Friday Fill-in

1. Right now, I'm feeling warm and cozy.
2. Home, but in a warm place, is where I want to be.
3. How does one get anything done with more than one child?
4. Charles keeps me on track.
5. Please don't let it still be cold this weekend.
6. Charles and Sydney fill me with joy.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to ward temple night (if we can find a sitter), tomorrow my plans include BYU football game and preparedness fair and Sunday, I want to spend time with my family!

New Downtown SLC

Here is an animated 3-D presentation of the churches proposed downtown SLC development. I especially like the retractable glass ceilings for stores with outside access, the fountain at the center, and the City Creek running through the complex.

Friday Fill-in

1. One of the best movies I ever saw that I really didn't think I'd like was Get Smart.
2. Lion House cinnamon rolls is a recipe I recently made that was delicious!
3. It's time for Homecoming.
4. Apple juice mixed with Sprite is quite refreshing.
5. If I never hear the word {insert ANYTHING political here} again, it'll be too soon.
6. To one side of the curving road was a mountain, and on the other was a river. (must be Provo Canyon)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Dinner at my aunts, tomorrow my plans include BYU Football and Sunday, I want to eat chocolate ravioli!

Weekend

It's Friday, Sydney is dressed and watching a Baby Einstein DVD while Charles is showering. We are all finally feeling better, after a rough week of allergy and tummy problems. Not only that, but it's General Conference weekend, which means that we can just relax at home all weekend listening to uplifting music and inspiring talks. I think it could be a pretty good weekend.

Friday Fill-in

1. October means football to Charles and colder weather to me.
2. Unusual things scare me!
3. Leaves are falling all around, it's autumn time, Hurray!
4. My favorite horror movie is...I don't have one, because I don't like horror movies.
5. Marching Band = good memories.
6. It was a dark and stormy night, and I hid in my bed.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hanging out at home watching BYU football, tomorrow my plans include General Conference and breakfast and Sunday, I want to watch more conference!

Las Vegas--Image heavy

September 14

Charles' sister Ashley is trying to get into BYU and needed to take the ACT in September. When she went to sign up, she found out that it is only offered in select locations in September and Utah is not one of those locations. So, we offered to take her to Las Vegas so she could take the test, since we have been talking about going for a weekend since Charles started his new job.

So, Thursday, we set out on our road trip. We left about 3:00 and got to Las Vegas at 8:15ish, thanks to the fact that Las Vegas is in the Pacific time zone. I checked us into our hotel (which I had found an awesome deal for) and we brought our luggage in and then went and caught the shuttle to the Strip, so we could see the Fountains at the Bellagio at night and check out where we might want to go in the morning. Holy cow, can I just say that we were all a little amazed by the lights and the sheer amount of people there. It was slightly overwhelming. But we made our way down to the Bellagio and took in the last half of the show there. Sydney loved it, she kept saying "wow" and clapping her hands for every large burst of water that happened. Then, we made our way back to the shuttle and returned to our hotel for the night.

Friday, we got up early and ate at the hotel and then took the shuttle back to the strip. We checked out the Luxor and Excalibur quickly before heading to M&M world. Four floors of melt in your mouth, not in your hand paraphenalia and the smell of candy coated chocolate. Wow, it was quite impressive. Next to that was the World of Coca Cola store, which made me think of Brooke with the aluminum bottles, the old bottles and the pop can tab purse they had. After this, we ran and grabbed some fast food and then headed over to the Miracle Mile shops where they had an indoor rainstorm and some really cool stores that I have never been in before. (while we were here, Ashley started to feel a little sick and we ended up spending over an hour getting her back to the shuttle so she could lay down at the hotel and then coming back) Here, we were stopped by a guy who asked us if we wanted to review a tv show that may go on the air for free tickets to Madame Tussauds. We said yes and, while we were glad we did, we both have to say that the show Whale Wars was NOT worth sitting through for anything but $25 dollar tickets to something that we would have only gone to if it was free.

Anyway, after all of that, we stopped at the Bellagio to check out Tiffany's, since I have always wanted to go in one and this is probably the closest we will get to one for a long time. We also spent some time checking out the fountains again, including one inside that "hops" from bush to bush. When we were done here, we caught the shuttle (Sydney woke up when on our way back to the shuttle and was not happy for the ride back) and got Ashley and went to In-N-Out for dinner. This was everyone's first time, but mine, so it was quite an exciting trip. They were as delicious as I remembered them and everyone else was quite impressed. We went back to the hotel after that and Charles, Sydney and Ashley swam in the pool, then we went to bed.

On Saturday, Charles took Ashley over to UNLV to take the ACT (since that was the reason we had come) and then the rest of us went back to the strip. This time we went to the other side and went over to the Venetian so we could visit the wax museum. It was pretty neat to see how lifelike the figures are and it was really fun to be able to pose with them Sydney didn't like it as much...the figures scared her pretty badly, especially Abraham Lincoln (we tried to get a picture of her sitting on his lap and she FREAKED OUT and ended up overfilling her diaper...it was pretty funny after the fact).

After that, it was time to go get Ashley and head back, so we grabbed lunch and left. Charles was frantic to get the BYU vs UNLV game score, so we spent the first hour with him calling people trying to find out the score. He was thrilled when we finally got close enough to get it on AM radio and even more thrilled with the outcome of the game (59 to 0; Go Cougars!) We made pretty good time coming home and decided that we should stop at Cove Fort on our way home and check out that historic site. which gave us a nice break from driving.

It was a nice weekend, although we wished that we could have stayed longer.

Claritin Clear?

Yuck! We went to the corn maze on Saturday night, after the General Relief Society Meeting, and ever since then, I have had a horrible allergy headache complete with stuffy nose. And this morning (or maybe last night) I remembered that I can actually take something to clear myself up. That's the first time in like, two years!

Friday Fill-in

1. Pumpkins, cider, and costumes are some of the things I'm most looking forward to in October.

2. Sometimes I have strong urges to go buy a new purse.

3. Anything is possible and that's why there is a saying, "never say never"!

4. When I'm down, I turn to Charles to make me feel better.

5. My living room is where you'll find me most often.

6. A rainy day is good for soup.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to the temple (hopefully), tomorrow my plans include a double date to the corn maze and Sunday, I want to relax and play games!

Silly Me

So, I have been wanting a new diaper bag/purse for a very long time. I finally gave into that urge today and bought one. Isn't it nice and red and pretty and doesn't scream "this is a diaper bag!"? Not that that was a requirement, but now I don't have to switch bags when I go out with Charles or by my self (which does occasionally happen).

And now, I need to go take care of my puking daughter and Charles (who, knowing his track record, will soon be following her).

Car--very poorly explained.

So, when we returned from Las Vegas (there is a post coming about that, I just keep getting busy with other things) our car started making a funny noise. It sounded like it was running really dry. We tried putting more fluids in it, but it wasn't helping. Then, on Sunday night, Charles was taking a look at it when a pulley broke around the alternator (sorry, Charles explained to me what happened, but I couldn't explain it to anyone else if my life depended on it). Assuming it was the alternator, Charles spent yesterday morning calling around to find out prices for a new one (super expensive). Then, when he went to work on the car after work last night, he noticed that one of the gears (?) in in the alternator wouldn't spin like the others would. He took that off and found that that was the actual problem...that it was broken. So, he was able to fix the car for twenty two dollars--over one hundred dollars less then had been looking at when it was a broken alternator!

Oh Deer

So, we were supposed to go camping tonight with our ward, but due to extenuating circumstances, we decided to just stay for dinner. On our way home, we kept seeing deer on the side of the road eating and trying to cross the street. As we got to the mouth of the canyon, Charles exclaimed that "we're alot less likely to see a deer down here." We come around the corner and there is a deer right in the road! Charles honks the horn and swerves and we completely miss the deer as it runs off the road and into the brush. It took us a second to recover, but then we laughed pretty hard and kept on coming home.

Friday Fill-in

In attempt to motivate myself to do something this morning, I thought I would give this a try.

1. There is no need to get out of bed right now.

2. Where in the heck did the nice clean house I wanted go?

3. Reading is all I managed to do.

4. Prospects for staying dry this weekend are 50/50.

5. Walk quietly and carry a big stick is the message.

6. Simplicity and tranquility are impossible to achieve when your husband watches FOX news.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to camping with the ward, tomorrow my plans include the BYU football game against Wyoming and Sunday, I want to play games and eat treats!

Pigtails

She's growing up. With her hair pulled back like this, she looks so big that it makes me want to cry, sometimes.

Smartie

So, tonight as I was getting Sydney ready for bed, I told her that I was going to brush her teeth. She then looked at me and pointed to her teeth. I'm pretty sure that we didn't teach her where her teeth are and since she did it several other times after that I think that she may just know where her teeth are. Well, she may have been signing "food', since she does that a lot anyway, but I'm gonna go with the whole "look at how smart my child is" approach rather than the "my child is constantly wanting food" one.

My Ramblings

This weekend I decided to take my personal rantings and ravings to a new level. I have started blogging about political things I feel are important. You can find them at Within the Pachyderm. Let me know what you think. You add comments, and after I read them and make sure that some physcho isn't spouting vulgarity I will allow it. I have no intentions of blocking any comments even and especially if they do not agree with me. If you wish to dispute something I said, or you feel it is factually inaccurate, I would ask that as part of the comment you provide a source or link that I could go to.