The extra mile

I didn't feel like making my own cake this year, welllllll . . . . actually I usually get a watermelon for my birthday but it is a little over my lifting limit at the moment and so a BIG Thank you goes out to a great couple who brought me over a piece of cheese cake. You know who you are and I appreciate the gesture and your friendship, you really helped to make my day wonderful! I love cheese cake and this one was yummy!

My Day

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday! and yesterday was awesome. My parents came by and gave me an unexpected gift. Last February I gave my dad this HUGE box of chocolates knowing he'd have a love/hate affair with it. Yesterday they came to my door with an equally huge box of what looked like chocolates, My heart fell . . . I have a love/hate affair with chocolate also and I could see the pounds just racking up on my thighs. I was relieved when they handed the box to me because it was suspiciously lighter than chocolates. I opened the box and it looked like something homemade. Red cellophane wrapped goodness! I thought my mom must have made me some of her homemade caramels or turtles or something of that sort! I picked one up and it was cool to the touch, then I opened it and smelled it . . . pickled beets! What a surprise. Can you believe they individually wrapped up a pint of pickled beets to look like candy?

A little background . . . . . as a kid my mom used to can A LOT. When we kids got hungry we'd go to the storage room and see what we could find to eat. I loved her pickled beets and her dill pickles, also her canned tomatoes. I would eat them a quart at a time. My grandfather would say I was going to pickle my insides! I'd even drink the juice . . . . CRAZY! What a great gift!

Later on, when the mail came I received a package from Lincoln with a really nice letter that made me smile and cry and laugh and wish he were home although if he were home I wouldn't have gotten such a nice letter so, maybe it is okay!!! He also sent me a DVD of a Shania Twain concert for her Up! album. I sat down immediately and watched it. 2 hours of Shania. . . I still love Shania and hope she puts out another CD soon. Thank you for the concert honey, you timed that package perfectly!

The fact that I actually used the word album in an earlier sentence says a lot about my age, so I don't think I'll edit it out . . . . . do you younger people even know what an album is? :)

Yipeeee!

I just got a letter from the State of Utah about my tax audits . . . . . I WON! The judge decided not to strictly abide by the State's tax code and go with the "intent" of the taxpayer, which was me! I'm SOOOOOoooooo excited! Hopefully I can use this decision to get out of the last audit that I received last month and anything in the future that may come up. Wooo hooo!

Field trips

I've been watching my cousin Sally post her field trips and am now excited to post a few of my own. It is always nice to have company because they get you out doing stuff instead of sitting at home . . . . although I do love to sit at home also.

We started off the weekend with a family dinner, getting acquainted with cousins, some that we had never met before. My kids and Trudy's kids and the new cousins got along really well. It brought me back to the times when we would go to family reunions and "hit it off" with cousins we only saw every other year or so. I loved those times. The kids went out and played kick the can, and capture the flag and on other days, swam, and built domino-tip-overs. Twas fun!

I liked this picture of Stevie and Trudy. . . .

Here is Jeni, Dallin, Cameron and Noah.On Monday we went to Fort McHenry. I've been there probably a half-a-dozen times and it always gives me goosebumps or brings tears to my eyes to hear the story behind the fort and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. After going through that tour, you never sing that song in the same way again. We picked the one day in 10 years that the inside of the fort was closed. They were putting up a new flag pole, and so we didn't get to see the huge flag just an itty bitty one. The silver lining was that it was "free day"!!

McKay sitting on a canon.

Evan, McKay and Dallin, horsing around. Jessica, Cameron and Steve watching the sword play.Dallin, McKay and Evan demonstrating their new sword technic.

Then we went to the Baltimore aquarium. I LOVE the Baltimore aquarium. It is "bar-none" the best aquarium I've ever been to. Worth the money. We ate lunch in the inner harbor . . . can't believe I've done that twice already this summer!

One cool thing about the aquarium is its openness. You can see this tank from the floor level. It has stingrays, turtles and sharks swimming together and as you climb the 4 floors of the building the center section is always open so you get different views of it. The escalators even cross over it.

There is a rain forest on the top floor of the aquarium . . . birds, frogs, monkeys, and other flora and fauna abound. Jeni and Jessica are in this picture.

Dallin, McKay and the back of Evans head!

I cannot forget McKay's swim meet . . . . It has been a busy few days!

From Halley's Competition

Halley really gets into her singing doesn't she? I'm starting to find video from Halley and her choir's tour. This is in Germany at the competition that they won . . . . You just are going to have to survive the "proud mama" blogs for now!

Another one . . . .

And yet again . . . . .

Some more!

I wasn't going to post any more . . . . . but I like this one too!!!

Oh Boy! Here we go again!

A few months ago I posted that I was being audited by the State of Utah. They want me to pay taxes on money I earned here in Maryland to THEM! To me this is ludicrous, to them, it makes sense. I had my final hearing a month ago and still have not heard back from them. I am not expecting good things. They had a lawyer and he made his case pretty well. I didn't have a lawyer and so couldn't produce any "statutes" to back me up. I think the judge could see my side, in fact, I could hear in his voice that he thought the whole thing was ridiculous and was very nice, but I don't know if he'll side with me. I don't know how much leeway judges have to make their own decisions. ANYHOW! . . . .

Yesterday I got another notice of audit!#*&%*#! For the SAME THING for another tax year. I called the auditor, which is one that I haven't worked with before and asked him nicely if he could just lump it with my other audits because it is the same issue. I already have a file an inch thick trying to prove the other audit was bogus. Mr. green-behind-the-ears, (he sounded so unsure) kept telling me to just follow the directions that were included in my letter. OH COME ON! Can't we make things simple, this is so simple!!!!!! I told him that I was going to contact the "judge" and see what he said about the whole thing, and he relented to talking to his "supervisor" and give me a call back . . . . I'm still waiting. THIS STINKS! I've sworn off doing my own taxes . . . . . . Lincoln just wants to swear off the State of Utah, maybe I'm coming around to his way of thinking.

Happy Birthday Halley!!

Today Halley is legal!!!! A big 21. Did you know she was a contortionist? I stole this picture off of her facebook! I wouldn't be smiling with my body all twisted up like that. . . .lol.

LOVE YOU HALLEY! Hope you have a great day . . . . . you make me proud!

You're so vain . . . .

I think I'm becoming the bearded lady. Really! Do all women have this problem? I'm sorry for those who associate with me because it is becoming a major topic of discussion. Chin whiskers. They are becoming my nemesis. I refuse to shave . . . . because what would happen? Wouldn't I make my chin whiskers worse? I refuse to wax . . . . because I'd have to grow the suckers out so that the wax would have something to pull on. I'm stubborn, I know.

What I HAVE done is tweeze, tweeze, tweeze. I have been tweezing so much that I started to get, no more than started to get, I GOT a hematoma like thing on my chin that I had to start covering up with makeup. I had to have another solution to my problem, so I went to the store and got this buffer like thing that was supposed to exfoliate the hair by rubbing it off. What it was was a glorified excuse for a fine sand paper, and it was rubbing off my skin as well as my hair! Maybe if I go deep enough it would rub out my new hematoma like thing too? Just kidding!

A couple of days ago I went to the store again, looking for a another solution. Nair for the face! Hmmmmmm. I've tried Nair on my legs and got a rash . . . . . for the face, hmmmmm. I purchased it and came home and tried a spot on the inside of my arm and waited. All was good. Next I tried it on my chin. OH MY GOODNESS, I can say, Nair still doesn't work, and I have two much worse looking spots than either whiskers or a hematoma looking thing. It burned my skin so badly that it wept for two days and is just now trying to form a scab. If I didn't know any better, I'd accuse Lincoln of giving me hickies on my chin. Or I could say I'd been playing with a vacuum tube like my nephew's hickies were supposed to be caused by!!! (Sorry Mr. B!) Thank goodness I have the weekend to heal my wounds and start looking for another idea to get rid of my ghastly looking facial hair.

Any ideas out there? Anyone willing to share that they have feminine whiskers also?

An extraordinary day

Yesterday was a really great day for me in many ways. I decided I was going to go out and run a few errands one of which was getting my hair cut. It had been 11 weeks since the last cut and my hair was looking wild (something that is quite normal really!) So while I was in the chair, the stylist, who was new to me, asked if I had children. I love this question, and the wide eyes it usually gets me. 23, 21, 19, and 13 is my answer this year. All odd numbers . . . and it got the reaction I usually get, even better this time. "WOW, I thought you were like 32," she says. I love people like her!!!

Later McKay had a GREAT baseball game of which he pitched 4 innings. THEY WON! Which has been a very rare occurrence for them, and they even won against the dreaded Red Sox, a harder team, they had a winning streak a mile long that we broke. Yippee! I thought the win (and an extra good hit he made) deserved a trip to Rita's for McKay. At Rita's the girl behind the counter tried to talk me into getting a bigger Gelati . . . .I said "no, they go straight to my hips" . . . and what did this blessed girl say? "You don't need to worry about THAT." I'd like to take both of these girls home with me!!!

Later that evening, I realized something. Something miraculous. I hadn't thought about my surgery "stuff" for a good part of the day!!! A milestone. A really good day. No tummy swell!!! I'm hoping for another good day today, it would be a blessing.

My hair is a bit shorter than it has been in YEARS . . . . you got to have a little pain with the joy!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Halley had such an awesome opportunity to sing in this amazing choral group. Read an article about her competition here: U of U Singers I can't believe she is choosing not to sing with them next year. She has other goals in mind!

Important Firsts

Here I am approaching 44 years of age. You'd think I'd just about have done every "first" that you could possibly think about. Yes, you would think that. I keep stumbling upon more and more of them everyday. Some of them good, some of them not so good.

The day of Chancy's graduation I was taking the day really easy. I didn't have to be out the door until 12:30 and so I slept in, and then decided to get up and iron Chancy's white shirt and his graduation gown. While I was ironing it, the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" I was thinking. I went to the door and there stood MY TUESDAY MORNING PIANO STUDENT!!!! ARghhhh!!! I'm so glad she is a good friend of mine! How could I forget that I had a lesson? After getting over the initial embarrassment of completely forgetting her lesson, I asked her if she minded if I taught her her piano lesson as I was . . . .

There you have it! . . . . . my first piano lesson taught in pajamas, hair not done, makeup smudged, sleepers still congealing in the corners of my eyes! How humiliating. Before this moment I had felt bad about teaching in bare feet.

Some firsts you can just plain live without!

Congratulations!

Yesterday was Chancy's Graduation. Chancy's grandma (Lincoln's Mother) flew out from Utah for the ceremony. If Chancy had had his way he would have skipped the ceremony, so it was fortunate that he had a reason to go through all the "pomp and circumstance." Sometimes you do it not for you, but for your loved ones. I for one, am very happy to get him through this major milestone in life. Whew! Now he can chart his own path. It'll be interesting to see what the coming years will bring for him.

Old home movies

I was downloading some old videos from our camera last night and came across this one. This is one thing I miss about Justin living at home . . . . hearing his almost constant playing of the guitar. If you listen to it, there are two songs that he plays . . . the second is one of my favorites. I keep trying to get him to make an audio recording of it so I can play it on my blog!

When Justin first started playing the guitar he insisted he wanted to play an electric guitar. We went to the store to buy him one and I kept telling him he needed to start out on an acoustic. I thought I could enlist the salesmen at the store to agree with me but they said that whatever motivates him was the instrument to get, so we came home with an electric. Soon after he started his guitar lessons he wanted an acoustic like his teacher had. I think the acoustic is his favorite now and is definitely my favorite to listen to. Justin only had a few lessons and is mostly self taught. He now plays the guitar in the 257th army band's "rock" band.

ENJOY! In a few days I'll move the video to the bottom of my blog, so I can listen whenever I want to!