Coldplay Concert

Okay, so since we lived in Michigan and were given a copy of Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head", they have become my favorite band. I love them, not in crazy fan sort of way, just a "the music speaks to my soul" way. So I was pysched this summer to find out they were coming to concert in Salt Lake City. I think I bought my tickets in August for a November concert and then gave them to Pete for his birthday (a bit of a selfish gift, since it mostly benefits me, but we won't go there!) Anyhow, the concert was last night and we attended with two of our favorite people, Jeremy and Talli. Jeremy was Pete's mission companion in Japan. After we were married, we attended the University of Utah (dang, they beat the Cougars) together and then ended up at the University of Michigan for several years. We love hanging out with them, because it doesn't matter how much time has passed since we last saw them, it's like we just start from were we left off, laugh and have a great time! Anyhow, when we first walked into the Energy Solutions Arena (stupid name), I'll admit disappointment at how high are seats were for the ridiculous sum we paid for tickets. Then we waited for a long time for the performance to start, but I'm happy to report, it was worth it. I think it was the best concert I've ever been too. Not only was it great to recognize all the music, but they put on a great show, with huge television screens and rotating spheres that projected live videos with special effects. For example, they're being recorded on stage, but the film is in black and white or with funky colors splashed on screen. I loved that, but my favorite part was when they ran through the crowd to a section of the auditorium not far from where we sat and performed two numbers--right there in the audience with us, we commoners! It was such a great concert!

Now for a brief comment on the Utah vs. BYU football game yesterday. Dang it! Utah won, by a lot! I'll admit, I use to be a Utah fan as a kid, before I randomly ended up at BYU (another story for another day). But, as a student of BYU, I have to support the Cougs and I was really hoping they'd make it a game, if only to avoid the harassment from the rabid Utah fans! That may seem a bit harsh, but unfortunately, there are some crazy Utah fans that give the lot a bad reputation.

Final thoughts! Talli and I discussed the controversy over Prop. 8 in California and it was a really interesting conversation. It's been very disconcerting to see protest rallies around the L.A. temple and the anger invoked by Prop.8 being passed. In a deviation from the Church in the past, where we were encouraged to vote, but not told how to do so, the Church really encouraged the members to get out and actively educate the people of California about the issues. Talli and I talked about how difficult it is to take a stand on these issues, knowing how important family is to the Church, but also knowing how differently our society feels about these matters. Prop. 8 passed because a majority of the people voted for it to pass, yet the Mormon's have become the scapegoats because they took a stand and actively got involved. We talked about the backlash and how it's scary to see how much hate people have for Mormon's, yet standing up for what you believe shows our faith and obedience. Anyway, it made for a really interesting conversation.

Follow up to Braces Post

So . . . I don't know yet if we won the contest for free braces! I hope we do. After getting a quote for what it would cost me to get braces, I won't be getting them unless it's free or I can save for the next five years. If I forgo the braces, for the same price, I could buy a new couch, an entire new wardrobe, refinish my deck that's about to fall off my house, or any number of other great things! Now, the thing is, I'm a bit vain about teeth. I've never had braces and always had fairly straight teeth, but my bottom teeth are a bit crowded and I have a small gap between my front teeth that often resembles a small raspberry seed stuck between the teeth. The question is . . . what's more important? My vanity or developing a sense of practicality? I may still opt to be vain in the long run, but for now, I think I'll save the cash, and cross my fingers and hope to win the contest. I suppose for now, I'll have to appease my vain side with a pedicure/manicure! Just yesterday, I chose a great red, and had them paint the cutest Christmas wreaths on my big toes . . . very satisfying and much cheaper than braces!

P.S. I finished a really fun book . . . "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale. The author was born and raised in Utah (U of U grad) and weaves a great tale based on the Brothers Grimm The Goose Girl (not a fairy tale I was familiar with). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as evidenced by my messy house, since I've done little else but read for the last 24 hours in an attempt to finish it for my book club tonight.

Orthodontist Consult

So . . . today I'm pulling my two boys out early from school for a first orthodontic consult! The three of us will find out if we need braces and at the same time, guess on the weight of a giant pumpkin for the chance to win free braces. Mitch is probably a bit young for a consult, but I figured someone in our family is due to need braces and it would be great to not have to pay for them! Three guesses has to give us better odds than two, right? Wish me luck!

I've tagged myself!

I'm sure there are those of you out there who hate doing these types of things! Me, I kind of like to fill them out periodically! Before I ditched facebook I took all sorts of interesting quizzes and found out some pretty interesting things about myself. I know all the old 80's movies, especially Say Anything, I would have been Marilyn Monroe in a past life, and if I had another name, it should be Amanda! I also took an I.Q. test and found out I'm pretty smart--all useful info, right? So here's more random info. about me! I found this one on my friend Jami's page and she said tag to anyone Michelle missed, so here goes!

4 Random things about my husband: He, like Kolby, can quote lines from random movies, some he hasn't even seen other than the preview; he sings, plays guitar and the piano; he has an amazing memory; and he totally zones out when he's watching television . . . can't hear a word I say (or so he says!)

4 movies I could watch more than once: When Harry Met Sally, Once, She's Having a Baby, Fool's Rush In (totally stupid, but it reminded me of warmth when I was living in freezing cold Michigan)

4 TV shows I watch: Desperate Housewives, Extreme Home Makeover, Re-runs of Friends and Cosby Show

4 Places I have been: Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil and Germany

4 Places I would like to visit: France, Switzerland, England, Denmark

4 things I am looking forward to this year: NYC with Madeline, Newport Beach, skiing, Christmas

People I tag: Anyone who likes filling out dumb questionaires like I do!

I've been tagged!

Thanks for the tag Heather!

Question and Answer Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others. Here are the questions:

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? home
3. Your hair color? highlighted
4. Your mother? optimist
5. Your father? honest
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? write
9. The room you’re in? lively
10. Your hobby? decorating
11. Your fear? accidents
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Holladay
13. Where were you last night? play
14. What you’re not? mean
15. One of your wish-list items? thin
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you did? read
18. What are you wearing? nightgown
19. Your TV? cartoons
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? distracting
22. Your mood? excellent
23. Missing someone? sister
24. Your car? Armada
25. Something you’re not wearing? earrings
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? awesome
28. Love someone? family
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? Thursday

Now I have to tag 7 people and they are Kim, Steph, Barb, Heather McVey, Dani, Jodi and Janie.

Birthday Photos of Mitch

Mitch had a great birthday celebration at Bounce U, so I thought I'd post some photos. There were lots of sweating, loud, energetic 2nd grade boys running around having a great time! Happy Birthday to Mitch! Next up, Peter's big day on Sunday!





P.S. We saw a very entertaining, funny show at Pioneer Memorial Theatre last night--Noises Off. If you get the chance to go, it's worth it! A bit of language and an adult theme, so don't take the kids, but very fun!

Closer to 40 than 30 and the Age of Accountability!

So I am officially a year older as of Saturday! Although I refused to accept being 36 until 10:21pm on the first, my official birth time! Pete treated me to a spectacular birthday surprise--verging on extravagant, okay . . . totally over the top, but it was very fun. When I woke I was presented with tickets to the Ballet West Gala performance and a shopping trip to buy an outfit for the event. Pete's birthday is next Sunday, so he got a new suit as well. I also got plane tickets for a girl's trip to NYC with my daughter Madeline, and an over-nighter next weekend with Pete at Sundance. Granted, these gifts are combined gifts--for both Pete and I, but still, I think he over did this year!

Before all the excitement began, we attended Jake's playoff football game against Bingham who beat us 24 to zip! The first half was well played, we just couldn't score. The second half, they trounced us! Jake had some great tackles the first half that made it all worth it though.

After the game, we took the family to see High School Musical-Senior Year, which I loved, cheesiness and all, and stopped for frozen yogurt. That evening, we attended the ballet and ate dinner at Benihana's Japanese steakhouse. I've never eaten there, but always wanted to because it was my friend Suzanne's favorite place in high school. Fun to finally go after all these years!

Sunday we had a nice relaxing day at home. I, along with the rest of the Primary presidency, were released on Sunday. It's been such a great calling, I was a bit sad, but I have started feeling like I've lost my touch, so it's probably a good thing.

Monday was Mitch's birthday--a big year since he's old enough to be baptized. We had a nice family dinner and tonight is his big party at a "bounce center". Should be fun!

Anyhow, we had an incredible snow storm today--I loved waking up to 2 inches of snow, and it's continued to snow all day. It's beautiful outside! Sorry to those of you who hate snow, but I really do love it! I'll admit though, that I hope it melts in a few days. Happy snow day!

Halloween Part II

We have really had a busy, but fabulous last couple of days around the Fisher household. In my last post, I alluded to the end of my week--Halloween Parade, Halloween, etc. The following are the all the details!




Thursday the kids had school parade at 9:15am. Since our school does a Storybook Parade and the children are encouraged to bring the book their costume is based upon, we did a late night run to Barnes and Nobles to get books for Thursday. Jake decided to be Bobby Pendragon, although Thursday he changed his mind and was Steve Nash from some basketball team in Arizona. Mitch had decided early on to be the werewolf from one of the Goosebumps series books. Madeline had picked a cute, sparkly army girl costume, so we decided she looked most like Hannah Montana and went with that idea (kind of defeats the idea of using books as inspiration when you do it backwards, but hey! I tried!) In the audience, I had Bumblebee the Transformer. It was an early day out for the kids so we headed to Gardner Village to see the witches display and buy a birthday gift for a friend of Madeline's. Pete took Jake and Mitch to the Haunted Village haunted woods that evening, while I hung out with Tyler and shopped, and Madeline went to a "Ghoul-friends" spa party.






Friday morning we headed to the Hogle Zoo. We hadn't been there for awhile and the kids had a great time. They've made some nice improvements at the zoo and it was a beautiful warm fall day here in Salt Lake. I have to admit, I really miss living in that part of the city. Maybe someday . . .



Jake had football practice at 1pm, so we headed home, the kids to play, me to cook. I made Vermont Cheddar Cheese soup, homemade apple pie with apples from my backyard tree and mummy dogs for the party at our neighbors house. I think I stood in my kitchen from 2pm to 6:15pm cooking, but it's fun to do that sometimes (not all the time mind you.)



Our neighborhood party was very fun. We ate out on our friends front patio, then trick-or-treated, returning to our friend's home to dance and visit. I hope it turns into a neighborhood tradition because it was great seeing so many neighbors and friends. Our street doesn't get many trick-or-treaters, so we enjoyed being in the midst of all the action. Some classic Tyler stories. We got to his church teacher's home and he was very tired, so when a Kit Kat was dropped into his wet, dragged on the ground pillowcase, Tyler asked "What was that red thing you put in my bag?" Pete dug out the candy bar, to which Tyler said that he didn't want it. When asked if he wanted another treat, he looked in the basket and said "No thanks, I don't want nothing." At the next house, he did the same thing. Since when do kids refuse free candy? We figured it was time to strap him in the stroller to give him a break. A bit later, he was running to a door, and Mitch beat him to it, so he sat down on the door step and started to cry. It happened to be another family who knew him, so they appeased him with a sucker, but that's when he was relegated to the stroller for the rest of the evening.



I hope you all had an enjoyable Halloween as we did!

Halloween and Lunch with Friends

I just got back from having lunch with five of my favorite people! I am so glad to have made such great friends in junior high and high school. We may not get together often, but it's always so fun when we do! It's nice to have friends like that . . . people you know are true friends even though you may not see each other as much as you'd like. It was also nice to have Tyler entertained so I could get some grown-up conversation! Looking forward to next month ladies!

It's also been a busy month for Halloween Party's. At the first of the month, we invited several families over for a costume party. Sunday, we had a family night at my parents home, and then Monday hosted a party for Pete's family at our house. Yesterday was our ward Primary/Neighborhood party that's always a blast. Tomorrow we have school parade and then Friday we get to dress up again to trick-or-treat and attend another neighborhood party. I love this time of year, but let me tell you . . . I'm exhausted!

Maybe part of it is that Pete was out of town last weekend and has been busy this week! Acting as a single mom is not an easy task--hat's off to those women out there who have to do it all the time! Saturday I dragged 3 kids to a 9am football game, then to a birthday party. The kids had wanted to eat lunch at Panda Express, but when we pulled up, they were fighting. I said, "That's it, get back in the car. I can't do this today." Do you ever have days like that? Well, I knew that I was barely staying awake behind the wheel, and fighting kids in Panda Express would take me over the edge. So we spent a nice Saturday afternoon at home. I almost said quiet, but Maddy had 2 friends, Jake had 2 more and had kindly invited Mitch to play football with them. At one point, Tyler even had a friend over. Quiet would be the absolute wrong word to describe the day, but it was great. I tried to make up for our earlier botched lunch by bring Panda Express take-out home for dinner. We watched a scary movie and stayed up a little later than usual. I think I made up for my lack of energy earlier in the day.

I also wanted to describe our family party with the Fisher's. The last couple of Halloween's, we've had a family costume party, complete with bobbing for apples, a pinata, pumpkin carving, and donut eating with hands behind the back and the donuts hanging from a string. This year we added dry ice to the rootbeer and mummy dogs to the menu (hot dogs wrapped in breadsticks with dots of mustard for the eyes)! Some of the best costume's were Jared and Parker dressed as Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World, Ryan and Anne as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss, and Debbie dressed as her husband Tom, front hair swoop with some graying and all! Did I mention Nate was dressed as a giant chicken. Classic! I might also mention that I'm not a big costume person--I was a half-hearted attempt at Elizabeth Shue as Ali in the Karate Kid. Only, I didn't have time to krimp my hair, and the tip of my blue eye-liner broke, so once again . . . nobody got it! Hey, the food was good and that's more important.

Our neighborhood party was also a lot of fun. We hold it at the church building with a hot dog dinner, then the youth provide booths for the kids to do activities and trick-or-treat. There was face painting, a spook alley, cotton candy machine and lots of other fun games to entertain the kids. We've lived in the area for 3 years now, and it's been a great way to celebrate Halloween with our neighbors.

Well, I'll cross my fingers that we get more trick-or-treaters this year. I may have to revert to full-size candy bars to draw in the crowds! Happy Halloween to all!

UEA Weekend!

It's midnight, and I suppose the restless leg syndrome is preventing me from sleeping again, or could it be that Diet Dr. Pepper I had in the tub while reading after 5pm? Regardless, I can't sleep, so I thought I'd fill you in on our UEA (Utah Educators Association, or something like that) weekend, so far.

The kids have Thursday, Friday and Monday off from school. Pete is working, so we weren't able to go anywhere elaborate, but we've had a nice break . . . and grateful for one more day off tomorrow. Thursday the kids were able to play with friends and then we watched a very disappointing BYU vs. TCU football game at Janae and Brian's house. It's always fun to go to Janae's, it brings back so many memories of junior high and high school hanging out at the Fisher's. Janae bought the house Pete grew up in, and though it definitely feels like their house, it's nice that it carries some nostalgia as well.

Friday, I met my friend Kim at the gym to do a "bootcamp" workout, and sadly, I am still so sore today that it hurts to walk. Kim has a 6 week old baby and she totally puts me to shame, but I'm glad she'll put up with me! It's good incentive to have a friend to work out with. Earlier in the week, we took a 3 mile walk, and on my own, I did a Nia class. So far, it's been a good week for working out, now I need to start eating healthier. Anyhow, another good friend let my kids come play so I could get our house cleaned up. We had a Halloween party with 12 adults and 26 kids under the age of 11. I love Halloween, although I'm not a big costume person. Pete decided to be the Karate kid, so I decided to be his girlfriend from the movie played by Elizabeth Shoe. My kids totally didn't get it--they kept asking if I was going to dress up for Halloween, even with my ratted bangs, blue eyeshadow, collar up and leggings! I think my daughter even said I looked good with my hair like that! Oh well, at least I tried. In elementary school, I was a witch every single year! How's that for a lack of originality. Anyhow, it was a fun party!

We awoke bright and early for football on Saturday. Unfortunately, Jake's team was beaten by Riverton. They played a good game though, so we're hoping they'll have better luck next week against Bingham. They've done well enough to make it to the play-offs, so it looks like we'll still be doing football into November. After the game, we drove to Pleasant Grove on an errand for Pete and then drove the Alpine Loop, starting at Provo Canyon. I absolutely love that drive in the fall--one of the things that makes me so happy to be back in Utah. The aspen groves are spectacular! We pulled off at a trailhead, so the kids could stretch their legs, and they had a ball throwing rocks in the creek and crunching fall leaves. I am always amazed at the rugged beauty of the mountains. There's nothing quite as nice as being with my family in nature--helps me to realize how the simple things are often the most important.

We got home and decided to head up to Pete's family cabin at Alta. We all slept on the floor next to a roaring fire, and spent the following day relaxing and playing. It's a fairly remote cabin--you need 4 wheel drive in summer and have to ski or walk in during the winter months--so we were glad to make it up there once more before ski season! Highlights included long games of "War" with Madeline, "Memory" games with Mitch, Madeline and Jake, football games, and pancakes for breakfast. I also finished a good book called "America America" by Ethan Canin-one I'd recommend. The kids also got to work on the tree house before the snows completely cover it. It's very fun to have a place not too far away that feels very separate from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. It was a short but rejuvenating overnighter.

Tomorrow we look forward to Cornbelly's cornmaze and the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point before we segue back into our regular schedules. Hope those of you in Utah are also feeling rejuvenated after a 5 day weekend.

Sleep Test Results . . . so far!

Since I posted the very unattractive photos of my sleep test, I thought I'd share the results. No, I do not have sleep apnea, but it is feared that I have "restless leg syndrome". My conversation with my doctor went something like this:

Doctor: I have your sleep results and you don't appear to have sleep apnea.
Me: That's good, so does that mean I'm fine.
Doctor: Well, actually, you sleep terribly. The test results show that less than 18% of your sleep is in deep sleep, and you toss and turn most of the night.
Me: Yes, I know that. Any reasons for my poor sleep?
Doctor: The results all indicate that you have "restless leg syndrome." Do you feel like that could be a possibility?
Me: Yep, probably! Blah, blah, blah!

So I have to go in for more blood tests and another doctor appointment! I looked up restless leg syndrome and it kind of seems like one of those diagnosis they give to crazy people so that they don't have to tell them they're crazy! Granted, I do have restless legs that cause me to toss and turn most of the night, but I'm tired of doctor's offices. In the past couple of months I've seen an OB-Gyn doc for a consult on a hysterectomy, a cervical polyp, and funky ovaries; a breast specialist because my grandmother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and I think they were trying to console me, and two sleep studies. Now I'm headed back to the original doc! I think I'd rather get a babysitter to go get a pedicure, rather than to see another doc! Oh well . . . it's better to be safe than sorry!

Snow in October

Two points of interest: first, I cancelled my facebook account, and second, I really love fall. Now those things said, I will make my explanations.

First, I cancelled my facebook account because it's too easy to get pulled into it and distract from the stuff I should be doing. For example, rather than look at facebook, I could exercise, clean my house, spend time with my family, finally finish the quilting projects I started a very long time ago. I had a great time reconnecting with old friends, but it's time to be done with that in my life.

Second, I really do love fall, but the snow storm in October was extremely beautiful. I just hope we're not set for winter yet. We woke up to a beautiful snow storm with several inches of snow. I love the snow--it's so beautiful, and blankets the earth in such peacefulness. Our kids were so excited, that they put on their snow clothes and made a snowman. It was still warm enough that the snowman melted within a half hour, but then we were hit with another snowstorm during church. I really hope it doesn't mean winter's begun because I still want to get more bike rides in this fall, but it was a gorgeous way to spend Sunday at home. I thought I'd share some pictures of my flowers, still in bloom, covered in snow, and the gorgeous view from our bedroom.


Yesterday, after another football win for Jake, and a cancelled soccer game for Mitch, Pete and I attended the BYU vs. New Mexico game. Pete's sister and parents also attended, so it was fun to visit with them. We were able to go down on the field before the game and see the players warm up and do the "hukka". Then we spent the next few hours watching a fun, but down right chilly game. Thankfully the Cougars were victorious!

Sister's Day and Simplicity

My sister-in-laws are kind to include me in a monthly "sisters day". I am lucky that way--I feel like Pete's sisters are my older sisters, since I'm the oldest and didn't have that experience growing up. Pete also has a great big brother and wife who I adore as well, although they live in Texas, so we don't get to see them nearly enough!

Anyhow, today we drove to Ogden to Aunt Renon's to carry on the Fisher family tradition of making homemade applesauce. What a great experience--cutting, cooking and canning applesauce, with a pleasant interlude for lunch (quiche made with garden fresh zucchini and yellow squash, lemon bars, homemade zucchini bread, oh dreamy!) In some ways, it felt like going back to simpler times, when women (and Byron) worked together in the kitchen and when that work directly impacted the family's food supply. I think that kind of connection to our food is important! It would have been a lot easier to go to Costco and buy applesauce in bulk, but you should taste this applesauce! It has inspired me to plant a garden next year--garden tomatoes are my favorite--and to really use the fruit of my apple tree's for more than just apple pie! Plus Tyler got to play with his cousin John and Renon's darling grandkids, independently, no TV. I think that's good for kids too. Anyway, I'm grateful for this great learning opportunity and to spend time with people I love.

We also had a family experience that has caused me to contemplate a bit about how we plan to live our lives and the reality of how we actually end up living. Wouldn't it be nice if life went according to our plans? I use to have what I called my 12 year plan, for those years that Pete and I were going through school, including a child-bearing schedule of 3 to 4 children born 3 years apart. Yeah, so much for planning! Life tends to throw us curve balls that tend to ruin our plans. But when do we learn the most important life lessons? When I coached drill team several years back, I had a fairly successful first year as coach. It started out pretty rough, but my team ended up winning first in novelty and qualifying for state, something that hadn't happened in several years for that team. The next year, I made all the right plans and hired choreographers, trying to do all the right things to keep us on that winning path. It was a big disappoint to not qualify the next year--completely deflated my ego and was really hard on the girls. I felt like I'd let them down. But in so many ways, it built better character in those girls and helped me focus on what was important. In the long run, qualifying for state would have been nice, but it didn't necessarily help build character for those girls. That's kind of a lame example, but I think that applies to bigger things as well. Maybe life doesn't go according to plan, but it's how we get through it that matters! I strongly believe that! I have a quote on my wall (hand-stitched, though not by me, probably from someone in Indonesia) that says, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget the way you made them feel." To me that says that all the successes and things we acquire in this life may be nice, but the most important thing of all is the kind of people we are. I hope that I can be a good person who cares about other people. I hope that as hard things happen in life, I will be able to have empathy and compassion for others, that I will be able to see the good for what it is and learn from my trials. I hope to be patient with my children and help them to learn and appreciate those things that really matter in life, which is the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father and the people we love.

I've Been Tagged!

I've never been tagged before . . . thanks Barb! I hope I'm doing this right!

8 Favorite TV Shows (I don't watch much TV, but here goes):

1. Desperate Housewives
2. Re-runs of the Cosby Show
3. Re-runs of Seinfeld
4. Re-runs of Friends
5. Dancing with the Stars (though I've only watched a few times)
6. The House Make-over Show on ABC
7. Ellen DeGeneres (once again, I rarely watch, but it can be funny)
8. Movies on Cable TV like "You've Got Mail" or "Housesitter".

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Slept in until 9:20am (Tyler woke up early, so I fell back asleep--Thanks Pete!)
2. Fixed orange rolls, bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.
3. Watch LDS conference with my family.
4. Listened to Pete play the piano while I read a book.
5. Took a drive in the new car--by myself--no one else wanted to go and I wanted to see fall foliage.
6. Made Salmon, rice, carrots and breadsticks for dinner.
7. Watched Desperate Housewives.
8. Watched Vantage Point with Pete by candelight (we couldn't get our pilot light to stay on in the fireplace, so we made do with candles).

8 Things to Look Forward to:

1. Going back to school when Tyler's in school.
2. A family trip to Newport and Disneyland in January.
3. My 36th Birthday . . . just around the corner.
4. Halloween, Thanksgiving, then Christmas, plus family birthdays inbetween and afterwards--I love this time of year.
5. Ski season!
6. More home remodeling--but not for 2 more years Pete says!
7. A long, happy life with my kids and best friend, Pete.
8. Hopefully, more travels in the future, like to Europe!

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. The Foundry Grill at Sundance
2. Chili's
3. Winger's
4. Training Table
5. Italian Village--love a good pizza bender--olive and pineapple is my favorite!
6. Gepetto's
7. Zuppa's
8. Normandie Bakery and Cafe

8 Things on My Wish List:

1. That I could find a hairdresser that could get my highlights right--I have some burgundy right now, not natural!
2. That I would take off many pounds.
3. That I would be more self-motivated to eat better and exercise more regularly.
4. That our deck could be restained.
5. I wish we could refinish our basement with more storage in it--a Mormon definitely didn't built this house! No food storage, but we did have a wet bar!
6. That Pete and I could take a trip to France together.
7. That my house would clean itself miraculously.
8. That my yard would take care of itself miraculously as well.

8 People I Tag:

1. Kim P.
2. Talli
3. Marinda
4. Margo
5. Dani
6. Steph S.
7. Janie
8. Andrea . . . any and all who'd like to participate!

Sleep Tests and Stitches

It's been an eventful last few days and I'm finding it harder to blog on a regular basis now that school's back in session. I thought it would be easier, but I'm taking advantage of my time with Tyler to get more exercise in and more errands done. Good trade off, I suppose.

Well, tonight we had a great dinner with some of our friends from high school and their families. Between the 3 families, there were 12 kids under the age of 11. All the kids arrived and ran out back to play in the yard. I don't think it had even been 5 minutes (maybe, I was busy cooking and I'm not good at noticing time when cooking), when Pete and Cory brought in two bleeding boys. There were too many kids on the trampoline, and Jake took a chin to the top of his head, the chin belonging to McLain, who ended up with a big gauge on his chin. Both boys bleeding, both boys needed stitches. We hadn't even eaten yet, so we got the bleeding under control, ate and spend the evening with our friends, and then Pete headed to the office to do stitch repairs. I'm afraid the Brighton PeeWee's will be less one lineman tomorrow, but Jake had a pretty bad cut that was bleeding profusely. That makes deux stitches for Jake. Madeline has had stitches once, also sewn up by her father in our bedroom, and Mitchell should have had stitches twice, but Pete decided the cuts were clean enough that they'd heal up fine on their own (contrary to what our other physician friends thought, but that's a different story). Unless you count stitches from surgery, then Jake's had two surgeries, Mitchell, one. So far, no stitches for Tyler and no broken bones yet, so I think we're doing pretty good . . .

Look at all those wires! I didn't post this because it was pretty--more humorous than anything else.

I also had another sleep test. I'm including a photo because it struck me as very funny that to have a sleep test, they basically attach so many wires to your head and body, that actually getting any sleep is nearly impossible. I've had a problem with being overly tired and some insomnia, so my doc had me do an at home sleep test, which was the worst night of sleep I'd had in a long time. Unfortunately, that test showed that my oxygen levels were somewhat low during some phases of sleep, so they wanted me to do a follow up study in their sleep lab. I'm pretty kick-back, I had an "hey, why not attitude about it." So Wednesday evening, after a fun day of golf with Pete I might add, I headed to the sleep lab. I had 12 wires hooked to my head, 2 to my chin, 2 to my chest, several to my legs, 1 on my neck, plus three bands of wires around my middle. They used tape and some adhesive to afix the wires to my hair that took 4 shampoo's to remove. Surprisingly, I did fall asleep initially, but then woke up in middle of the night and never got back to sleep again. The next day, I felt so tired, I got a terrible headache that made the room spin. Nauseating! Anyhow, it's Friday, and I finally think I've recovered from my sleep test. Would I do it again? No way! The funniest part was the girl who helped me get hooked up said "You look healthy. What are you doing in here?" To which, I responded, "I don't really know." Hey . . . it was an adventure and it's that what life's all about?

This picture was at 6:30am when I got home. I still had a bunch of tape and goop in my hair to clean out.


So Pete and Jake are not back yet from getting stitches, but I'm feeling tired, so off to bed I go!

**Update on Jake--Pete just called and said all was well. Typical of Pete, he thinks that if Jake's up to it, he could play football tomorrow . . . if only they had some special cap to help protect his head. Oh my . . . he's 10 and he'll have plenty of football games in his lifetime. I say, avoid doing stitches twice in two days, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what we end up doing tomorrow. MEN!!