I Love Snow Days!

When your house looks like this...and the roads look like that...you are having a Snow Day!
I know lots of moms who loath snow days, but not me I love them! I don't have to make a lunch, fix hair, fight the clothes battle, and rush to drop off and pick up Maya from school. The best part of it all is that Eden has her best friend at home to play with all day long! One of my most favorite things as a mom, is to watch my kids enjoying each other.

Monday was our first Snow Day...Maya was thrilled to wake up and find out she didn't have school, but she still had piano at 8:15am! We were a few minutes late...okay more like 2o, but I knew her piano teacher didn't have any students coming after us so we kinda took our sweet time. After piano the girls played inside all morning. After lunch they wanted to go sledding. I was way too lazy to take them to the crowded park so I decided that we could make a huge hill in the front yard that they could go sledding down. After about an hour Maya was not impressed with my efforts, Jane and Eden on the other hand appreciated my hard work. But they still ended up having more fun in the back yard playing on the snow cover play land.

Tuesday they actually had school. Eden learned about pets and made a paper dog named Kara. Anyone who knows me well, knows I am NOT a pet person. The way I see it, we already have enough animals in the house! So I was thrilled with Edee's new pet, I just didn't realize how real this dog is! We had to make it a dog house. It had to be tall enough so that her dog wouldn't be "bended". It had to have a door with a window so that she could breathe. And the window had to have bars so that she couldn't get out. So that's what we did that snowy afternoon. Maya came home and told us that her dog was jealous, so she had to make a dog house too. She has had her stuffed dog for like five years and this whole time we thought his name was Pancho. But when Maya came out with her dog house and it said Patcho we realized we had been calling him the wrong name all these years...sorry PATCHO! That night Aric and I braved the roads and went to the temple with our church youth group. When it was over I realized that I forgot to record "Biggest Loser" so Mike and Aric risked their lives rushing home to get it recorded for me...once again Mike saves the day.

Wednesday...no school. Eden still had dance class but luckily I didn't have to car pool, but I still braved the roads for my salsa class. (The club is like 6 blocks from my house) Maya had to do her math homework, it was painful (as usual) but she only has one page left. The girls played all afternoon! They played school, listened to their music and danced in their room, they put together a performance for Aric and I. They usually perform to High School Musical songs, even Aric knows the words to most of those songs thanks to the MANY performances they have put on using that soundtrack. So to our surprise, they delighted us with Black Eyed Peas "Let's get it started" and The Baha Men's "Who let the dogs out!" Wednesday night I braved the roads once againg to go to Red Robin to celebrate Ashley's birthday with some of my most favorite ladies. (I forgot my camera but I know Jessica got a picture so check out her blog) After almost three hours of gabbing and eating, I came home to kids sleeping and LOST paused and ready for viewing. So I kicked of my boots (ever so carefully as to not get snow everywhere) and snuggled up next to my wonderful husband for some must see tv.


Thursday...no school. The girls obediently did their jobs before they began their "day of play". (I'll blog about thier jobs another time...) So now they have been playing "primary", Maya is the pianist and the chorister. Eden is one of the primary children, the other kids are invisible. Appharently the boys are not singing very well because Maya keeps getting after them. Right now they are playing with Aric and Mike, because they have a "snow day" too. So far another wonderful snow day. Aric and I can't wait for tonight's season premiere of LOST, we so miss our shows...24, Pushing Daisies and Journeyman... At least we have LOST for the next eight weeks! So for all you snow day haters...it's not so bad. If you can get through the day...the cozy, quiet tv nights are just hours away....
We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Mission Impossible

(me) -Aric, here's your mission if you choose to accept it... make it home in time for Maya's first piano recital. I know you are in Seattle and you are stuck with an 8 o'clock arrival time, but if there is ANY way you can be at the school by 7 o'clock to be there for your eldest, who is by the way, being enrolled in a "shy kids" class at school (yeah that happened while you were gone), you will be a hero and it will erase all the resentment built up from you being gone all week. (yes I know you were working but it still sucks being a single parent!)


(aric) - I will do my best.

So 3:30pm rolls around...my cell phone rings (s.o.s by rhianna is my ring)

(aric) - I got the last stand by on the 5:30pm flight, it'll be close. Do Not tell Maya that I am going to be there just in case something happens.

(me) - Okay, sounds great. (thinking to myself, "what could possibly happen on a non stop flight from Seattle")

So I've got the girls fed, Maya is all practiced, both girls dressed to the nines and ready to go. We are walking out the door at 6:38pm when I hear Rhianna singing "s.o.s please someone help me...) yep my phone...

(aric) - I just blew out a tire!

(me) - What! You've got to be kidding me!

(aric) - uh, nope. I'm sitting here blah, blah, blah, blah, blah (he was actually saying important information I just wasn't hearing it.)

(me) - what are you going to do!? what do you want me to do?

(aric) - I have no idea. I guess I'll try to fix it.

Okay, A: it's like 10 degrees, B: I know he doesn't have any gloves, C: I know he can't change a tire and D: it's now 6:40pm! (I keep those thoughts to myself.)

(me, very calmly) - okay bye.

I don't want Maya to know what's going on, so I try to stay calm, but end up blurting out "YOU'RE DAD JUST GOT A FLAT TIRE AND HE PROBABLY WON'T BE AT THE RECITAL"

So once I got Maya situated at her recital. I called our MVP of the day, Mike Sampson, to go and rescue Aric from the side of the road. I told Maya's piano teacher to please move Maya to the end of the program.

My wonderful friend Amy, who happens to be married to the MVP, show up with flowers no less, (earlier I had asked her to bring them, but then cancelled the request when I realized I was going to need Mike to get Aric.)

Amy and I sit and attentively watch the clock as 30+ kids perform their songs. It's 7:45pm...there are only two performances left, one being Maya's. My brave little daughter stands up and recites her name and the name of her piece, then sits down and plays her precious little heart out with no mistakes. (I, of course have a lump in my throat, while I watch the door with the corner of my eye, and video tape this important memory) But wait! All is not lost... just as she sits down to listen to the last performance, her daddy walks in. She looks behind her, and there he was, as far as she knows he was there the whole time. Her smile was priceless, daddy did it.

Mission Accomplished!

I'd like to introduce myself...

I can hear your applause and your crazy hollering right now... I have finally joined the world of blogging... Oh but wait! Where are the pictures? Yeah that's right no freakin pictures. I have spent hours trying to upload them and blogger doesn't think my family is cute enough to upload. After consulting the queen of blogging (Jessica Romney) she sent Ryan over to grace me with his genius blogger skills and even he couldn't figure out what the deal is. So keep reading and someday I'll get some pictures up.


Okay, so I had first heard about blogging about seven or eight months ago when my clone, Jessica, told me about her blog. I started reading hers and thought I could really get into that but do I really need one more thing to become obsessed about? So I just became a closet blog fan. First I would just read Jessica's regularly. Then I realized that I can read other peoples blogs that Jessica reads, so I started reading those. Then I found out people could leave comments and well I started reading those. I was almost converted when I read all the comments about the "Office Party" we hosted. (they totally fed my ego) Then, here's the kicker...I got released from my calling as Primary President, a calling I had for almost three years. So as part of my "post primary president therapy" I have decided to start blogging...with all my new found free time Why Not?!


So it's only been 2 weeks since I was released. I could barely get through Sunday School last week. Not just because I could hear the kids singing (so sweet, so sad) but also because it seemed so dang long! Our teacher was good, I just didn't realize how long an hour really is. Now that I'm not running around in circles, dealing with unrully children and classes with teachers who didn't show up, church seems kind of long. Thankfully I was called into Young Women's, working as the "Beehive Advisor". So third hour went by a little bit faster. Plus it didn't hurt that my awesome friend Meghann (who is the other advisor, we have 10 girls so there's two of us) made yummy peanut butter/chocolate bars and incorperated them into her lesson. It was different, not a bad different, just different. I'm really excited to get to know Ilene better, she is the 2nd Counselor in YW so I'll be working closely with her too. She is also a big time blogger. (I totally checked out her blog when I found out I was going to be working with her.)


So basically my new calling is teaching a lesson to the girls on the occasional Sunday and hanging out with them on Tuesday nights. I also get to work with some amazing women, ladies I'm actally already friends with so I've got it pretty good. But...


I will so miss the children in Primary, I was way nicer to them than I was to my own kids. I will miss my presidency, I couldn't have asked for more wonderful, talented, supportive women. Jessica, Cammy and Amy have seen me at my worst and my best, and still managed to love me and support me. I am so grateful that our friendship is eternal and that it doesn't matter where we serve now, but that our love and respect for each other was developed through our service to God and I can't be sad about that. I feel a little bit empty but alot of relief. So that's all I have to say about that.


Okay so, how did I do for my first post? I thought about going off about how Aric was gone all week and how much I hate taking out the garbage but instead I thought I'd keep it simple. So here it is...all done. I'm looking forward to your comments! Maya has her first piano recital tonight, so I will posting that soon, we'll see if Aric makes it, he's trying to catch an earlier flight...we'll see...