What's wrong with this picture?

OK, so I'm driving down the road today in the Yukon, running a bunch of errands, when I spot a Shell station selling gas for $3.94. I thought, "That has to be a mistake! They can't sell gas for $3.94!" I flipped that car around so fast and filled 'er up. It cost me $103 and she wasn't even empty. Huh?

Random ramblings

OK, so it's been awhile. I've been busy. Let's start by going back to last week. On Sunday (Mother's Day) Chris had to leave for Portland for a haz mat class. On Wednesday morning, Keaton left for his field trip to the coast. After school that day, Carson, Jantzen and I packed up and headed down to Portland to enjoy the free hotel. It worked out perfectly, because there happened to be a crazy heat wave while we were there, and the pool just happened to be outside. We met up with Dana and Jennifer to experience IKEA for the very first time. That was fun, but one hour of child care is NOT ENOUGH TIME to go through that store. The kids found that they could fit inside the lockers and I was tempted to lock them in so I could finish my shopping. But no. When it came right down to it, I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Cousin Cole came to the hotel to swim with us after IKEA. I'm not sure why the kids chose the hot tub over the pool when it was 95 degrees outside, but whatever.

While in Portland we also BOUGHT A CAR!

On Friday afternoon, we met Keaton's bus in Troutdale, put him in the car and headed to Springfield to see our new nephew/cousin, Jace.

On Sunday was his blessing, and like the angel that he is, he slept through the whole thing. On Monday we packed up and came home. Gas prices are so crazy high that I don't know when we'll ever get to leave the house again. We spent so much money on gas, I can't even bring myself to total it up.

In other news...

We had a spider day on Wednesday. I think it began when Chris picked his shorts up off the floor and put them on, just like he does every morning. It didn't take too long for him to feel a little tickle "down there". Needless to say, all clothes were off and the spider was dead in about two seconds flat! (I'm sure he loves that I'm sharing this.)

Then, when Carson was leaving for school he discovered something in the garage. You see, back in the fall I found this most amazing and huge spider that I had ever seen. So I did what any good mother would do. I captured it in the kids' bug catcher thingy. This spider was so fat, that it looked like its abdomen would burst. Carson took it to school for show and tell. Other teachers were asking to show it in their classrooms. It was quite a big deal at the school. And even for a while after, teachers would ask how she was doing. Not too long later, she made a nest inside the bug catcher then died. We set the cage on a shelf in the garage and promptly forgot about it. Until Wednesday. We had a scene that brought back memories of the movie "Arachnophobia". There were webs all around the cage and the shelves that it was sitting on. And suspended in those webs were hundreds of tiny little spiders. EEWWWWW!!!!! We had a spider holocaust with the bug spray.

On Thursday I had a body composition test. While I won't share the results, I am relieved to know that I am within normal range for my age. I'd still like to lose some weight, but maybe I'm not as fat as I think. I'll have another test done right before I run the half-marathon in October to see what all the running is doing for me.

Well, that about covers it for the last couple of weeks. I'll be back in a month or so. haha

The things she says

"Jesus died on the crosswalk for us because He loves us."
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Jantzen and I went to the hair salon where I have my hair done and Krista also does massage. Jantzen was wandering around and discovered Krista's massage room with her massage table in it. Then she says to Krista, "Is that where you sleep?" Krista tells her, "No, that's where I give massages." Then Jantzen says, "Oh, cuz when I saw that bed I was like, is that where she sleeps? I was like that."
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My mommy had my brothers and me. Babies come out of the mama's bum.
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"Mommy, will you watch Princess Diarrheas with me?"

Magic Treehouse

(Sorry about the sideways picture. I'm new to this blogging thing.)

Have you ever read those children's books called Magic Treehouse? The brother and sister climb into their treehouse and are magically transported to places all over the world. I think we have one in our back yard. Carson realized this weekend that he could climb our maple tree, and he thinks it is the best thing ever. Keaton helps lift Jantzen up into the tree, and it becomes this magical place where Carson and Jantzen actually get along! On Sunday after church, they packed themselves a lunch of PBJ's and whoknowswhatelse. They put it into a bucket then pulled it up into the tree with a rope. Then they sat there for about an hour feasting together. It was so sweet. If they had been sitting at the table together eating they would most definitely be fighting, but not in the tree house! Hooray for trees! I'm an official "tree hugger" now.

What was I thinking?

(Panting)Yep, that knot in my stomach was a sign. (Breathe, breathe) That was the hardest run I've ever ran! When I got there, they very casually mentioned that we'd be running up the biggest hill in Hermiston during this, the first run I've done in months. I so wanted to start walking. If I had been alone, I would have hitchhiked home. But I guess that good ole' pride kept me going. All I have to say is that the chocolate at the end of that race better be good! I'm going back to bed now.

Running...hmmm

I realize that it's only been 11 days since I posted about not ever running again. But there's this new yoga and fitness studio in town that I went to check out yesterday. They didn't have any yoga classes that would fit into my schedule right now, but they do have this running group that's training for a half marathon in October. She made it sound like so much fun! It's called the Girlfriends Half Marathon, and it's only for women. If you think you're crazy enough to do it too, here's the linkwww.nwpersonaltraining.com/subs/events/event_details.php?event_id=18 There's chocolate and massages at the end. What more could a woman want?? I'm thinking that if I'm running with friends it will be easier. So wish me luck. I'm leaving right now for my first run, and I have a bit of a knot in my stomach. Do you think that's a sign?

Spring Break

I know it's kind of delayed, but I still need to post about our trip to Utah for Spring Break. We stayed with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Fay in Heber City. It was so much fun, and a much needed break from work for Chris. We arrived there on Friday evening and immediately enjoyed some of Tom and Fay's home cookin' and barbecuin'. That's always good. On Saturday we went to Costco in Provo to get some discount lift tickets and even had a Marie Osmond sighting! Then we went back and shoveled snow enough for the kids to ski down the little hill at the park next door.








Sunday was Easter. We went to church in the morning, then came home and cooked and cooked and cooked for the 20 or so guests that were coming for dinner. After dinner everyone under the age of 40 piled into the van to drive up the hill behind Grandma and Grandpa's house. This is prime territory for longboarding.** We took a couple of trips down with no problems or injuries. Then one of Uncle Robbie's friends from Wyoming went. It didn't take too long for him to get going way too fast and wipe out. His shirt was torn up and so were a few patches of skin. It was pretty ugly. Chris had to whip out his paramedic skills. We would have taken him to the ER for stitches, but as Chris put it, "There's no skin left to stitch." Gross.
**I realize that this was not an acceptable Sabbath Day activity, but being closer to 40 than most of the other participants, I didn't want to be the party pooper. Consider the lesson learned!**

This is our victim before. (In the Midtown shirt) He does have a bit of a scared look on his face, don't you think? Maybe deep down he knew what was coming.

This is our victim after. He was pretty much hating life. He almost ended up "driving the porcelain bus."

Monday we went skiing at Deer Valley. It was way too crowded, but the weather was gorgeous. We all came home with at least a portion of our faces sunburned. I think we were the only ones on the mountain who brought a sack lunch. We got a few weird looks, but oh well! We saved ourselves tons of money by brown-bagging it.

The rest of the week consisted of skiing at The Canyons and hanging out with the fam. The men and boys had a day of snowmobiling which they loved.

One day Chris and Spencer went skiing with no women or children so that they could do whatever boys do on a mountain. I think they almost died.

Fay and I took the kids to Utah Olympic Park where they just happened to be having the U.S. Championships going on for the aerials. That was way cool. We also checked out the ski museums there and the kids got to hold the olympic torch.

On Saturday, our last day, we went to Temple Square. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, which I was afraid the kids would be bored with, but they loved it. It was way good. We didn't have time to walk around the grounds which was a total bummer, but it was fun anyways.


We then went to BYU where Chris' cousin from Canada, Jasmine, had a harp concert. We don't get much culture in this hick town where we live, so I was really excited to experience this. I wasn't disappointed. These girls (and one boy) were so amazing! They even made a hokey song like "Yankee Doodle" sound sublime. There were a few soloists who were phenomenal, Elizabeth Smart being one of them. (Remember her? Kidnapped, missing for a long time, then found in Utah) The boys were bored after a bit, but held it together. Jantzen was mesmerized, and informed us that she wants a harp for her birthday. ($30,000 anyone?) Jasmine was awesome to let Jantzen try to play her harp after the concert was over. She was in heaven.





Sunday morning we woke up to about 6 inches of new snow, which we had hoped for all week but never got. But alas, we had to leave for home. So we packed it all up in the snow and took off.
Buggers!


It was a week of sun, snow, fun and way too much good food. (Four pounds worth!) But all good things must come to an end.