Life is so monotonous

Absolutely nothing new is going on in life right now.  I keep telling myself that I need to update my blog but there's just nothing interesting to write about.  What to write about?! I'm in a rut.  Not a bad rut, just in a rut and I'm bored.  Not bored of having nothing to do, I have plenty to do.  I'm just bored of the things that I have to do, of the monontony of it.  I know I shouldn't complain, I am just venting. I have figured out that having a child in school is a little gift from heaven.  Am I awful for not being one of those Mom's that doesn't want their child to leave for school?  I must be missing out on some kind of parenting phenomenon as to how people that have children are blissfully happy. I love my kids and would be devestated without them but I will say that I'm screwed this summer.  What they heck am I going to do for 12 weeks with 2 fighting kids???  Seriously.  They fight constantly and I don't know what to do about it.  I finally get how my Mom must have felt with me and my brother.  It's maddening. I hate "no school" days.  Christmas vacation was.....i don't know the word.  It was just 14 days of the opposite of joyful.  Not to mention Jake's mouth had 14 cancur sores in it.  That could have attributed to the hell.

Jersey had her 2nd ever dance recital.  She acts like she's 16 the way she talks and acts about it.  It's so funny.  It was much better than the 1st performance and she was in hog-heaven with all the attention.  Tyson brought her flowers and we would have got the same reaction if he'd taken her a puppy.  She was just over the moon about getting flowers.  They had two outside performers in the recital. One was from the Cincinnati Ballet and the other from the Orlando Ballet.  I haven't ever really seen a professional ballet of any sort so I thought it was so facinating to watch in real life.  This girl below is from the Orlando Ballet and she was like a little china doll.  I couldn't believe how tiny she was....and all the cool moves she had.

I have to write a little bit about my dear new found friend, Josie.  She moved here this summer and we started hanging out in October or so.  She has changed my life.  She's inspiring in every way and has helped me see most everything through a new perspective. She is also the most humble person I know (and the most talented but she doesn't see it).  She plays any song on the piano that you tell her from heart and she plays upside down without watching.  For real. She has an infectious smile and everyone loves her.  I'm not just saying that, everyone DOES love her.  She's gorgeous and selfless and kind...she's everything anyone would want to be. And she's a great friend.  She's been dealt a pretty crappy hand though and is having a really hard time with things.  I wish I could fix her.  I haven't ever had my heart hurt for someone like it does for her. I know it's kind of lame to bring her up without saying more about what's going on but, I just wanted to so I have a documentation of this time in my life. (side note: does the comma come before or after the "but"??)  She is leaving on her mission for the LDS Church on March 28th.  I am so happy for her getting her call, am happy for her accepting this challege, I am excited to see where it takes her, and most of all I hope it helps her get past the stuff she's going through.  I am glad she came to our little town and that she picked me to have as her friend.

Alright, here's some pictures from Zee's dance recital.  I am sparing putting on the pictures from Christmas.  There are just too many.  The semi-freaky one of the two kids at the bottom is on Christmas Day though.

 That's her in the back with her "stop, collaborate & listen" hand jestures.  Does anyone know what I am talking about when I say that? 

 Oh! And these gems are our Christmas card pics.  I wanted sooooo badly to have a picture of the dogs and the kids.  I originally wasn't going to send out cards because I didn't have a good picure.  One day I just decided to do it myself and see what happened.  A grand picture didn't happen but here's what I got.  Feel precious if you got one of my ghetto Christmas cards.  I hate getting cards without a picture so I had to send something.

Jersey turned 4!!

 I know every Mom says this but I can't believe she went from this......to this (below), so fast!!  Never mind the scratches on her face as a baby.  Her nails grew REALLY fast.  I couldn't keep up with clipping them so she was always scratching herself.

 And never mind her raggedy hair.  She had just got up and saw this: her new kitchen set.

 Still the hair.  She did change her clothes though!  This kid is girl through and through. She was way more thrilled to see this brush and clothes in a box than she was with the kitchen.

We had a fun day. My mom came and while Jake was at school Tyson, myself and my Mom went to Billings shopping.  I felt a little guilty leaving Jake but the two kids together are oil and vinegar.  They would have just fought all. day. long. This little girl is my best little buddy and I love hanging out with her all day when Jake is at school.  She likes to do the things I like to do and is so darn funny.  She just acts and talks like she's fourteen.  She comes out of her room with make-up on and says "look Mom, I look Fance-say (fancy)."  And the time she went out into the garage, came back in and said "Oh my shivering timbers! I went in the garage and my feet were like, so cold (in a total valley-girl voice)! She's also the apple of Tyson's eye and has him so tightly coiled around her finger it's almost annoying.   Happy Happy Birthday to my Jersey girl.

Halloween two oh one one

Halloween is weird for me.  I mostly just think it's a pain. I am one of those lame mom's that doesn't get excited to make cookies and cupcakes and decorate all out.  I wish I were like that.  My mom is like that so I figure that's good enough.  I just let her do that stuff with my kids.  I do like to dress up and I like to dress up my kids.  However, Tyson will NOT dress up.  He's boring like that.  He thinks its humiliating.  Whatever.   I do hate commercial costumes.  I think its lame to buy a sexy kitty outfit, or another princess costume.  Sometimes kids don't give in though, hence the spidy costumes (bought by Nana though, not me).  I never know what to be and then at the last minute I figure something out.  Last year I was Velma and took Diesul as Scooby Doo.  This year I was a "cereal killer."  Ty made me a milk-jug hat with strings of cereal coming out of it.  The kids really wanted to wear their spidy costumes so I let them when we went to a Halloween Party.  On Halloween day though I made them wear the clown and bunny costumes.  I guess I shouldn't say "made," they willingly wore them.  I wanted them to wear these costumes so much because I wore them when I was little!  My mom made them.  I distinctly remember standing in front of our fire place totally ticked off while my mom took my picture. She made me wear my ugly mauve-colored coat under my cute costume.  I felt the coat totally ruined it.  I thought these two were the cutest clown and bunny EVER!  I am biased though. Oh, and the other pictures are of Zee with her best bud, Shyanne.  The other picture is of my friends and I.  Shyanne's mom, Britney as the witch and our friend Jodie.  She was Tiger Lily from Peter Pan.   

Libby the Cat

 Libby was a cat that my roomates and I got in our 1st year of college. Of course she ended up at my parents house the following year because we couldn't take care of her.  She was a really funny cat with lots of personality.  I have billions of pictures of how quirky she was.  When she was a few years old, someone shot her with a bb gun and she lost her right eye.  She also got hit by a car once but still survived and turned into a 20-something lb cat.  Actually, I don't know her weight but she really was HUGE!  Recently she passed away but for the few months preceding that, she started going down hill. My Dad started to slowly dislike her a few years ago.   But as soon as all this weird stuff started happening, my Dad hated her.......ALOT. She pooped everywhere except for the litter box and seemed to purposly NOT go in it. She went on the deck railing, on the grill, on the garage floor, under the stairs, you name it. She accidently got into my mom's car and was left in there overnight and guess what happened? Yep, she did it in there too.  I won't say what my Dad calls her but the initials are "P.O.S." I don't think he did it to be mean, it was just that when she started all this it didn't seem like she was sick, just that she was annoying.  After awhile she got scary skinny and had hair clumps on her. Along with her one eye, she was a pretty sad sight. A little like our cat "popcorn" only he walked around with a hole in his head....for real.   He's a whole other story.  So....... Libby disappeared awhile ago and never came back. My mom thought she probably went to die somewhere. She was gone about two weeks when a customer came into my dad's shop to pick up her car. She runs a cat shelter in rexburg. It is a single wide trailer they use to house homeless cats... like 130 of 'em. This lady that has the car at the shop isn't a typical "cat lady" so it was weird to me that she was always ALWAYS over taking care of the cats. She came in and was talking about all this time she spends at the cat trailer. My mom said "oh our cat ran away a few weeks ago" and my Dad told the lady that Libby only had one eye."  The lady, said "oh, we have her!" and my mom was stunned. My mom described her and the lady said, "yep, we have her. Some guy brought her in a few weeks ago (around the time she disappeared)." So my mom went to the cat shelter with the lady to get Libby.  She said that place is like a horror movie. Cats cats cats everywhere! She said it is really really clean but it is smelly. She also said she was standing there and a cat climbed up her back, and then one hopped onto her shoulder....just literally cats everywhere. My mom took Libby home and knew that when she disappeared she probably was down at the nature park when that guy found her. He probably took her to the shelter because she didn't have a collar and cause she looked so bad. A few days after my mom had brought her home (and when she did my Dad woke up to cat crap on the deck again and starts stormin around "I dunno why you brought that cat home...!) she disappeard again. My mom went down to the nature park and called her name and sure enough here she came running (remember her rattle-y meow as she'd run down the stairs?) My mom picked her up and started walking home but everytime a car passed she freaked out. Next thing my mom knew, she felt something running down her leg. The cars really scared the crap out of her I guess cause that's what she did, all over my mom! My mom still loved her though and took her home, bought her soft food so she'd eat, etc. And all this time my mom would call me and tell me the awful state of Libby and how she didn't know what to do. She knew she had something really wrong with her but didn't want to take her to the vet. Partly cause she didn't want to spend the money (she knew she was close to dying anyway) but also cause she didn't want to find out there WAS something wrong and then feel guilty about not doing anything about it.  The next day my mom went out to the garage and Libby was just the saddest sight.  My mom said she just looked totally awful and the hair on her legs was falling off.....lots of other stuff was wrong too.  So, that is all sad and the other sad part (but happy too because she was suffering) is that my Mom went to have her put down. The vet said they could run tests and it would cost around 200$ just to diagnose the problem, not treat it. I think she had some organ failure or something that couldn't be cured anyway.  Mom was really sad that day and called me crying. I think she did the poor girl a service. And she knows she did too. This post is so lame to some people, and even though I am not really sad about this, I wanted to remember it.  I had so many fun little memories of her and funny stories of things she did that I wanted to write about her "last days." I'm sure she was the spawn of the head-satan-cat as a kitten.  She'd rip Lee's hands apart and that picture we have of Amanda, Lee and I in our kitchen and Libby standing in the circle with us as if she was apart of the conversation. Her sleeping in beer boxes and golf clubs, climbing the screen door and being all of Valley View's random resident. So, RIP Libby. You were a cute cat:)  While talking to my mom the day she passed away, she said "well I guess I better go did a hole to bury her in."  I said, "Dad won't do it for you?" and she kinda laughed and said she wasn't even going to ask him.  Oddly enough, my Dad did say he would dig a grave for her.  My parents house is a real pet cemetary. Jeremy's ferret is back there, our dogs Skipper, Whoopi and Gidget. Seger, popcorn and now Libby. Their back yard isn't very big!

Oh, before my mom put her down, she went down to the shop and my dad goes "did you see that 'winky' made the paper? My mom goes "who is winky???" and my dad goes, she's Libby!  The shelter renamed her Winky. They advertised she needed a good home in the Rexburg Standard Journal. Ha! It was one of those "had-to-be-there things where it's better to hear all this from the perspective of my parents. Too bad I'm so computer illiterate.  I would post a picture of her but I don't know how to scan one in. 

That was a really long post about a cat. 

I'm really suckin' at bloggin' :(

It is just getting longer and longer between posts.  I hate that.  But I also hate that everytime I make one it takes me hours and hours between all the disruptions, added to the fact that I have so much to make up for, that it is easier to just put it off.  It makes me sad though because not that my life is really exciting and that many things come up worth talking about, but some things do pop into my mind that I think "oh I should write about that." Then the moment and excitement of said event disappears and I convince myself that it is really only cool to me.  But then again, this blog is for me, right?  Well, I don't know if I have any readers out there but I'm gonna post soon.  I had an awesome activity I was in charge of last week that was just AMAZING.  It was so fun and I was so happy with how it turned out.  I have a few pics I will share but nothing can capture how fun it was without actually being there:)  Sometimes the hard things we do in life turn out to be worth the work!  Oh, and a reminder to myself, I have a funny story about my "abandoned to my parents" cat named Libby that I would like to share.  Jake was also looking through a magazine the other day, saw something he liked and yelled "sweet mother!"  Totally something Tyson would say.

Ahhhh, mountains.

I never can remember to write first or put pictures first. Hmmmm.  As much as I shouldn't feel it or say it, I have been feeling a little annoyed with life lately.  I am ashamed by it since there's so much strife people are enduring, hardships, trials, illness, etc.  We are effected by none of that and for that I am so thankful.  I have just felt like Tyson and I are roomates lately, passing in the morning and crawling into the same bed at night, at different times.  Tyson has been so busy.  Busy with papers and fixing things, organizing things, scouting, scouting, scouting, Young Men's and more Young Men's.  When he does find a minute, its off the gun range. I don't blame him and I am not bothered by it.  The poor guy needs an outlet.  I am just a little jealous of the families I see traveling, going camping, or off doing something together.  Finally this past Saturday the things that needed to be done were things that could WAIT to be done and we decided to go up to the Belts.  It's not too far but better than sitting at home watching Spongebob.  Once we decided to go and started loading everything we started to think we were a little crazy.  The kids were screaming and we kept on packing things we thought we might need, which ended up being enough stuff to go for a few days.  How is it that it takes as much stuff to go out for a day as it does for several.  The only thing we didn't take was a tent.  It was a circus getting out of here....right down to the 35 min. line at Subway.  Finally off we went.  What a day.  What a great, perfect, fun day with my family.  It was just us and it was exactly what we needed.

Jake learning to ride his bike

I think she likes it more than Jake does!

Jersey took this picture for us.  Not bad for a 3-yr old?

These pictures might be a tad inappropriate but I couldn't resist!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Our weekend started with my birthday.  It was such a good birthday.  The best part was that my parents were here for it.  We went out to breakfast and then came home and had a water fight.  We just had a relaxing day, got a sitter and went to dinner.  It was a really nice day:)  My parents gave me some clothes and a really cute blue/zebra print purse with a matching wallet.  I love bags of any kind!  Tyson got me a kindle, flowers, and a car detailing pass that I have yet to redeem.  When I was little, I hated my birthday being on the 2nd cause we were always somewhere to celebrate the 4th.  I wasn't ever home to have a party and it was in the summer, so no school party either.  Bummer.  Now that I am older I love it that way because there's always something fun going on.  And besides, I think the fireworks are partly to celebrate me! J/k  This year Ty's office staff decided to be in the 4th of July parade.  Teresa, one of the front desk girls, has a little mini-horse.  They decorated Tuffy's cart (the mini-horse) and the kids rode in it in the parade.  Then Kris, Kendyl (Kris' daughter) Jen, and Katie (Jen's daughter) dressed up as a toothbrush, toothpaste, the tooth fairy and floss.  They are such good sports!  It turned out really cute.  We lit fireworks at home this year with the kids and had a couple of possessed motor vehiles (see the picture of Ty's feet about on fire) and we took the kids to the circus.  It wasn't bad at all for a small-town circus.  I just felt bad for the animals.  Putting that aside, it was really fun.  I had a really hard time when tuesday came and my parents had to leave.  It's always hard when that time comes; that you've had a housefull of people and so much fun and then all a sudden you are all alone.  I am just so thankful my parents could be here and that I could spend the long weekend with Ty and them and the kids-that they are all happy and healthy and that even though they aren't here every second, at least they are here, on this earth with me.  I love them all so much!

My purse!

                                                                      Family picture!

                                                                           Jake & Papa

                                                                The possessed motorcycle

                              This stupid dog of ours.  He kept trying to bite the sparks.

                                                                      Kendyl & Kris

                                                            Jen, Ty and Kris and my Dad

                                                             The kids, Tuffy & Teresa

West Yellowstone & Tuffy the Mini-horse

A few weeks ago we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to West Yellowstone.  We took the kids to the Grizzley/Wolf exhibit thing and went through the park.  I have never seen a grizzly in the wild.  We were driving along and came upon a whole bunch of people pulled over.  I thought for sure it was a bunch of tourists looking at another buffalo or something.  We decided to stop and I'm so glad we did.  I saw my first grizzly!  Everytime we go through the park I hope to see one but never do. It finally happened and now I am content with not going through the park for a long, long, time. 

The following weekend (the last weekend in June) we went out to Teresa's house (Tyson's receptionist) to visit her mini-horse, Tuffy.  He was set to pull the kids in a cart during the parade.  We wanted to meet him and let the kids see what it would be like.  Tuffy is so cute!  Jersey was totally smitten and I think he really liked her too.  He's a super cool, little (fat) mini-horse!