WEEK WRAP-UP

Phew, we made it to Friday.

This week was TRAGIC!

We were beset by all kinds of horrible, traumatic, life-changing TRAGEDIES!

1) The Front Door Broke

2) We had a Shipwreck, Campfire, and S'mores

3) I went to the Funeral for a 150 year old friend

4) Trammell's Tramping Through Trambodia

"I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow............" Don't bother! Even without the raging winds all week, the front door broke!

Okay, so it's not the front door. And that's Brian's pet peeve. It really bugs him that I use the as a front door. Well the car is in there. When I leave the house, I take the.......CAR. Does he think I'm going to walk? Anyway, the garage door goes up and down and up down 2 dozen times a day.

When I went out to the garage to go visiting teaching, I pushed the button, the garage door opener motor started humming, the garage went up two inches and STOPPED. So naturally, I pushed the button again....and again. Yep - it was broken. Not having time to investigate or really care, I did what any normal person would do.........climb through my car (cuz I didn't pull in far enough to be able to squeeze by the car) to the other side and got in the car in the other garage. Pushed the opener for that car..........and left.

I did call him from the road to tell him that he couldn't leave. Pretty considerate of me.

Upon further investigation by someone who cared, I learned that the spring was broken. We got a new set of springs that very day. Did you know that the springs are meant to last for 14,000 exchanges? That's 14,000 up and down cycles. But Sterling, the garage repair guy used up three of them "testing" his handiwork. Thanks Sterling! I'm down to 13,997 more cycles. I should have gotten a discount.

Anyway..........the door is fixed.

Thursday, we had a SHIPWRECK in seminary.

As luck would have it, we landed on an island of Barbarians. We immediately built a campfire

and made S'mores.

Okay, so we re-enacted Paul's fateful voyage to Rome (Acts 27 & 28). No wonder we had a shipwreck, our boat was made of paper. Our campfire was a toaster and our s'mores were S'more Poptarts! We had a great time!

The FUNERAL was this morning. My morning routine will forever be changed. For as long as I can remember, I have braved every kind of weather to retrieve the newspaper off the driveway, gathered a potpourri of food items and spent 30 minutes with the daily newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News has been around since 1859. I have been reading this paper since elementary school.

Today was the final edition!

I loved this paper because..............are you ready for my totally shallow reasons?

the FORMAT! It opens like a book. It is easy to hold and read. It doesn't take the WHOLE table when you open it. the COMICS! Stupid I know! But I love Zits, For Better or Worse, Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft. the OBITUARIES! Okay they would be better if they provided the CAUSE of death, but you can't have everything. the Ed Stein Denever Square comic and political cartoons! They make me mad EVERY SINGLE DAY. He was a little dose of liberalism that I could count on to fire me up and tick me off. Oh and the ROCKY WAS the more conservative of the two papers. Now, we're a one newspaper town. I don't know if I'll keep reading. Old habits die hard though.

In not so tragic TRAMBODIA NEWS - Trammell sent an awesome email and he was very excited for transfers. His companion was transferrred out and he gets a brand new companion straight from the MTC. He was picking him up today. Well, it's 14 hours ahead, so he already picked him up and they are sleeping in their cozy little beds covered with mosquito netting in the 88 degree weather.

He loves Cambodia. He loves the people. He loves his mission president. He loves the Gospel. He loves the Lord. What more can you ask for?

It's been a good week, but I'm ready to put the "tragedies" behind me and move on to the weekend. The options are endless.

Tonight is Seminary Inservice, Ward Talent Show and selling concessions at the high school basketball playoff game with Garrett and Parker. Tomorrow includes 8 (yes that is EIGHT) lacrosse games: four for Parker and four for Garrett. Who cares about them! I'm going to be tired!

The Moment You've Been Waiting For!

I know! I know! You've been checking back every 30 seconds to see if you won anything!

With such an AMaZiNG GiVeaWaY, who doesn't want to win?

EVERYONE wanted the butter. Now that I know that there are so many butter lovers out there, I'm kind of tempted to keep it and horde more. If ALL of you love butter so much, the world might run out! And if I give ONE of my pounds away, I'll only have 24. EEK!


The winner of the FREE WEEK OF WAKE UP CALLS (at 4:15) was a hard choice. I mean who can resist Patty's plea to win it and regift it to her old employer? It's soooo thoughtful of Patty to think of her old boss! But, I have to admit my biased love of teenagers. CONGRATULATIONS to STACY! Well, it's really congratulations to STACY'S SON! It looks like he and I will be getting up for seminary together! Just email his cell number and I'll be calling next week!

I can't believe people weren't clamoring for WHATEVER COMES OUT OF THE BOY'S POCKETS IN THE NEXT LOAD OF LAUNDRY! But whatever! I'm going to surprise one of you with this. So in a way, EVERYONE is a winner here. I'm going to wait until the contents are extra special and then hand deliver them to someone to make them feel special and brighten their day!

The winner of An Invitation to the NEXT COX PARTY/NON PARTY/"Honey, I volunteered the house EVENT is definitely MELISSA, cuz she wants it soooo badly. And who could blame her? The options are limitless. I know she's waiting by the phone because it could be an invite to Ward Council, the Youth Fireside, a YM/YW Barbecue or even better the Varsity Lacrosse Team Dinner!

The One Free Adventure Ride with ME and Lil Wayne in the Vehicle of your choice is a tough decision too. Stephanie is deserving and she's a big fan of Lil Wayne! But Patty could probably use a little getaway when her ex-boss figures out that she nominated her for 4:15 am wake up calls which would actually be 3:15 am calls. So congrats Patty! We're kind of car twins too so she'll be least likely to get car sick on those turns!

AND NOW the BIGGEST Prize! The one everyone is fighting over! I know...my heart is pounding! Really, truly, I wish everyone could win. Because I am sooo generous, I have decided that we will actually have multiple winners. I KNOW! Can you believe I would let the Bonehead Brothers out of my sight? I'm way generous! So there are THREE lucky winners. You each get One (full) Weekend with the BONEHEAD BROTHERS! I'm kind of crying at the thought of them being gone for three weekends in a row! Congrats to MARTY! He lived with us for three months.........so he clearly "deserves" this. Congrats to JAVAN! She has been Garrett's violin teacher for a billion years and she has two little boys. She NEEDS to know what she has to look forward to! And congrats to AMY ANNE cuz she is having a new baby any second and I KNOW she could really use the HELP! And who wouldn't want two teenage boys helping you with your newborn????

I know! You guys are grateful! Seriously, don't worry about thanking me! Well, you can thank me with like candy and homemade baked goods and comments and stuff. Congrats to all! You're all WINNERS in my book!

BEST GiVeaWaY EVER!

Yessiree! It's my 100th post! And what do all REAL bloggers do when they reach 100 posts? That's right! We're having our own CRaZY GiVeaWaY! It's huge! All my sponsors are digging deep and being their most generous selves.

First - thanks to all three of you who read this blog (including Brian!) Because there are only three of you, you have a WAY better chance at winning!

Second - Forget second! Let's get on with the CRaZY GiVeaWAY!

I don't want you to get over excited. I'll start with the smaller prizes and build to the GRaND PRiZe!

One lucky winner will get 1 (one) pound of butterfrom my super secret frozen butter stash of 25 pounds. This is treasure! I'm only offering this because I normally only keep about 16 pounds in the freezer and so I was suprised to see that my butter hoarding had crossed the line to excess. So, I guess I'll share!

Another lucky winner will receive One Free Week of Wake-up Calls! Seriously! I'll even be cheerful. Right when I roll over and wake up (at 4:15 am) and before I even get out of bed, I'll call you! You don't have to worry about setting your alarm for 1 whole week. You are gonna love this prize!

Next up, thanks to Proctor & Gamble (the makers of Tide) and Maytag washing machines, one lucky winner gets dibs on whatever comes out of the boys' pockets in the next load of laundry! I know this is a little like gambling because you DON'T know what will be in those pockets. From experience though, I would bet that it will be good. So, if you need some fruity flavored lip balm, a high school ID and some loose change, THIS is the prize for you. I can't guarantee anything, but if it's like last week, you could win a WHOLE WALLET!

Cuddle up with your special someone because one faithful reader and guest will receive An Invitation to the NEXT COX PARTY/NON PARTY/"Honey, I volunteered the house EVENT. While this might look like a gamble, it's really not. YOU know that these "surprise" events happen at least once a month. I can't guarantee whether it will be a dinner, fireside or (bah humbug) a presidency meeting. Sorry, but the invite will probably be last minute since I won't find out about it until the last minute. Have your babysitter standing by!

This prize is for the thrill seeker: One Free Adventure Ride with ME and Lil Wayne in the Vehicle of your choice! Sorry, I can't let you pick the song cuz THAT is all part of the experience, but you can pick the car. Ummm......just a tiny word of warning. if you are prone to carsickness, don't pick the Suburban. And whatever you do, don't sit in the back seat either. Oh....and bring some cash (like lots) just in case we get pulled over and need bail money.

And now..........the GRaND PRiZe GiVeaWay! (they don't know it yet, but I'm sure they will oblige)

THE BIGGER WINNER gets One (full) Weekend with.........drumroll........ the BONEHEAD BROTHERS! Yeah! It's a full 48 hours of free entertainment. Who knows what they will say! Who knows what they will do! But I guarantee that you will laugh. You will shake your head. You will learn a lot! You'll want to take notes so you can tell your own kids what not to do. But you won't want to fall asleep, cuz you'll miss something!

So go ahead........leave your comments to enter!

PS - Seriously, thanks for reading and commenting these last seven or eight months!

It's Lacrosse Season

The Lacrosse season started this week. Here's how we can tell -

We had a little surprise snowstorm last night. It was windy and about 45-50 degrees all day. Suddenly within an hour, it dropped 20 degrees and huge flakes of snow were covering everything.

What does this mean for lacrosse? What about practice? What about the youth camp our team is putting on for 100 elementary and middle school players?

Well here's the "welcome" page on our high school lacrosse website:

GRANDVIEW BOYS LACROSSE
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21st

PRACTICE AND CAMP ARE ON!!!!

BRING A SNOW SHOVEL TO PRACTICE

PRACTICE - 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
CHECK OUT PROGRAM CARDS 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
YOUTH CAMP 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM

ALL PLAYERS MUST ATTEND!!!

Wouldn't it Be COOL?

I went to Sam's to get some things for lacrosse tomorrow. Easy trip.

First, wouldn't it be cool if you could get all of the Sam's merchandise......at Costco? Why do I like the atmosphere, people, lighting, etc. etc. at Costco so much better?

There are a few things that we use all the time that Costco doesn't have, so I have to go to Sam's. And Sam's opens way earlier and for a girl who gets up at 4:15, waiting for Costco to open at 10 a.m. is like waiting until midnight!

So, about my trip to Sam's -

Wouldn't it be cool if when you pulled out one of those pallet carts, ALL the wheels functioned?

Wouldn't it be cool if when you got to the checkout, there were more than 2 cashiers at the 13 lanes?

Wouldn't it be cool if you could find out your card was expired BEFORE you waited in line?

Wouldn't it be cool if when you went to the service desk, the guy behind the counter didn't say, "Oh I don't work here?" Then what the heck are you doing BEHIND the service desk?

Wouldn't it be cool if there was more than ONE girl doing all the returns and customer service AND answering the phones?

Wouldn't it be cool if the bakery department had their own line, so the customer service girl could quit answering the phone, transferring the call to the bakery and then eventually having to page them three times?

Wouldn't it be cool if after you got your picture taken and she rang up your new membership, she could just ring up your purchases?

Wouldn't it be cool if you didn't have to go get BACK in line?

Wouldn't it be cool if the first 25 feet of parking lot WASN'T stamped concrete, so then stuff wouldn't jiggle off your cart, while you are trying to push 200 pounds and balance your coke?

Wouldn't it be cool if the parking lot were level and you didn't have to push the cart uphill?

Wouldn't it be cool if there weren't wind gusts of 30 mph?

Wouldn't it be cool if every time you took your body off the cart, it didn't blow down the hill back to the store?

Oh, and wouldn't it be cool if I didn't have to load 6 cases of Gatorade and 3 cases of water into the back of my car?

What's that "lifting" rule? Lift with your back? Lift with your knees? Lift with your hands? Lift the hands that hang down? Lift where you stand?

Whatever! Just get everything in the back of the car before the cart rolls off!

Wouldn't it be cool if there were cart corrals?

I'm NOT complaining. I am just wondering.

Laundry Dilemma

I don't go through pockets before throwing everything in the laundry.
I JUST DON'T. I know. I know. I suffer for it.

I can't count the number of Chapsticks, Burt's Bees, Blistex and Vaseline's that have gone through the wash. Luckily, most of them don't make it in the dryer.
There is always plenty of change that goes through the wash too. I never give it back. I'm going to get rich off of my kids' change!

Unfortunately, they don't leave juicy notes in there pockets. Don't be thinking it's because they are so smart or that they have learned their lesson. It's only because of the simple fact that no one communicates via origami notes in pink ink anymore.


This is about the tenth timeI have found THIS in the wash.
So the big dilemma? Should I just go ahead and throw the wallet in the dryer, lay it out gingerly to dry, or just keep it?

Just Checking!

When you log on AOL, there is a little banner that always pops up on their search engine. The "AOL" part always changes to show what day it is, or the month or season. So during Hanakkuh there was a blue mennorah behind the AOL. During January, the "O" on the AOL was a snowman. With me?

Yesterday, I logged on and the banner had "A-Obama's face-L." Huh? WHY? My brain (as small as it is) started spinning as I tried to guess what the occasion might be. Election? Nope, we already had that one during the election. Innauguration? Nope, already passed. Obama's Birthday? Nope. Ahhhhhh....Presidents Day!

I thought that Presidents Day was to celebrate Washington's Birthday and then we kind of threw Lincoln's birthday in there too. But I could be totally wrong.

I checked. I'm not wrong. From a super duper really reliable source ;) Wikipedia tells us:
Titled Washington's Birthday, the federal holiday was originally implemented by the Congress of the United States of America in 1880 for government offices in the District of Columbia (20 Stat. 277) and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices (23 Stat. 516). As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday, February 22. On January 1, 1971 the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. A draft of the Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 would have renamed the holiday to Presidents' Day to honor both Washington and Lincoln, but this proposal failed in committee and the bill as voted on and signed into law on June 28, 1968 kept the name Washington's Birthday.
By the mid-1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term "Presidents' Day" began its public appearance.[1] The theme has expanded the focus of the holiday to honor another President born in February, Abraham Lincoln, and often other Presidents of the United States. Although Lincoln's birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington's Birthday observances as "Presidents Day", "Washington and Lincoln Day", or other such designations. However, "Presidents Day" is not always an all-inclusive term.

So you may be wondering why I am so bothered by this - It could be that I am sitting here WAITING for my part of the stimulus package. Or maybe I'm sitting here WAITING for the recession to be over. And just like I'm waiting, I think the country should WAIT before they heroize (do you like my made up word). I'm totally willing to give the guy a chance to change the economy. And I am willing to wait more than the 8 1/2 minutes he has been in office. By the same token, I think we should also wait more than 8 1/2 minutes to call him the Messiah, rename high schools (that's a whole different story) and name a day for him.