, all the lights on, dead asleep.
  
• She laughs at my jokes... even the off color ones.
• She LOVES to read. She is constantly reading multiple books at a time. I love reading a book she has already read & then talking to her about it (see first point).
• She has NEVER pressured/guilt tripped us to come out and visit.
  
• They have always make the time to come & visit us a couple of times a year no matter where we have lived.
  

Favorite Milly Stories:

• Gty tells a story about when he was playing baseball as a youngster. It was cold outside so his mom was watching the game from her car (a Ford Ranchero if I'm not mistaken). Well, Gty gets a good hit & is running the bases & his mom started honking her horn as a way to celebrate. Needless to say, Gty was uber embarassed.
• Milly put a frozen loaf of bread in the microwave to defrost it with the twist tie thingy still on it. After a second the twist tie thingy started sparking. Phil (my FIL... get it? FIL?) was like "Uh, Mil, the bread is catching on fire" And Milly said all casual "Oh, it always does that."
• When Gty was growing up he had no idea what the big deal was with the Sports Illlustrated swimming suit issue..... because before he got home from school Milly would have already ripped out all the bikinis. She'd leave one one-piece picture though so that was nice.
  
• When Phil was stake president, he obviously had a lot of meetings to go to. One time we were there visiting and Milly wanted him to just skip his meeting because they had family in town. Phil insisted he needed to go. As he was walking out he looked at Milly and she just gave him the bird. It was awesome.

• She was ahead of her time on the drinking of Diet Coke. When the little neighborhood kids would come over she would hide it down in the sink and drink it when they weren't looking. I still don't know if this was so they wouldn't go home & tell their moms Sister Milly was drinking Diet Coke or she just didn't want to share.
• Speaking of Diet Coke, I have this vivid image in my mind of Milly walking in to the house with two cases of Diet Coke in her hands..... she lifted them up and said "I'm trying to quit!"
• A few weeks ago, Gty was at their house. He had some extra stuff he needed to bring home on the airplane so he asked his mom if she had an extra duffle bag he could borrow. Milly said.... "I don't think so." Gty "Well, I was just down in the storage room and I saw a duffle bag on the floor but it looks like there is some stuff in it." So they go down to have a looksee aaaaaand .... it was a duffle bag full of duffle bags.

So there you have it. Some Milly stories for you gize. I feel bad for anyone who doesn't know her personally. I've told Gty a few times that if he ever divorced me, I would fight to get his family in the settlement.

Thanks for all you do for us Milly . . . I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

I love you!

Landee

This-N-That

Here are some random things I feel worth mentioning at this time:

• We ended up raking & bagging & dragging out to the curb 9 bags of leaves. "Operation Leaves Blow Into the Neighbor's Yard" didn't work out as well as we'd hoped. Dang fences in the backyard.
• After 2 1/2 years of being in this house I now know exactly what light switches turn on what set of lights. Um, yes, this IS a big deal. We have this one place where there are six light switches all in a row. The last two are for a ceiling fan that isn't there... it took me a good year to stop trying those switches. So yeah, we're home.
• Last night, while JBird had basketball practice, I didn't feel like 1) keeping track of Beebs & Tbone at the practice place or 2) driving all the way home just to come back and get JBird an hour later. So we went to a McDonald's Playland close to where JBird was practicing. We had already had dinner so the kids didn't want anything. Not wanting to be rude by just using the playland I asked the acne-faced teenager (I know that's cliche but it was for realz) at the register for a large drink as it had one of those self-serve drink stations. He then asked "Is this for here or to go?" Really? For a drink? Ok, I said "To go" and then proceeded to sit down & drink it.
  
• Gty is doing Weight Watchers "Online for Men." It's hilarious. The man is now obsessed with points. He's lost a goodly amount of weight on it so the points obsession is going to continue. The problem is, now MY life revolves around points. He'll come in at, like, 4pm and go "K, babe, you got 13 points for dinner...." and I'll be like "Um no. YOU have 13 points, I have 100 points."
• I keep thinking my dog is dying. I felt an wierd lump on her neck a few weeks ago. I immediately think it's cancer. I haven't taken her in to get it checked so I still think it's cancer. Last night, she was pacing all over the place. She'd lie down for a minute, then get up, go 2 feet over, lie down again... etc. like she couldn't get comfy. I started thinking she was gonna die any second. Like this was how dogs acted when they were about to die & then I got sad. She didn't die though.
• My inactive sister is now dating an inactive guy for the first time in her life. I forsee in her future a calling as RS Pres. This is it, people, I can feel it. Aside from the fact that they are gettin' premarital, that is.
  
• Gty & I had a running man "Dance Off" at some friends' house on Saturday night. When he saw I was kicking his butt he pulled out the big guns and did the worm. I just let him have it. It wasn't worth doing my worm on those hardwood floors and my Roger Rabbit just can't compete.
  
• I think our mouse count is up to 22 now.
  

It's Go Time

Did I mention I'm going on a cruise with my awesome in-laws in December? Did you know I ALWAYS procrastinate Christmas shopping? Do you think it's too early to put up Christmas decor even if we're not gonna be here over Thanksgiving cuz we're going to be gone Dec 13-21st and I wanna enjoy it a little before we go? Do you know, as I do, that that last question was grammatially incorrect? Would you rather live without your computer or your cell phone for a month? Is your mind now going a million miles an hour?

Ugh. Me too.

So here's my strategy for Christmas this year. I am pretending that today is December 15th (ish). That is usually when I do my best/most frantic shopping. I want all my shopping to be done by Thanksgiving this year so I don't have to fight the crowds or worry that the stuff I ordered isn't going to be here on time. I also don't want to stand in an hour long line at the post office to mail anything either.

This is the new me.

I refuse to be a slave to the holidays this year.

I got 2/3 of my shopping for my kids done last night via the world wide web. It felt sooooo good. I cruised the internet, added stuff to my carts, put in my credit card number & clicked.

And then I wondered if that was breaking the Sabbath.

Shoot.

Favorite Foto Friday: Baffytime for BeeBee

Taken September 2006.

RoboCop

Son of a.....gun.

I got this in the mail the other day. I remember the flashing as I went through the intersection, I remember calling Gty right away and telling him that I think I just got a ticket.... and then I forgot about it.

Getting the mail isn't always so fun, people.




Some comments:

• It's obviously me, I mean, look at the license plate fhs. There's no fighting this in court.
• That palm tree & moon sticker is a shout out to all my SC friends. What up SC??? Ok, there's really only one of those people and she is currently fighting with the Morgan sisters on Facebook over McCain's little arms and false teeth. She gave me that sticker so I would fit in with the locals there a little bit better. Hollah!
• I only went because that guy to the right of me was going. He had better of gotten one of these too. How can I check on that?
• Do I always drive around looking so ticked off?
• I am so good about wearing my seat belt.
• This little lapse in judgement cost me $75.00. I coulda gotten you all some really nice presents with that money. And now I can't. Blame the system, you gize.
  

Dr. Crentist, DDS

First, would you rather have continuously wet socks or underwear for a month? Go.

Second, I might be getting arrested for child abuse here soon. JBird has been complaining of his tooth hurting for a couple of weeks. He'd cry & I'd be like "It's probably just some popcorn stuck between your teeth. Go floss and then get in bed." It always seemed to amazingly start hurting when he was tired/didn't want to do something/didn't want to eat something so I was SOOOO on to him.

Sunday night he complained again. This time he had full fledged tears & they didn't stop. Giggity laid JBird down on the couch, got out a flashlight and.... wha?? The freakin' biggest cavity I've ever seen. Srsly. I wanted to cry. He had one huge black hole right in the middle of two molars.

::shaking fist in air:: Curse me for not taking my kids to the dentist for two years!!!

So I call this pediatric dentist that I had seen near our pediatrician's office on Sunday night and leave a message. They call me back first thing Monday morning and get him in at 3pm yesterday. A tooth cleaning, x-rays, two silver caps and $1100.00 later we're all set.

::shaking fist in air:: Curse you Giggity for being self-employed and not getting dental cuz you didn't think it'd be worth the money!

But here's the weird part. I'm sitting there while JBird is getting his cleaning & stuff and the dentist comes in (a really nice lady) and goes "Hi, I'm Dr. Crentist. I just wanted to meet you... my mom is the lady out at the front desk and she said you're really funny."

I promise you, I said nothing funny to this woman. I explained JBird's situation. I made my appointment. I came in for the appointment. I filled out paperwork.

It's a little disconcerting to be thought of as funny when you're not doing it on purpose. I mean, it's borderline rude. Like, maybe she's laughing AT me rather than with me. I dunno. I'll need to ponder this some more.

Long story short, JBird goes back on Monday for some more fillings on the other side.

::shaking fist in air:: Curse you JBird for hating to brush your teeth!

And Tbone will also be going in for a check-up/cleaning/probably 7-10 fillings cuz he loves candy and also hates brushing his teeth.

::shaking fist towards California:: Curse you Queso for thinking to yourself right now "Hmm, hating to brush your teeth is genetic, huh?" !!!!!

Actual Conversations

Giggity & I aren't the most reverent of people. Sometimes our conversations are riddled with 5th grade humor & we love every second of it.

So yesterday I was telling him about something Q had told me. She went to a baby shower & they played a game of "Would You Rather" but it was all about parenting. For example, would you rather not be able to use a binky or disposable diapers? Or would you rather have triplets or 8 kids? You know, things of that nature.

This then leads Gty & I into our own game of "Would You Rather"... one of his was would you rather smell poo or touch poo? Um, smell poo, duh. He said no way. He claims that part of the grossness of touching poo would be the smelling so take that out of the equation and it wouldn't be that gross. I said that people smell poo every day, it's gross but no one ever touches it.... for a reason. But the man has an abnormally strong sense of smell so his perception of reality is probably skewed.

So I'm putting my own "Would You Rather" right here, right now....

Would you rather eat poo or drink pee? This assumes you won't get sick and/or die from either one. It's really just a matter of which is grosser.

And give a reason either way.

Go.

Photo Tag, yer it!

I was photo tagged by my good, loooong time friend Kelli a while back. I've never been tagged/done a tag before. Blogger has all these nifty little quirks, doesn't it? And so on this nice, laid back fall Sunday afternoon, I thought I would oblige.

If I remember correctly the tag was "go to your photos on your computer. Go to your sixth folder, and in that folder, find the sixth picture." I had to go to my external hard drive count through 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 ah, yes... 2007. Sixth folder in there was called February. And the sixth picture was:



Um, yeah . . . so . . . here is Beebee. I wasn't torturing her, I promise. I just wanted a picture of her in her cute Valentine's Day garb! If I remember correctly, this was post church, pre nap. Not a good idea by me, admittedly.

And what's with the location?

Those shoes are dang cute though.

Now What?

Thank goodness that is over for another 365 days.

Here is how the Andersons were cruisin' around the neighborhizzy last night.



JBird went as himself, essentially. That's his flag football jersey. We added his pads from when he was a Dallas Cowboy c. 2005, added some real football pants and he was good to go. I think that's the Heisman pose he's doing. Or maybe the "What up Dawg?"



TBone went as the mysterious vampire who apparently believes that if he looks directly into the camera he will die. That makeup did not come off easily, btw.





And da Beebs as the fair haired Snow White. She was so excited to have red lips I cannot even tell you. Not a good sign.



Here was my neighbor's pumpkins. Can you stand it? TDF. I was oohing and aahing over them (as was BeeBee) and then I said "We didn't carve pumpkins this year" and srsly, my neighbor looked like she was gonna cry/try to get custody of my kids.



Here is BeeBee in her "morning costume" for when we went to the gym. Yup. Another princess. She put the ensemble together on her own. She wears this around the house on the regulah so Halloween was no big woop for her... except for the getting & eating tons of candy part, of course.







So, anyway, now we have all this crappy candy around.

What do you gize do with it all?

I've heard of some people letting their kids eat as much as they want on Halloween night and then throwing the rest away. I've heard of some letting their kids have two pieces a day until it's gone. I need some ideas here. In the past we've let them eat however much they want on Halloween night (my kids aren't totally cray-zee candy kids so we've never had someone throwing up or anything) and then have it around for a couple of weeks while they nibble on it and then I eventually throw the rest away.

I'm not sure that's the best method.

If you have a better way, I'd love to hear it.