Sunday Randomness

Looks better with the lights on

Sport gave his first talk in Sacrament Meeting as a youth speaker. He did a great job and he wrote the talk all by himself! My sweetie is off on another work trip again although not nearly as long this time. The Dog Walker has been working on his outside display, but we got about an inch of snow so that put a damper on things.

Instead he got busy putting in the tree and decorating the inside of the house. Baby Doll only broke 6 glass ornaments...

I spent a lot of time vacuuming things up.

My leg is healing slowly. I couldn't sit through 3 hours of church and it's difficult to get comfortable at night. I have some errands to run tomorrow, but I'm going to try to take it easy and see if that will help. I haven't driven a car since the surgery last Monday.

The Dog Walker is starting a new job tomorrow taking care of a handicapped boy in our neighborhood. He is a little nervous, but hoping all will work out this time. Did I tell you I am coaching Curly's basketball team? We have our coaches' meeting tomorrow night. I think if I'd known about this surgery for sure, I wouldn't have agreed to be in charge. And it's only a few short weeks before people are going to expect me to PLAY basketball.

I'm sure everything will work out. It's also Nutcracker week, so the girls will be super busy every night. As I'm reading through this, I'm thinking I better get to bed so I can be ready for the craziness.

Teach is Engaged!

We have been waiting all weekend for this announcement. We knew it was coming since Twiz asked us for her hand the first day he was here. She has been on pins and needles just waiting and hoping he would say those magic words, "Will you marry me?"

Hopefully we can get Teach to tell you the whole story the first of the week when he has gone back to school and she has a little extra time on her hands. Speaking of hands, do you see that lovely ring on her left hand? I'm sure she wants everyone to notice.

The wedding date is officially February 13, 2016. At least they gave me a little more time than Beauty and The Beast did last year. Not that it really matters. I always tell my kids that at the end of the day, the important thing is that they are officially man and wife. The rest is just fluff.

Expensive fluff.

Guest Blog: "Black Friday" by Drama Queen

-yawwwwwwwwwwn-

I don't know how Momma can manage to drag herself into the office each night to write a blog post.  By this time of the night, I'm ready to drop and my brain has certainly turned off.  (I nearly wrote Prima Donna instead of Drama Queen, if that tells you anything.)

But I digress.

Thanksgiving yesterday was lovely,and we've rolled now into that odd haze of holiday lazy-busy that makes it feel like Christmas break already.  Princess took a bunch of the girls and some friends Black Friday shopping around ten last night.  I know they managed to get a few gifts and Princess brought a beautiful new gray peacoat.  Based on how many times Crafty tried it on, I think she would have been safer getting two...  I've done the Black Friday thing once or twice, but unless you have a big budget to spend, I really don't think its worth the time or loss of sleep. 

Poppa and Dog Walker got the yard winterized and snow tires out.  Gamer and Bossy got the rest of the Thanksgiving dishes run through the machines and packed all the china away til Christmas. Teach and her beau were in and out today, but anytime I saw them, they sure seemed to be happy to keep busy kissing!  Momma, Bossy, and I spent the day tying three twin/full size quilts - while others occasionally floated in here and there to tie a few.  The craziest moment came while The Beast's dogs were over and one of them decided the top of the quilt frame looked like a soft bed!  She soon realized her mistake and had the good sense to stay still until the rest of us human creatures got past the shock and managed to help her get back down.


At some point, I started setting up the Christmas tree, but only have gotten about a fourth of the lights on so far.  Poppa likes to have a very, very bright tree so he has a ridiculous pile of lights to go on it.  But that is what tomorrow is for.

But now it is past midnight and Dogwalker and I just fluttered around for the past hour getting some cleaning done while Momma got a fourth (queen sized) quilt set up for tomorrow.  This quilts are just beautiful and it has been so fun to watch Momma get them all pieced together over the past week. She is so very talented and pours so much love into the things she creates.  I wish she would take a bit more time for herself to do what she clearly still loves!  It's just amazing how she even manages to get these blog posts written.  But I know she loves it and all her blog friends, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised.  My mom has always been amazing. 

Anyway, I hope  - yawwwwwnnnn -  all the rest of you -yawwwn -  have a lovely holiday weekend.   - yawwwwwn - 
Sweet dreams!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your Thanksgiving Day was as amazing as ours. We spent the day preparing food and spending time together. Our first meal was the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving which we have done every year for lunch since 2007. Burrito did an awesome job as Peppermint Patty and Princess gladly sliced all the meat and cheese for sandwiches since she is a pro now and works at the deli.

Beauty gave me these great pics of the pies she and Crafty made yesterday as well as the one with The Beast posing as a turkey. After lunch we gathered up and started getting things ready for our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner. My sweetie sent me up to take a nap for an hour since my leg was throbbing while they made rolls and mashed potatoes. Grandpa also showed up in the afternoon. Little Sis and her family were supposed to join us, but she has kids throwing up today so she decided to stay home.

We had a leisurely dinner with everyone expressing gratitude for the various and many gifts we have been given. Then we all helped with the clean up. Some people pulled out games and I finished piecing a quilt I have been working on.

It was a fun and happy day here. I hope it was the same at your house.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Almost Thanksgiving

I'm not sure how I felt about the Dog Walker sharing my pic with you yesterday, but then when I read his sweet post and I had one of those "awww" moments, I decided to leave it just as it is. I am feeling better. The first night I didn't sleep hardly at all, so by Tuesday night I was really dragging. I thought maybe the couch would be more comfortable so I set up camp there. It was.

But even that wasn't enough to help me feel like I was on this planet yet, so after lunch I made my way to my bedroom and didn't come back down until nearly 5:00. That helped a lot! But now it's 3:00 AM and I can't sleep, although I'm starting to feel it so I thought I'd better tell you a bit about our Thanksgiving festivities.

My sweet daughter-in-law came over tonight and she, Drama Queen, and Crafty made pies. They did some amazing things we have never tried before like a mint cheesecake and a peanut butter cream pie. I'm excited to see how they taste. We also put together the traditional pumpkin and pecan. I say "we" but I didn't really do much.

My sweetie is planning to do most of the cooking tomorrow and I'm totally fine with that. My knee is pretty bruised and throbs if I keep it in the same position for too long. I've taken off the wraps so I can finally have a shower (after 3 days) so I'm going to share a pic with you. The stitches are under the steri-strips, so you can't really see them. The orange stuff should wash off in the shower, and the doctor did actually write "yes" on my leg in red marker before we went into surgery.

You know, selfies are hard enough when I am trying to focus on my face, but nearly impossible when I'm trying to get my leg. It took me 6 tries to get even this bad pic for you. One thing I'm definitely thankful for this year is arms and legs that move.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Guest Blog: Mom's Feeling Better by Dog Walker

It's getting close to Thanksgiving and I'm excited for that. You have heard of my mother having surgery on her knee that has been bothering ever since I can remember, but from a former surgery, it just didn't fix the problem. I'm hoping that throughout this operation that she had just now will complete the problem.Anyway, ever since she got back from the hospital, she's been having the surged knee all bandaged up and now she's at home trying to walk it up a little. The doctors told her that she needs to walk it a little, just so that it doesn't get worse, like when getting a blood flow from the surgery up into the arteries of the heart and it would cease the heart from beating. Which that is likely to have the patient die. I might be way too scientific and sketchy about this situation, but it's actually true. The doctors also told her that the surged leg was going to hurt for just a few days and it might end on the day before Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that my Mom's knee will feel better. Right now, she's trying to sleep peacefully and healingly.

Surgery Day

I managed to survive my surgery! Obviously, here I am typing for you, although I have to admit to being a bit loopy and tired today.

We arrived at the hospital just before 8:30 and by 9:30 I was in the room with the nurse and she was inserting the IV. I warned her as I always do about my thin veins and told her she would be my hero if she could put the needle in on the first try. She pulled out an interesting light I had never seen before. When she shined it on my arm, it showed the veins and their size! Where was that when I was having babies??

Needless to say she managed on the first try. The anesthesiologist came in right before it was time to head to surgery at 10:00. He told me all the usual stuff and pushed my bed toward the door. The OR nurse met us in the hallway and within seconds we were in the operating room.

These two men slid me to the operating table and almost before I knew it, I was waking up in recovery. It took them a little while to get my heart rate up and they kept putting me on oxygen, but nothing too serious. By about 1:30 I was wheeled to the car and we headed for home.

It was a relatively peaceful day with me likely overdoing things. I had more bleeding than I probably should have because gravity tended to pull down the bandages from my knee when I got up to eat, go to the bathroom and move around a bit. (The doc scared me a little about blood clots.)

I was able to walk without a crutch and that made me very happy, but I guess I won't be playing any volleyball this week.

In other news, Teach and her boyfriend are back from Idaho. He asked my sweetie and me for permission to marry our daughter which of course we granted. He seems like a great guy! They even chose a blog name for him... drum roll please... Twiz!

Prima Donna is facing the last night of her musical on Tuesday and we have a big dumpster to get rid of all the leaves and cornstalks as well as an old couch. It will be good to have the yard all cleaned up for winter.

And how was your day?

Happy Birthday, Scout!

We celebrated Scout's birthday tonight. It is always so much fun to get together, eat good food and visit for a while. The only one missing was Teach. She is visiting with her sweetheart this weekend in Idaho and then he will be here next week for Thanksgiving. I'm guessing Thanksgiving weekend might produce some big moments for her.

Just an idea...

My sweetie made sweet pork and the fixings for tacos. I made the birthday cake, but Scout was in charge of decorating it. She did a fabulous job using some of Princess's animal crackers and lots of pink and purple frosting.

She had already been spoiled with gifts from her friends, but we loaded her up with a few more. She loved the Frozen alarm clock from the Dog Walker and I think her favorite from us was the Bratz Basketball player although she was pretty excited about the watch and the handkerchief skirt.

You may not hear from me tomorrow. I have to report for the surgery at 8:30 in the morning, but I'm supposed to be done in a few hours. Please pray for us tonight. This is a pretty minor surgery, and I'm not really worried about that. I just don't know how long it will take me to recover and that part is troublesome.

Super Prepared

Prima Donna playing dress up since Grandpa has the pics from tonight

I can't believe it is already November 21. That means that Christmas is only a little more than a month away! I've thought some on it but not nearly enough, I'm afraid. Right now I'm just trying to get through the next few days. I've sort of felt like that all week.

Today I had the finals for the volleyball tournament. No, we didn't get anywhere near making it to the finals, but we did play both Thursday and Friday and it was lots of fun. This time I was running the score for all the final games, helping set up and clean up. We had to be there at 7:30 this morning and I got away about 10:30 which was much better than I was expecting. One of the teams forfeited out of the consolation bracket so we cancelled the last match.

I came home and tried to nap for an hour, but it was a useless attempt. Then I went to Tupperware training for a couple of hours. It started at 10:00, but I had been excused for the entire morning, so I didn't show up until about 12:30. I was home again by 2:30 and then headed back out for the store. It was a zoo! I did finally get the groceries I needed for Scout's family party tomorrow and for Thanksgiving.

Putting them away just naturally led to cleaning up the kitchen. At 4:30 I ran to the distribution center to find the things I needed for Activity Days on Tuesday. I want to be completely prepared for the upcoming week. Then it was make dinner and take my girl scouts to see Prima Donna's musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

We dropped off the last of the girls and got home about 10:30. I have to be at the church at 8:30 in the morning for choir practice, so I'm trying to get to bed early, although I'm not in a hurry for the weekend to end. The reason I need to be super prepared for the week is because I'm having a little surgery on Monday. The doc is going to 'scope my knee and remove the old scar tissue that is floating around from my ACL replacement 20 years ago.

He says it should be a pretty easy surgery and I won't even have to spend the night in the hospital or anything, but I'm still worried about the recovery time and how well I will feel about doing anything for most of the rest of the week. I'll keep you posted.

Crazy Busy Fun!

I've had lots of kid's birthday parties in my tenure as a mom, but I've never had one quite like the one we had today. Scout is turning 10 on Monday so I told her she could have a friend party. She couldn't decide who to invite from school, so she finally invited her whole class. I had printed 30 invitations for her and by the time she had included her Activity Days friends and a few family friends, she had given them all out.

I got quite a few RSVPs and only one person told me they couldn't come, but there were still a bunch that were questionable. Anytime of the year I plan on at least 30% of kids who will miss the party for one thing or another. Since the holidays are nearly upon us, I figured we would lose closer to 50%.

Boy was I wrong.

By the time were got everyone here, we had 28 kids! It was a madhouse. Princess and Drama Queen were planning to be here, but they got hung up and didn't arrive until about 30 minutes late. My sweetie came to the rescue and prepared the pinata for smacking.

The kids all worked on making a beadie gecko for the first hour. I ran out of supplies and had to have my little ones give up their strings to the party guests. Baby Doll was fine with that, she just wanted to play anyway.

Drama Queen made a pinata earlier this week and I filled it with candy last night. It took about 10 kids before they managed to bring it down. Then we let each person decorate 2 cupcakes. Gifts were crazy. I couldn't hardly see what she got let alone who it came from.

I couldn't even serve ice cream because I only had 25 cones and 28 kids. Most of them were pretty hyped up from the frosting anyway, so I don't think they even missed it.

By the time the last kid left, I was thinking I might have to eat the whole bucket by myself anyway.

Celebrating Football

Both of my boys had their football banquets (or should I say parties?) tonight. Sport's was at the Airborne Trampoline place. After an hour and a half of the team jumping, they were going to eat pizza while the parents all just sat around and visited the entire time. There would be about 10 minutes of ceremony and that would be it. Honestly, not really a banquet, but fun for the boys.

Drama Queen handled that one for me. She mostly just dropped Sport off and then she wandered around Ikea for an hour finding some frames we needed for Activity Days before returning to see his awards and take him home. I got to go with Curly.

His was at the Herriman Rec Center. They had reserved a party room, but it was much too small so they moved all the boys and the coaches into the slightly bigger room. Then we were told we absolutely couldn't stand in the other room (even though they were adjoining and no one had rented it).

So we had 19 boys and their parents and 4 coaches and the occasional brother or sister all trying to crowd into a tiny room filled with tables and pizza, but again, only enough for the team. If you wanted food, you had to bring it yourself. (So what was the point of inviting parents again?)

Curly's banquet started at 6:00, so we dropped Crafty at dance, picked up Baby Doll from dance, and then met the Dog Walker at the house. We were going to caravan to the Rec Center. The Dog Walker and Baby Doll would swim with Curly after the awards and then they would all go home together. I would leave after the awards and join my volleyball team for the first day of the 3-day tournament.

We played two matches and of the 4 games we only won 1. That probably eliminates us from the final tournament, but we still have 2 matches to play tomorrow, so anything can happen. And now I'm up late, getting everything ready for Scout's birthday party tomorrow. I have to take Baby Doll to see the oral surgeon in the morning, and the party starts at 2:00, so I just couldn't chance not having it together.

Princess made 6 dozen cupcakes for me while I got things ready for the craft. The Dog Walker was studying for his math test and bringing in the tables and setting up chairs. I'll check back with you tomorrow with a report of the day's activities. Wish me luck on the 2nd day of the tournament.

I think we are going to need it.

A Great Idea

Do you remember at the beginning of the summer how excited I was to finally get some new patio furniture? It has served us well through the summer, but now that the days are turning colder and we have actually seen the first snowflakes in the valley, I have been anxious to get them undercover for the winter.

The problem is that my garage is full of ... stuff...

Drama Queen has been after me to figure out what to discard, but that never works for me. Besides, half the stuff in the garage belongs to her and to Teach. And of course we have the required number of PowerWheels and bikes for our particular demographic.

But I digress...

Teach skyping her boyfriend

The interesting thing is that with problems sometimes all you need to do is get creative. Our downstairs family room has been lacking in furniture, so I figured we could solve both problems at the same time. The kids thought I was crazy as I had them haul all the patio furniture in the house and down the stairs, but as you can see, it looks quite nice. I think it will work just fine for seating.

...until spring.

Surgery!

I took Baby Doll to the dentist today. She has a salivary gland that has been swollen and produced a bump on her inner lip for 3 or 4 months now. Unfortunately, she chews on it and that makes it worse. After checking it out, the dentist told us it would not likely repair itself at this point and she would need to see an oral surgeon about having it removed.

Our dentist says the surgery is pretty minor, but he only does them if they are very close to the surface and hers is pretty deep. I guess if they don't get all of it there is a possibility it can return. So that means an incision on her inner lip and a couple of stitches to close it up again.

She will not be happy. I'm glad she still had the headphones on while we were discussing it. Her next appointment is on Friday, but it is only a consultation and I'm guessing we will be waiting until after Thanksgiving at this point.

I'm OK with that. I can only handle one surgery at a time, even when they are both pretty minor and mine is still on for Monday.

Getting Ready for The Nutcracker

Once again my kids are preparing for The Nutcracker. It is not nearly as exciting as it was last year when Princess was the Sugar Plum Fairy and Prima Donna played Madame Ginger, but the girls still have great parts.

Princess wanted a smaller part which is good because she has a new job working in the deli at Smith's. She is enjoying the roles of Snow Corps and Spanish dancer. Crafty is also in the Snow Corps and she does a fantastic job as an Arabian dancer.

We got to see both girls perform those parts on Saturday at the Christmas Gift Show even though it wasn't quite as amazing on flat as it is on pointe. Their stage has these weird little circles on it and I think the girls would break their necks if they tried it. One little girl in a different group had her feet slide right out from under her! Ouch!

Fajita is in the Waltz of the Flowers and Scout is a soldier, so we have quite a group to watch. We would love it if any of you in the valley could attend. The performances are December 3 - 5 at 7:00 with a Saturday matinee at 2:00.

Wait, why am I telling you all this? You can just read it on the poster. Hope you can come!

Another Sunday

 Today started way too early. I managed to stay awake through Sacrament Meeting (the first one anyway). Then we spent most of the second hour helping Princess in the nursery. She is so cute with those little ones!

Just before 11:00, my sweetie and I took off for Bossy and Gamer's ward so we could watch Taco and Burrito perform in their Primary program. They did a great job! We came home for lunch and then Crafty, Princess, and I went to choir practice at the seminary. 

I came home from choir and took a 3-hour nap. I was just so tired.

We had a birthday celebration for Taco tonight. His birthday is not until Thursday, but we have football banquets on that day so we moved things up. We had a fun fiesta with chicken chimis and quesadillas. Beauty and The Beast also came over to help us celebrate.

Teach's boyfriend stayed with us again this weekend. Things are rapidly moving along with them and do I dare say they went ring shopping on Saturday? They both feel so good about this relationship...

Prima Donna's musical is this weekend, and I have already secured tickets for us to see it. She works so hard that finally having the payoff is fun for all of us. Scout is having a birthday party for her friends on Friday and then family on Sunday. Then we don't have another birthday until January. It will be nice to have a little break.

State Champions!

State Champions!

You probably remember that Sport was playing in the State Championship for his football league today. It was a team they lost to the first time, but they did a great job this morning in spite of the snow and they beat Olympus 13 - 0.

Taco was also playing for the State Championship in his league this afternoon. By then it was much warmer and they played in West Jordan rather than up by the mountain. Their game was crazy and fast-moving with most of the points scored in the first five minutes. But both teams adjusted and the final score came up at 26 - 13.

Yesterday I would have never predicted that both teams would come out victorious. After the games, we joined the girls at the Christmas Gift Show. Princess, Crafty, and Scout were all dancing. It was so fun seeing their first dances of the year. This is Scout's first time on a performing team, so that was exciting. So exciting that I forgot to take pictures of anything until the very last number and then Scout (who had joined us by then) remembered and snapped some for us.

We left the gift show and Princess took all the girls home while my sweetie and I took the Dog Walker down to the Scera in Orem to see a musical called The Trail of Dreams that was required for his theater class. It was not at all what I was expecting, but I certainly enjoyed it.

We got home just before 11:00 and I decided to quickly make the birthday cakes for Taco's birthday party tomorrow since Princess wasn't home yet anyway. She is spending every spare minute with Daylen before he leaves on his mission for our church on Wednesday. While the cakes were baking, I did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. The worst part about going out for the evening is when the kids leave me with a big mess to clean up.

Now it's nearly 1:00 AM, but I didn't want to go to bed without sharing this awesome day with you. I'm so proud of my kids and my grandkids. There is nothing better than family.

Drama Queen??

It seems that we have several people vying for the position of Drama Queen at our house, but our real Drama Queen is not anxious to give up her title.

Prima Donna is all about drama now. Nearly all of her classes have something to do with Theater. What a fun way to spend her senior year after years of hard work finishing up all of her required classes early. And you all know she is in the musical playing next week, but did you know she sings in the A Capella choir at school too? She has never been an alto before, but she has a tremendous range and we are happy to say she can now harmonize with the best of us.

Sport is also very dramatic! Everything is the end of the world for him, especially on the volleyball court. He just is in that "I want everyone to notice me phase..."

Scout has really gotten into the dramatics or should I say the hysterics lately. She has this annoying whining voice that I just have to block out and never give in to. She will be 10 next week and I'm hoping those double digits will help her grow out of this phase. It's not working for her anyway.

And last, but certainly not least, is Baby Doll. This girl has some sass! Lately I mentioned to her that she would always be my baby so now she will curl up in a little ball and give me the "Goo-goo, gaa-gaa" thing.

It's so interesting watching the personalities of each child develop. In some ways they are so alike, but in others they are so incredibly different.

Drama Queen's First Hockey Game

You remember when Sport, Taco, Burrito, and Bean Dip earned tickets to a Grizzlies Hockey game from selling Scouting Expo tickets? That was in April. Then the summer reading program and the library gave all of the kids a free ticket, so we finally had enough for everyone to see a game.

I hadn't realized that Drama Queen had never been to a hockey game with us before. I think she was a bit surprised by the violence...

They only had one actual "throw off the mitts and helmets" slugfest between a couple of guys. Then we giggled when they both got put in timeout. Baby Doll had to get a drink or go to the bathroom about half a dozen times. She might have been a little bored. She liked fist bumping the Grizzlies mascot though. It's funny, she was always terrified of the Chick-fil-A cow, but every other sports mascot has instantly been her best friend. Remember when she got the baseball from the Bee?

It was tons of fun and the Grizzlies won 4 - 2. We only had to pay for parking. Drama Queen even smuggled in some Halloween candy in her bag. Afterward we stopped by Wendy's and used our coupons for some free Jr. Frosties. There were 8 of us and my sweetie ordered 6 chocolate and 2 vanilla. The server made them just opposite, 6 vanilla and 2 chocolate. She gave us all the ones that were already made and then she gave us 4 more chocolate! So we scored 12 free Frosties.

I can't believe how quickly we are sliding into another weekend. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. I even wrapped some Christmas gifts today, the first of the season.

Guest Blog: Birthday Party by Dog Walker

Every time, I always thought that I've been a guest blogger just recently for Mom. Anyway, I was asked to talk about how my birthday went, since a lot of you already know about it, especially Marci who also has the same birthday as mine. Right after my actual birthday, we were planning to do my family party on Monday, in case Sister Drama Queen was going to a devotional she was invited to on Sunday. We couldn't do my party on Friday, because Curly and I went to see a play at UVU for one of my classes, couldn't do it on Saturday, because Mom and Dad always went to my brothers' and nephews' football games. So all of Saturday, I started to put Christmas lights on the roof, before Tuesday was having some cold weather. It drove Dad totally nuts to see them on at night, probably because he thinks we can't celebrate Christmas until after Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, I tried to tell him that not everyone around the world celebrates Thanksgiving after Halloween. They just go straight to celebrating Christmas. Besides, Thanksgiving is at a later start this year, so there's no point of waiting until Black Friday to start putting up lights on the house. LOL!

By the time Sunday came by, we were all prepared to go for Princess's boyfriend's farewell for a mission. He spoke an awesome talk about how his mission is going to turn out, once he heads to the Missionary Training Center and then goes to the mission he's been called to serve. When sacrament was over, most of everyone just headed back home, because they think his talk was enough than just going to his party. When I got back, while walking home from Princess's boyfriend's neighborhood, Dad was surprised to see that I've come home and asked me if any kids came with me. I just told him no one and he felt stunned about it for a minute. Right at this moment, Mom told me to get tables out and set them up in the living room. I was a bit surprised. I guessed it was time for my family birthday party after all. But I was still worried that Sister Drama Queen was going to miss it, and then Mom said that Sister Drama Queen was not going to the devotional.

Things worked out all right for the rest of the Sabbath Day. Beauty and The Beast, Gamer, Bossy, Fajita, Taco, Burrito, Princess's boyfriend and Grandpa came to attend the family party. We all ate hamburgers and fries and talked about a lot of things, even everyone started talking about me throughout the past times, like the time I was playing in the sprinklers one summer and lost my glasses by setting them on the bumper of our big van. We munched on the cake I chose called Blue Velvet and turned it to the Broncos football team colors for the frosting.We also ate Creamies that were saved for the party. It became mysterious that somebody went through the box of Creamies and ate one without asking and they should've known they were for the party.

Before the family party was ever coming, Mom just gave me a present that I felt like I can still wait until that day when we have my family party, but she thought I was so impatient a lot and she just wants me to feel happy. Anyway, what she gave me that day was a new wii game called Just Dance 2016. Sport was a bit confused about why the game is called that when 2016 is about to be the new year after next month. 

Throughout the rest of the party, I received a lot of other things, most likely more Halloween decorations to put up for 2016's Halloween time. In fact, Sister Drama Queen has given both me and Bossy (since her birthday is in November too) a basket full of Halloween decorations, even the both of us have received a new festive blow-up ghost that is fifteen feet high!!! We tested mine to see how tall it really was and it reached all the way to the balcony of our entryway! It's like the children on the balcony to the master bedroom can touch the ghost's head. I never received many gifts for my birthday this year, but I don't complain about the amount of things they give me, but what I complain about is if they try to spoil me with bigger things, like a Karaoke machine one Christmas! But throughout the week, The Beast has a birthday present for me on Friday and I'll have to make sure that all my homework for school is all caught up and I'm ready to go for it. He and Beauty have invited me for a sleepover with pizza and movies. It will be fun!

Saturday's Drama

A bit more of our crazy weekend...

Saturday night was Bingham Ball, a formal dance down at the State Capitol. Fajita and Prima Donna both had dates, but they were in different groups. Fajita had her date pick her up at our house because Teach was supposed to take pictures. I didn't realize that he would show up early and with his parents in tow.

The house was a disaster, with football stuff thrown about everywhere. Of the playoff games, Sport and Taco's teams both won, so they will both be playing one more game. Burrito and Curly's teams both lost, so now we are worrying about turning in equipment. Fajita had Nutcracker rehearsal, so she was not quite ready. Her date's mom recommended we move to the porch to give her time to finish. I spent about 15 minutes visiting with the 3 of them on the porch until she was ready. Then we took these cute pics and she was off.

In the meantime, Prima Donna was in meltdown trying to get ready too. Teach was supposed to take their group pictures at 5:30 and she and Andrew were still not back from the temple when all these cute kids in their formals showed up on my front doorstep. At least things were gathered up by then and the football stuff safely stowed away.

Teach walked in at the last minute and they all had their pics done in my living room since the sun was gone by then. Then they were all gone too. That gave me about 3 minutes to reflect on the beginning of the day. I had been in charge of the volleyball tournament at the church and our team played too. We finished in third place (of 3 teams) but it was fun.

I left directly from the church to drive to Magna for Curly's game. My sweetie had taken off early for Sport's game. He played in Tooele, but there was no way we could see both games since Sport played at 10:30 and Curly at noon. After the loss, Curly was in meltdown and he went home with me while my sweetie and Sport drove back to Tooele to see the rest of Burrito's game.

I got home to Nutcracker drama and Prima Donna still hadn't even decided for sure on her dress...

She had been at rehearsal all day and was a bit scattered. Thank goodness Drama Queen was in charge here because she got everything together for us. She even managed to dye Prima Donna's hair brown before the dance! The only thing we don't have is a single pic of Prima Donna and her date. I didn't realize the camera they were using was the one from the yearbook staff, so I didn't even think to snap one with my phone.

When Princess got home from work, she finished up the 96 cupcakes for Daylen's farewell on Sunday while I opened a week's worth of mail and took care of a bunch of paperwork. When Prima Donna came in, she said, "Let me run to the bathroom and then I will tell you all about it!" So we waited...

and waited...
and waited...

Almost an hour later, I finally went to check on her. She had gone to bed!

Princess and I would just have to wait until Sunday morning to get all the details.

A Little Crazy!

Did you miss me? My sweetie came home last night and we had so much catching up to do and preparing for today that I just didn't have time to write a post, but I will bring you up to date now.

Yesterday was crazy!!

First of all, I had to get my act together for Girl Scouts. I had promised the girls that we would make pies, but the date sneaked up on me and until my Little Sis reminded me about it on Thursday afternoon, I had totally forgotten Friday was the day. We had a mad dash to the store on Thursday night to buy hardware for the volleyball nets and while I was there, I grabbed the foil pans and apple pie filling, but that's all the time I had to prepare.


Prima Donna had planned a day activity for her Bingham Ball group, but she forgot to tell her date, so he wasn't there. The kids showed up about 15 minutes after we wiped the last of the flour from the kitchen table. There were five other couples here along with Princess and Daylen and Prima Donna. They were sculpting ice cream...

When they were finished, it was pushing 8:00 so we sent them downstairs so I could feed my own kids. Not that everyone was here. Somewhere along the way, we got Fajita, Princess, Scout, and Crafty dressed with hair and makeup done for their Nutcracker pictures. They also had dance classes. Bean Dip and Sport went to the library for a Laser Tag for teens night, so they needed rides both ways. The Dog Walker had tickets to a play down at UVU and he finally took Curly with him since he didn't want to try to get a real date. (They had a great time!)

And Teach's new boyfriend arrived in the afternoon to meet us and spend the weekend. That meant we had to at least clean the bathroom...

My sweetie came in just before 10:00 and all the kids were still here. Or they were gone. Sometimes it's hard to remember.

It was a little crazy.