Merry Christmas

This Christmas was pretty eventful with the weather making a huge mess of things. We hosted Christmas Eve at our place for my extended family and we had a pretty huge crowd. Erin and her cousin's get to open one gift on Christmas Eve - their new jammies - and we spent the entire night telling them "not yet" because they were so excited for it to be time. Christmas morning we woke to about a foot of snow and no power. So, we opened gifts by candlelight and only got to see what the gifts really looked like by the flash of the camera. We loaded gifts into the car and headed for gift giving and breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins at Brett & Amber's house - I'm so glad they live close! We spent most of the day there, chilling and eating. That night we headed to my Grandma's house and had a great dinner with the extended family before braving the elements again to get back home. My sister had spent Christmas night at our house so she wouldn't have to drive clear across town and ended up spending the entire weekend because it took that long for the roads to be clear enough for her to get out of our neighborhood in her car since all total we got about two feet of snow in just over two days. We've spent 15 years together and had avoided owning any video game systems until this year. We now have an XBox (the old style... it's a long story) a Nintendo DS and a Wii. Needless to say, the rest of the holiday weekend has been a blur of video gaming - although we did come up for air to catch a movie yesterday. There are so many photos that were blog-worthy I made a slide show instead... Happy Holidays!!

Happy Birthday Clint!

Clint has the distinct "pleasure" of a birthday at Christmas. It sucks, it has always sucked, and it will always suck. We always try to make it a great day with gifts especially for his birthday and NOT wrapped in Christmas paper. This year he was working the night shift and I was working the day shift but I got off early and surprised him with a dinner out on the town. Clint always has a huge appetite and I joke that he is the world's biggest carnivore... and this birthday he finally gave me proof that I could blog about! We were at a favorite chain restaurant where he ordered a full entree meal of seafood pasta complete with salad and a Pepsi and then... drum roll.... he said to the waitress, "can I have a steak on the side?" Kudos to her for not blinking an eye and simply saying, "Sure, which one?" A full salad, a full entree of rib-sticking pasta AND a rib eye steak? Happy carnivore!! I love you, honey! Happy birthday!!!

Split decision

Thanks to the two of you who voted... (what about the rest of my normal visitors??) The decision was split about moving Erin's little blog area to her own website. I decided to be the tie breaker and just move it down lower on the page. I don't want to have to make all you readers have to log in and manage some crazy list of "trusted" emails so freaks aren't stalking my daughter on her own site. So, if you're a fan of Erinisms, look for the new location about halfway down the left pane.

Vacation in the sun...

This year we had planned a trip to Mexico since we desperately needed some time with sand in our toes and warm sun on our faces. However, with a new job and record high oil prices (yeah, I know, thing of the past it seems but it wasn't like that a few months ago!) we couldn't see the sense of paying double what it would cost us to stay in an all-inclusive resort for a week just to get there. So, we settled for Southern California instead. My great new job allowed me time off (albeit without pay!) and we were off! We spent a super relaxing and warm week at the beach in San Clemente, CA. We hung out at the beach, did crafts at the resort, fed seagulls, spent a day at the San Diego Zoo, took a Dolphin Safari boat ride to see whales, played air hockey (Erin is a maniac!) and saw Twilight on opening day. The craziest part of the trip for me is looking back and seeing pictures of me hard at work writing my yet-unfinished novel on the beach with my laptop. Get a grip, Terra! Erin and Clint loved the body boarding but I was a wuss and thought the water was way too cold to actually get in. My cousin and his wife and daughter came down for the last weekend (since it was their hook-up that got us into the timeshare after all) and we had a blast in the hot tub with the kids and BBQ'ing steaks. Yum-o! It sure was hard to leave the 80-degree weather and head home for the 30's but reality always wins out in the end. Here's a bunch of my favorite photos of the trip...

Quote of the trip: "Does this wetsuit make my butt look big?" Oh did Erin laugh!

Funniest story of the trip: we spent one late afternoon on the beach befriending a particular seagull who we thought was such a phenomena because he would eat right out of Clint's hand - which is why we named him "Big Balls" since he was the only one who had the guts. (See photo above.) Later that weekend Mark - the SoCal resident - was complaining about all the damn tourists who come and think it is funny to feed the birds and then go back to where they came from leaving the residents to deal with the empowered birds who sometimes are so aggressive that they will swoop in and TAKE food from people. Clint and I just looked at each other with smirks and hoped that Erin wouldn't tell the story of Big Balls and bust us for the tourists we'd been!

Quilt love

My sister started making quilts this year - and as much as I hate to admit it since it was always MY thing - she is very talented! She gave Erin a quilt for her birthday and it's the only think that has ever been able to take the place of her beloved blanket that she's been dragging around since she was 3 from my Mom. This is her the first night that we had it home... you can see the love in her eyes (and hopefully the handiwork, too!) Thanks, Denice - you are awesome!

Visitor from nowhere

Clint's parents live in what I lovingly refer to as the middle of nowhere and last month Dad came out for a visit. Literally, they live on a ranch with 50 acres of farm land and grow their own crops. They have a real barn and everything! Well, they don't have paved roads so I guess they don't have EVERY thing. Mom was unable to travel due to a need to stay home and help family with health issues but Dad got a wild hair so we found some cheap airfare and bam - instant visit for a long weekend in early November! Lucky for us the weather held and it was pretty nice the entire time.


Highlight of the trip for Erin was getting to open her very own tattoo parlor in the kitchen. Here she is giving Papa a new tat... and the handiwork was extraordinary!







Dad insisted on taking photos of Clint's handiwork in the yard to take home to show his boss so we took like a million photos in the yard... Two of my favorites are Erin and Grandpa and one on the newest piece of the yard - the built in bench retaining wall - that few have seen yet.







We drove out to the dessert one afternoon and caught a photo at the lake with the mountains reflecting like glass off the water. Pretty beautiful - pun intended of course.

And Erin got to meet new cousins she didn't even know she had when Clint's estranged sister (and her two great kids!) came over for dinner. It had only been 13 years since we saw her, figured it was time...

The time flew by faster than ever and it seemed like just when he got here it was time to go home; but we enjoyed every minute we got to spend with him while he was here!

The funniest thing was after Papa was gone and we went to dinner at our favorite hole in the wall where Erin gets her "tattoos" out of a gumball machine. She said to me, "Mommy, I need to get a whole lot of tattoos for my tattoo parlor customers, you know!" Her and Papa had talked about it so much that she really thought she was going to get to open a stand in the kitchen like a lemonade stand in the yard. I'm sure the neighbors would LOVE that one! She was very disappointed....

Black Friday

Holy insanity Batman! I have always - until this year - been successful in avoiding the Black Friday shopping experience and with very good reason! However, this year I got talked into venturing out for a great deal. It started out that way anyway....





We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again for the 25 or so people in my extended family and after dinner we were all sitting around digesting turkey and trimmings and browsing the ads. There was talk as usual about going out in the early morning hours and I said "HELL NO!" like I always do and paid no more attention to the details. Then, as everyone was leaving, Brett and Amber were coordinating a sleep-over at Grandma and Pa's for the kids so they could all go shopping and Erin wanted in on the action. I interjected my usually loud opinion about how insane I thought they were and Denice said "you would pass up the kinds of deals we are getting in Park City? I think THAT is insane" and proceeded to tell me about the great deals her friend got last year. (Okay, so I'm a sucker for saving money on kid's clothes!) I let Erin go home with Grandma and Pa and still said NO to the shopping. But then the bargain hunter in me started talking in my ear and I called and asked if it was too late to go with them. Little did I know that they had more planned than the Park City trip I had heard about... I left my house that evening at 10:30 and didn't get home the next morning until 7:30am after having braved crowds and yelled at folks who don't speak English and were trying to butt in front of me in a line I'd been in for HOURS. We started in Park City at midnight and it was only after we had arrived that I heard the rest of the details. We were also headed to Walmart and then Target and Lowe's. I am pretty much done with my shopping but I seriously will never do more than the Park City part again. My time is worth WAY more than the few dollars I saved sitting in line for hours with the unwashed masses. Park City will probably be a new tradition until Erin can't wear their clothes anymore because of the screaming deals but the rest I now know from first hand experience I can live without! It was a fun outing and now I can say I've done it and it just isn't for me!

Halloween 2008

I know, I know... It's Christmas season already! Here's photos from Halloween this year although I seriously did NOTHING special. Erin had fun being a kitty after she ruined the first costume at the kicking party we went to the weekend before in the neighborhood (and which of course I didn't get a single photo of?!) She thought it was the best thing ever to trick-or-treat in both our neighborhood and my brother's with all her cousins. Luckily it was fairly warm this year!


Question of the year is typically "What are you for Halloween this year?" The 2008 costume was ... A biker. I threw on a bandanna and my own motorcycle jacket and applied a temporary tattoo. Told you, nothing special! (It was SO not my year this year being so sick for more than a month!) Oh well, I'm always the one going overboard every other year so I would bet most people thought it was about time I had a mellow year for once.

My neighbor had the BEST hat and socks and I had witch costume envy so I had to snap a photo... this was when we were handing out candy from the middle of the road with several of the neighbors before heading to my brother's place. We seriously have the BEST corner in the neighborhood!

Erin and her little buddy, Seth, although you can't tell with the mask on! He is such a ham!

And even Clint and his co-workers got in on the action this year!

Photos from Erin's Birthday

Well, I'm back from the edge of death and the proverbial sick bed and ready to get busy catching up on posting photos from the last month or so. First up... Erin's 7th Birthday parties - and yes, I meant it to be plural. She is the epitome of the spoiled, only-child and this year was no exception.

First - the family party (and the cool neighbors, too!)

We had the immediate family over for dinner and celebrating. And then Erin and her cousin's had a blast playing with their favorite play toy of the night... Grandpa!

Second was the morning of her actual birthday (in the middle of the week) where she got her iPod that her horrible Mom had been telling her she probably wasn't going to get. Yeah, like that has ever happened!

Third was the visit that night from Grandma for more spoiling!

Can't forget the favorite tradition of Build-A-Bear Workshop for a new "kid" - this one named Pinky. By this time she had caught the bug and she was so sick but still made me take her to the mall while Daddy was at work. What a trooper for a gift - and what a monster we have created!

And last but not least, the friend birthday party at home with Pin-The-Tale-On-The-Donkey, painting t-shirts and lots of squealing little 1st graders. Thanks to Ace for coming to help that day since I had zero voice by the end!

It seems like yesterday but already more than a month has gone by. At this rate she will be a teenager! We love you, Erin!

Quote of the Day and other random thoughts

THE quote of the day.... "Bryce, please don't hump the banister!" I swear, Clint and Bryce are twins who just happen to have been born to different mothers several years apart... We are all still coughing and dealing with transient sore throats but are feeling a bit better and enjoying a long weekend with Clint's Dad visiting from Kansas... I am hard at work writing the novel in all my free time (ha! what free time!) so the blog is suffering... At some point I swear there will be more photos posted here! I don't know when but some day soon... Erin goes back to school tomorrow after what feels like 6 months of being off track and I don't know who is more excited; her or me! And watch out world - my Mom has a blog now! It is now a proven fact that you're never too old to be a blogger!

Sick-o's

Well, apparently it is something going around and we all got 'it'... and how! I've been trying to hack up my left lung for almost 2 weeks which is after I finally got my voice back. Seems like ages ago that we collectively as a family were healthy. First Erin was sick, then I came down with the weird voice thing where I felt fine but sounded like I had laryngitis. Once I sounded better, I started feeling crappy and then Clint came down with it all. Now we have a good day followed by a bad night and then it will flip flop and start all over again with one of us sicker than the other two and then trade it up the next day. I refuse to get flu shots - don't even get me started on the insanity on that front - and would rather let my body build up immunities the good old fashioned way by getting a bug and then fighting it off. However, if this thing doesn't get kicked and soon I think we're all headed for a trip down the medical aisle at the store... either that or it's OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! I don't know whether to think of it as a good thing or a bad thing but I am never sick enough to actually stay home from work. Perhaps if I actually got to bed at a decent time and got some quality REST I might get well faster. Maybe....

On a happy note, my favorite day of the ENTIRE year approaches in 2.5 days. Erin is so excited for Halloween even though she's already ruined one costume at a rather rowdy neighborhood party last weekend and got to pick another one out and wear it to dance earlier this week. It might be the draw of the candy and all the sugar-greed that goes along with the annual trick-or-treat trek around the neighborhood but I like to think that she likes Halloween like I like Halloween.

Happy Birthday, Erin!

Today is Erin's birthday - her actual birthday. It's not the first party and not the last party and not the end of the celebrating, but it WAS 7 years ago today that we were first getting to know her in her first day of life while my family was all on vacation in California thinking they had two more weeks before she would be born. She is just as beautiful today as she was then; her features just as delicate, her hair just as soft, her manerisms still as tender. Of course back then she hadn't learned to have her own, and at times very strong, opinions of things like she does now and she couldn't jump up and grab the DVD remote from the top shelf of the entertainment center where her Mother had put it out of her reach like I witnessed her do tonight. But take away all the growing up she has done in the last 7 years and she is still the little angel who stole my heart all those years ago in a hospital room while Daddy was away getting something to eat. Would I trade any of the craziness of having a child on top of all the other stresses in life? HELL NO! Erin is the center of our world and we are both so in love with her. Happy Birthday darling girl!

Of course there's no photos... have you read how crazy my life is?!? Stay tuned... there will be some - eventually!

Potential Overload

I believe that my usual ability to stay ahead of all the stress in my life by planning and scheduling every activity into bite-size tasks where they fit into my calendar has finally been pushed beyond the natural limits and the system is in major threat of overload; we are talking the red zone! So, everyone knows that I am leaving my "day" job for a new one and I knew that it would be a crazy last couple of weeks now that all my current projects all have the exact same end date to either be passed on or passed off. On top of that, I was "volunteered" by my fabulous boss to help him screen potential candidates to fill the position I am vacating with a contractor - guess I made the right decision to leave given that they don't think there's enough work long-term to hire someone to replace me huh? So, now all the work from work is spilling over into the "at home" hours in order to get everything done I want to complete to leave a good legacy behind. On top of that, I have now - count them - 3 days in which to do my 12 hours of Continuing Education so I can renew my Real Estate License. This is also an activity which requires "at home" hours away from the day job. I was going to spend the weekend online doing this but couldn't since Erin had a mandatory dance camp in Salem. (I didn't know there was a Salem in Utah either but guess what!) It is a long enough drive away that with gas still over $3 a gallon it made zero sense to drive her down and go back home. So, Clint and I drove her down Saturday morning and spent the day in Happy Valley while she danced her heart out. We got to see a little performance of what the girls all learned at the end of the camp and even Clint made a comment that eluded to his being impressed. The older girls had learned several dances and he said "how do they keep track of everything!". HA, dance is hard work, huh, really?!? Erin will be dancing at a Jazz halftime in January and they were learning part of the routine. Pretty exciting stuff and Erin slept all the way home! It is a telling sign that I'm on overload when I didn't even remember to bring my camera to take photos for the blog of the dancing. Today I had to do all the laundry I would normally have done on Saturday plus cook dinner for the first of two of Erin's birthday parties that are happening tonight with the family. Right now I wish I had no other care in the world than chasing birds like Sasha is doing in the back yard!

Tagged!

Ok, Kerstin tagged me first but Amber also did! Apparently it is the blog form of an email "answer these questions" and I'm always up for those so here goes!

Six Question Tag

1. Six places I go over and over: work, Erin's school, Erin's dance studio, Smiths, our favorite Mexican place and our favorite sushi place.

2. Six people who email me regularly: Clint, Denice, Amber, Mom, Gram, Becky (of course, this list would be MUCH different if it were people who IM me regularly....)

3. Six of my favorite places to eat: Aculpulco, Fortune Cookie, Ruby Tuesday, Olive Garden, Soup Kitchen, Marketstreet

4. Six places I would rather be right now: on the couch watching a movie, reading a book, Italy, the beach, Mexico, outside (if only it were warmer - the moon is so beautiful tonight!)

5. Six people I think will respond (aka, the TAG): I tag everyone I know who blogs and hasn't already tagged... which is Adrian, Christauna, Angel and TipTopTux

6. Six TV shows I watch: this is a tough one for me as I am not a TV watcher! BattleStar Galactica (which hasn't had new episodes for MONTHS!), UFC (Clint's favorite), Spongebob (Erin's favorite), Heros (but only on DVD so far), I want THAT! on FLN. I know that's not 6 but seriously can't think of anything else!

Six Quirks About Me:

1. I am a freak about saving things. Bills I paid from our first apartment (15 years ago!), Birthday cards, wedding invitations, extra buttons from new clothes, receipts, every school paper that Erin has brought home starting with pre-school when she was 4, clothes that are out of style and I couldn't wear again if I tried... You name it, I save it. When Clint and I got married he used to make me go through the closet once a year and get rid of at least a stack of things I hadn't worn that year. I am not such a freak about saving clothes and shoes now because of it (unless there's sentimental value like my VICA jackets and my letter sweater or the dress I wore to graduation-I've only been out of school for going on 2 decades!) but everything else I still collect. I have boxes labeled "scrapbook stuff" that I think might be fun to look back on someday. It has treasures like movie tickets to every movie we've ever been to, airline ticket stubs, brochures for places we've traveled to, stuff like that. And since these things are in a box with a girlie label like scrap booking Clint won't make me throw it away...

2. I love the Moon... I always know what phase of the moon we are in and where to look in the sky for it. And I always take a minute to moon gaze when I'm outside to feed Sasha before I go to bed. It calms me for some reason I can't explain. This is true even when the moon is still "up" in the daytime. I'm a moon girl!

3. I always snooze the alarm clock in the morning for at least a half an hour and more like an hour lately. I physically cannot just hear the alarm, turn it off and get out of bed. I instead have to decide when the latest I really have to be up is and then set the alarm for an hour earlier so I can have my snooze time. It's like somehow I'm tricking myself into thinking that I slept longer and got an extra hour or something. And when I actually get up after only a half hour of snoozing instead of the alloted hour? I pat myself on the back that I got up "early". Can't explain that one, either...

4. I am an obsessive planner... I plan everything down to the minutia. Doesn't matter what we are doing, I'm over planning it and over packing things to take with us. Clint doesn't plan anything, just gets an idea in his head and starts off knowing that he can just figure it out along the way. I'm the girl who packs a rain coat just in case we get rained on and then cart it around all day without needing it. Luckily we balance each other out!

5. I type everything... There's lots of instances with my job where I can cut and paste commands that I'm doing over and over on the system; or where most of the command is the same as the next line and I could just issue a 2-character command to bring up the line to change the one or two characters. But, I can't do it. I have to type out everything and I mean everything! Drives people at work crazy to watch me but I type so fast that I can still get it done before they could if we were racing!

6. I am so easily distracted from one thing to the next - especially around the house. I will start something and walk into the next room on some part of that task and find something else that I think "oh, I should do that while I'm here" and stop what I was originally doing to start the next thing. After doing that over and over I usually stumble across the first thing that I started (where I left off) and think "oh yeah, I need to finish that" and stop what I am currently doing to continue. Like a viscous cycle over and over. At the end of a Saturday spent at home and left to my own devices I've done a TON of stuff but not completed a single thing... and I'm exhausted. And then Clint will come in and say "what have you been doing all day?" because there is no clear evidence of what I did! I hate this about myself...

And a bonus quirk I just thought of... I always have a book hidden somewhere on my person (usually in my purse!) You never know when you're going to have 5 minutes you could be reading after all!

And just like that... it's WINTER

I'm loving the fall weather, bringing out the light sweaters and the hoodies and actually wearing socks for the first time in months and what do I hear two days ago but that we are expecting SNOW this weekend. And we are not talking about in the mountains far away from where we will see it but HERE in the valley and in the yard most likely. It felt like summer would never come this year then was so damn hot that felt like it lasted longer than normal. NOW we are getting robbed of fall for it all to start over again. Damn weather...

Fall is here

My favorite time of the year has finally come around again! It isn't too hot to leave the comfort of the air conditioned indoors; you need a jacket or sweater in the early or late hours of the day; and the leaves are changing color getting ready to fall. Yes, FALL is here and man am I loving it!

Last weekend, we spent Sunday driving through the mountains and looking at the beautiful leaves and scenery. I know that it would kill me to ever leave the mountains and I shudder to think of it ever happening (even though I bitch about being surrounded by raving lunatic Republicans...) I think we took over a hundred photos of leaves - from up close to landscape vistas. It was a great day!

Erin is doing Girl Scouts and working on her Outdoor Adventurer badge (they are called Try-Its in Brownies...). So she got to wear her girl scout vest to designate that it was an official outing and we went on a hike to find the smallest living thing we could find. We tried several times to get a really great hike in and set out several times only to get rained on and turn back before it turned into a soaking. We ended up finding grasshoppers and ants and several small spiders and got to check off the task in her handbook.

We stopped at the summit of the mountain and ate a picnic lunch and at one point stopped to let Erin wade in the water at the bottom of a waterfall. We were hiking on the last trail we embarked on and trying to find photo opportunities we could enlarge and put in our house on the walls when a super-nice older couple offered to take a family picture. So, now we have evidence that Mommy was on the adventure as well as Daddy and Erin... Now if only Fall will last as long as it seemed that Summer did this year so we can hold off Winter and its inevitable snow as long as possible.

My favorite day of the year approaches... All Hallows Eve... and this year I am branching out beyond the typical witch-y costume. Hopefully folks won't be too disappointed! Erin already has her costume and is so bummed that she won't be able to dress up at school since she will be off track. What a bummer since she loves Halloween as much as I do and I'll be at a new job were I don't even know for sure that I can dress up and won't be able to take the day off just because it is Halloween. We shall see how it all comes together I suppose.

I'm slowly weaning myself off the Blackberry and man is it rough!