Oh yeah, still hangin tough!

This IS actually the same New Kids shirt from my childhood. I've stored it away in a box and I decided it was time to get it out and start sporting it again! I actually wore it to a church activity tonight. Nobody seemed to appreciate it but I got a kick out of wearing it! By the way, my whole family was embarrased including Brigham. Isn't he too young to be embarrased over a t-shirt?

this is funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dkupwzIWKI

Finally I'm feeling better.

I went to the school today went it was letting out. I found the Brigham's friend's dad and had a good visit with him. He really does seem like a good guy. And he seems to have his stuff together. I feel like I can breathe easy now. We agreed it was a good idea for the boys to play regularly and arranged for him to come to our house tommorrow for 4 hours since it's a short day at school. His dad can just pick him up at our house instead of at school.
I finally feel some relief in this situation.

more to the story....

The case worker finally called me back today. He interviewed Brigham's friend and thankfully he (friend) was very open and forthcoming. The caseworker said that he was spilling it all. THANK HEAVENS!!! The C.W. also said that the depth and scope of the problems were much worse than he originally realized and Brigham's friend has been removed from his home. He is now with his birth dad (lives in Salt Lake). The live-in boyfriend is apparently jail bound. That was an unexpected and upsetting new detail. I never knew he was a problem. Dang. Dang. Dang. I feel like I should've known somehow. I'm so angry about the boyfriend thing. Really p___ off. He came to my house that night acting so innocent when he picked him up. My corrections officer friend is keeping an eye out for him or his mom at the jail to see if either of them get brought in. I think she'll let me know.

sidetracked....

Hi. I've been neglecting the blog because I've been obsessed with Facebook. I just started so I'm in that phase of finding friends and seeing who confirms you as their friend. It is addicting. I've currently been visiting with a guy who served a mission in Mesquite years ago and we had a lot to catch up on. (Elder Cavaness)
Anyhow, I've actually had a stressful couple days. As my family knows I had to call the police on my son's friends' mother. When my kids walked their friend home they found his mom incoherently drunk. And it was after 5pm! I kept him for an hour, fed him dinner, panicked inside, while looking calm on the outside. Finally it dawned on me to call the mom of one of their friends. She's a corrections officer and she told me who to call. I called the dispatcher and they sent an officer over there right away. His mom's boyfriend eventually came to pick him up and take him to his aunt's house that night. I cried a lot that night because the friend told me how bad his home life has been. I suspected something wasn't right months ago because the first time he came to play he asked if I'd adopt him if something happened to his mom. I'd been trying to figure it out since then.
So all yesterday I felt sick to my stomach and tried to get through to CPS. By the way, they don't return my calls. Apparently they don't care what I have to say. I'll keep trying.
His mom did call me and we talked for almost half an hour. I cried and she cried. She admitted she had a problem and was going to the VA hospital within a day to see a doctor. We talked about a lot that I won't rehash. I was very blunt with her though. I told her what her son told me about how his life has been. I wanted her to know how she's affecting him (I've seen a lot of that show Intervention). I made it clear to her that he's been very unhappy. I told her all of this in a non-judgemental and loving way. She was receptive and greatful that I cared about her son and intervened. When Brigham came home from school today he said that the friends dad (birth dad) was taking him today. I don't know what that means. I don't know if that means for one day, the rest of the week, more? But it must mean that something is happening and hopefully for the better. Maybe long enough for his mom to get help.
A few months ago I prayed that Heavenly Father would send me a child that needed me. The next day I met this boy. My testimony has grown a lot in the last few days and I feel stronger and more empowered now. Heavenly Father does hear our prayers and if you ask to be of service He will take you up on it!

our "NEW" bbq

When we moved from Idaho Falls we had to leave our gas grill behind. We just simply ran out of room in our moving truck. That was sad because I'd had it for years and it was great. Well, we REALLY need a grill since I cook on one regularly but haven't felt like we have the extra money so I posted an ad on craigslist looking for a grill that someone would sell me cheap. After a couple of weeks I got a reply back from a guy who said he'd give us his old one.....for FREE! And he'd even deliver it to us! WOO HOO! So he brought it today. I wasn't home (primary activity) but Nephi was waiting for him. I'd bought a gift bag from Great Harvest for Nephi to give him as a thank you. Anyhow this grill is OLD SCHOOL... and I love it! I cleaned it out, varnished the wood with some stuff I had laying around, and voila! We're cooking! We had a hot dog barbeque to break it in and it was fun. A little too cold outside for my taste but the kids didn't notice and had a good time.

I loved Adam Lambert on American Idol last night! Oh...he's so cute. In a gay kind of way but that's fine. :)
The kids went to the dentist. No cavities! Unbelievable...
I don't know how we've dodged the bullet every time. Of course it's from teeth brushing but I'm still traumatized from my childhood experience of several cavities per visit.

Brigham's workout

Yesterday Brigham played his "new" Ninja Turtle game for awhile. Afterwards when he came upstairs he had taken his shirt off, was dripping in sweat and his face was bright red. I couldn't believe it. But today I took some video of how he plays and now it makes sense! It's a workout! Who needs a wii?!

ha ha!

On the way to preschool, a doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. Be still, my heart, thought the doctor, my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps! Then the child spoke into the instrument: “Welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order?”

Going private again

Hi everyone! If you're reading this then you have officially been invited to my blog! (I know, you're honored)
I decided to go private again just to be on the safe side since a friend told me a nightmare story about what can happen when you tell too much information to the world about your family.
At this point I think I have a pretty good idea of who checks the blog so it just makes sense to go private now. Thanks!

good bye snow.

I took this picture in the empty lot across the street. Can't wait for all those weeds to grow. This lot is for sale by the way. I think they're going to have a hard time selling it because, 1) the market, and 2) there's no room for a backyard. It's literally a drop off down into a ravine. Needless to say, there's not many kids on that side of the street! (Two to be exact and they're not little)

Laci felt very sophisticated in this scarf.

another day in the life of Lillian

So today I sold our bike trailer. A girl drove up from Salt Lake to buy it. I sold our trampoline early last week to a girl who drove up from Orem. So I did it. They're sold. Now we have to make good on our promise to use the money to buy the swing set. It's gotten cool again so we have some time. Our snow is melted but the ground is still wet in the swingset area so I don't think there's any rush.

I went to the dentist today. No cavities! It felt like going to the dentist in the big city. We had to take the elevator up to the second floor. Laci loved that. She had to come with me which was SO funny because the hygenist was on one side of my chair cleaning my teeth and Laci was standing on the opposite side with her face literally inches from my mouth watching EVERYTHING. I could literally feel Laci's breath. The hygenist was really cool and went along with it and explained to her what she was doing. Laci can be fun to take along. In just two years she'll be in 1st grade and I'll be on my own all day. I think I'll miss her.
Oh yeah, we figured out the hygenist lives on the same street as me just 4 houses down! Small world.

Tomorrow is Laci's field trip to the Clark Planeterium in Salt Lake. I'm driving Laci and taking Brigham out of school to go. I figured we might as well kill two birds with one stone. Laci learned about space all last month in pre-school. Her teacher is obviously good because Laci has a real zest for space right now. For several nights we've been watching the location of venus in relation to the moon. It's been too cloudy for the last few nights though. I hope the planeterium is fun for them. I remember as a kid REALLY wanting to go and mom finally took us for my benefit and then being disappointed because it was mostly displays. Oh yeah, and we watched a movie that sounded exciting but the whole thing was about how we'd be lucky if we don't get demolished by a comet. Real downer. I hope the experience is better for my kids.

I watched American Idol of course. I LOVE Adam Lambert! Can't help it. I've just got a thing for him. I loved Kai but he never returned for the wildcard episode.
But most importantly I watched the finale of Americas Best Dance Crew! I love Quest but Beat Freaks should've won. Oh well. I'm waiting for the tour dates to come out. If they come to Salt Lake, I WILL BE BUYING A TICKET. I imagine I'll have to go by myself as usual. Honestly, that's better than going with someone who doesn't really care. Because I am there to PARTY!!!

Spring is coming!

When I was working in the kitchen I looked out and realized there were tulips coming up. WOOHOO! IN FEBRUARY! WOOHOO!

I had a video of Laci doing the happy tulip dance outside but a jet was flying overhead and people would've found the background noise obnoxious.

Laci loves chores

This is a job she walked into. She always wants to help put away silverware so awhile ago I made it "her job". I make her wash her hands and then she pull up a stool and gets to work. She seriously loves it. It seems to satisfy her obsession with sorting lots of little things.

This job is perfect for her. She always wants to spray the bottle when I clean windows or wash floors so this is perfect for her. I diluted down a cleaning solution so I don't care that she's wasting a lot. She sprays like there's no tomorrow then wipes them with a sponge. I make sure to give her a ton of positive feedback to keep her motivated because I don't want to clean the sinks! By the way, that's a sucker in her mouth. When I was cleaning some drawers out I found some zinc suckers. She thought they were great. I think they were 3 years old.

Okay, this job I'm not thrilled about and don't encourage her to do. She sprays a ton of solution on the floor and then uses her meager amount of strength to mop. It turns an already un-fun job into a really long un-fun job. So after she has her fun then I do the whole thing again. It's alright. She likes to "help".

Belated Valentines Day photos

Laci and Brigham both had valentines folders at school. Brigham was "kind" enough to give Laci all the candy he didn't like and any girly looking valentines which she promptly taped on her wall.

This was Laci's first experience with collecting valentines. There is 17 in her class so she came home with a lot of stuff. I noticed that every valentine came with candy. I remember when I was a kid it was o.k. to give one without candy. Now it's considered lame. Times have changed. Laci gave out card with suckers. Brigham gave out card with taffy.

I think I'm finally getting better. I've been sick to some degree for a month now and today was like a ray of sunshine. I coughed less than I have in awhile and my back was amazingly calm today. When I did cough I didn't feel the sharp pain in my back. Halaleujah.
So what was different? Well, I did quite a combination of things. I slept with a heating pad on my back. Took pain killers and anti-inflammatories. And what I really want to point out is that for my cough I tried the Vapo-rub trick. Remember when I mentioned that a couple months ago? The night before I had a horrible night coughing-woke up exhausted. So last night I rubbed vapo rub on my decollette (not exactly my chest ha ha) and on the soles of my feet and then put socks on. I slept great and coughed very little. For the second time I have proven that the vapo rub method works. At the very least; it seems to help. So anyhow, remember that tip when you've got serious nighttime coughing at home. I've tried it on my sleeping kids (the vapo rub on their feet freaks them out) and it has helped them too.

Since I felt so much better today I spent a lot of time outdoors. Doing the usual. Throwing the piles of snow into the street so it will melt in one day instead of a week. That kind of hurt my back but I'm getting skilled at doing all kinds of things without those exact muscles. It's fun to think about spring around the corner. I'm ready for plants, green leaves, eating outside, Lagoon, screen doors open, sounds of nature, shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, family visits........ can't wait.

Well, Brigham and Laci decided today they wanted to go for a walk and collect things to bring home. Brigham wore his backpack and as we walked through the neigborhoods they would find things to collect. It was actually junk. Like broken pieces of plastic. But they loved it all and Laci was constantly unzipping Brigham's backpack to shove some useless garbage in it. However, they actually did find one "treasure". They found a fairly recent dvd in a nice case just lying in the street. It was not a title I recognized but it wasn't exactly a B movie. They were thrilled with that and took it home as a present for dad.
Today the airforce was busy doing practice runs so we watched as many jets flew directly over us. We'd count how many missles were strapped on. They all had six each. It was fun to explain to him how the different sized missles served different purposes. I really didn't know what I was talking about since my knowledge is based on what I've seen in movies and t.v., but I'm always trying to convince my kids to be awed by the jets. I think my brother John is the only other person I know who gives a darn about them. Two or three of the huge carrier planes flew over us today. You always know when they're taking off because the roaring is so loud. I'm completely mesmerized by them. Yup, I'm the only one who gives a darn.

We sold our trampoline two days ago. It won't fit in our terraced yard. That was kind of sad to see it go. It was the nicest trampoline I'd ever seen. I think Nephi was a little relieved he won't have to reassemble it. A young mom drove up from Orem to buy it. She was really nice. Man, I hope all the parts are there. It's a little scary since we moved it disasembeled and then sold it to her that way. It's impossible to know every part is there even though we feel pretty confident about it. I hope I never hear from her. We've also decided it's time to sell our Burley bike trailer. It is NICE, but Laci is getting bigger and the hills around here are crazy. I can't imagine we'd use it much now. Our family's plan is to sell those two items and then we'll have the money to buy a small swingset. There's a store in town that sells commercial quality swingsets/playground equipment and they have a compact little set that I think will actually fit in our yard. It has two swings, a slide with a small platform, and a fireman's pole. It's the only set up I've seen that appears to be configured right for our yard. So the kids agreed that if we sold those two items then we'd use the money for that. This plan took away the sting of losing the tramp. (However, I know my kids, they'll be mourning it's loss come summertime.)

parent teacher conferences tomorrow....
Happy Ash Wednesday ( just kidding! I saw that on the calendar. What is that?)

funny.

We went and saw this show today. The title was Tomas Kubinek: Certified Lunatic. It was AWESOME! I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of the show which is unusual for me. But his humor and antics were so unpredictable. We sat in the fifth row so were right up by the stage. Do you remember that Italian director Roberto Benigni that walked across the seats at the Oscars years ago? Well this guy did that several times to interact with the audience and also to find volunteers for different things. It was hilarious. But Brigham was freaked out by this guy. Mr. Kubinek would make the craziest facial expressions and had his hair sticking up all the time. Brigham sat next to me but spent most of the time trying to crowd on my chair with me. I had to keep telling him that he was acting. On the other end of the spectrum Laci thought it all was hilarious. I'd look over to her and she'd have the hugest smile on her face and be LAUGHING. She went along with everything including responding back at certain parts. It's funny how different they are.

I have to mention a funny part in the show. There was a card trick on stage with an audience member he pulled up. Of course Mr. Kubinek "couldn't find" the correct card and eventually pulled out an old paper bag with banannas in it. Tomas peeled his bananna and ate it and kept trying to get the man to eat his(The man was holding one of the bananna in his own hand). He even peeled it part way down for him. Well, the funny thing was, the correct card was rolled up down in the lowest section of the bananna (nobody knew this yet) but this guy admitted he was allergic to banannas and couldn't eat it. This was so fun to watch because Mr. Kubinek had to be spontaneous and he actually laughed out loud (which for a second was out of character) then ate the second bananna himself so the man could find the card tucked inside. He joked that in all the years he never had someone holding the bananna who was allergic to them. As a comedian he got a lot of mileage out of that one for the rest of the show. I have no doubt he'll be telling that story for awhile. You had to be there. It was funny. By the way, the picture above is from the website not the actual show I watched today.

just talking

Just got back from seeing Slumdog Millionaire. It was pretty good. Let's just say I'm so glad I never lived in India. Boy, that is a rough place. The movie had a good ending just as expected. It wasn't the happy euphoric ending that Oprah got me believing it had. Life had been so rough for them that the happy ending was bittersweet. But definately a good movie. I expect it will win plenty of awards and it deserves them. I went to the big Larry H. Miller(by the way, he died today) theater downtown. It's a pretty exciting place. We need to take the kids down there on a nice summer evening to soak up a little excitement. It's basically a block that has some fun things like the theater, Costa Vida (yummm), the I-Fly experience (have heard mixed reviews on that), rock climbing (I'm scared of heights), children's museum, and I really don't know what else. But there's a lively feel to the place. I think it's probably a fun place in the summer months. I went to the movie by myself and I had to park in the parking garage so that was a little intimidating. But I'm here. So I guess I survived. The trees are all lit up downtown like it's Christmas. I would've thought that with March approaching tree lighting might be over. I'm not complaining though. It adds atmosphere.
Mom, I finally saw the old Egyptian theater tonight. It looks cute. I guess you park in the back since the front doors are on Washington Blvd. Typical of downtowns. Brigham just brought home a flyer for a kids movie series they are doing. They list the movies (kids free) and then say, "PLUS: Classic Cartoons and Old-Time Silent Comedies featuring the Egyptian's MIGHTY WULITZER Theater Pipe Organ!"
I want to go just to see the silent movies with the organ! How cool is that! As long as they're short of course. Can't imagine sitting through that for very long. But what a neat experience.
The first movie is next Saturday so I'll take the kids I think.
I decided this year for my b-day I wanted to have a pie instead of cake. I decided to go to Costco since I usually drool over all their desserts but have no reason to buy a gigantic $10+ pie. So I loaded Laci up tonight and we went to pick something out. She was funny because she knew Brigham would be upset if we picked out apple so she practically begged me not to buy it even though she loves apple pie too. We ended up picking out a HUGE bananna chocolate cream pie. It is way too big but they only make things in jumbo size. It was only $10 too. I already sneaked tastes of the pie and invited Nephi to do the same (so I wouldn't feel like a pig). Hey, it's my birthday pie. I can do what I want! It's not like there's going to be a shortage. It is SOOO good. I'm pretty sure by Monday morning I'll never want to see a chocolate pie again.
At Costco they had ROC facial spf moisturizer. Just what I'd been looking for! And check out this perk. Because it's a retinol formula it says that in 12 weeks my skin will look 10 years younger! So I'm turning 32 but in just 3 months I'm going to look 22? Sign me up! ha ha! No really. Sign me up. It came in a two pack of course so I gave the other to Nephi. Now he really does have fine lines so I'm going to be watching to see if he turns back the clock of time! I'll keep you posted so you'll know if you should run out and buy this stuff.
Okay, bed time. I've got to get to the gym in the morning and work my you know what off because I'm going to be eating a whole lot of cr_p in the next two days. Oh yeah, and I've got to enjoy my last day of ever being 31. Those were the good old days..........

Dumped on

We got DUMPED ON today. Serious snow. Since I have my lame injury I had to stand back and watch over a foot of snow pile up on our driveway. And it was HEAVY. I finally couldn't take it anymore and I tried to shovel some but it wasn't worth it since it almost reduced me to tears. But I think it's over now. That was almost 12 hours of continuous snow. I think the the temeratures are going to be moderate again. Should be gorgeous this weekend.

I got tickets for a performance at Weber State this weekend so the family's going to that on Saturday. Our first performance was Peter Pan last month. I've always thought Peter Pan was extremely lame but I figured they'd have Peter flying around on wires so the kids would like it. It didn't disappoint. Of course Nephi and I rolled our eyes the whole time. You know Wendy's little brother? He was played by a college age girl. It was creepy. The whole time we just kept thinking about "Pat" from Saturday Night Live. Very androgenous. All in all though, the shows at the college are proving to be an affordable outing that feel like a big deal. It's fun to live by Weber. Brigham went to a college basketball game on a field trip a while back.

Nephi got an MRI on his back today. He's had back issues for years and it's become relentless so he's going to start doing something about it. Hopefully something covered by insurance.

Here's some good recipes that were on KSL yesterday. They're from the kitchen of their "Health guru". I pasted it directly from the website so don't think the comments are mine, they're not. :)

2. Cheesy Rice
1 box Four Cheese Rice-a-roni
1 lb. 93% lean ground beef

Prepare the rice as directed on the box. Then brown the ground beef and toss it in, let simmer 5 more minutes.
Why I love this recipe: (if you can call it that!) Boxed meals are not something I recommend using everyday, but once in a while, we all need an old-reliable, quick-and-easy meal that we can fall back on on super busy nights -- this 400-calorie meal is far better for our health than a 1,500-calorie, more-than-a-day's-supply-of-sodium meal from a restaurant or fast-food outlet.
If you balance boxed foods with with low-sodium, high-fiber side dishes -- like steamed broccoli and a bowl of sliced strawberries -- then you've actually got a decent meal on the table... in minutes!

3. Sugar-free Maple Syrup
2 cups Splenda (or you can do "low-sugar syrup" with 1 cup Splenda and 1 cup real sugar)
1 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp. mapeline flavoring

Boil the water, then add Splenda/sugar and mapeline. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Why I love this: Because my kids love waffles, pancakes and french toast; and using a sugar-free (or half-the-sugar) homemade syrup keeps these meals in the healthy zone. Kids already eat too much sugar and don't need to top hot breakfast foods with spoonful after spoonful of yet, more sugar! Splenda is safe; but as with everything, should be consumed in moderation. I only use Splenda in one thing: syrup! And it saves my kids from excess sugar every single week.
It's worth it! Check out the calories & sugar per 1-oz serving*:
Regular maple syrup: 80 calories, 5 tsp. sugar Homemade "low sugar": 45 calories, 2.5 tsp sugar Homemade "sugar free": 0 calories, 0 sugar
(*usually enough to cover one pancake; we should aim to consume less than 10 tsp of added sugar each day)

Almond-Craisin Spinach Salad
Toss the following: 2 - 3 cups spinach
1/8 cup sliced almonds
1/8 cup craisins
1/2 cup matchstick carrots
2 Tbsp. light raspberry vinaigrette

Why I Love This: It's made with 4 super-food ingredients (spinach, almonds, carrots, and olive oil dressing) and you can literally throw it together in less than 5 minutes! The nutty and sweet flavors are complimentary and make for a delicious healthy snack -- or meal. With just 220 calories, this salad is one I use when I need to counterbalance a high-calorie meal. It's the perfect way to save up for a soup-to-nuts dinner or to make up for an oversized, "shouldn't have" lunch.