Broken Ears

The other day I read heather's blog about broken ears. Apperantly her little girl tells her that her ears are broken when asked to do something.
Well thinking it cute and funny (it is always funny when it is not your own kid) I tell Matt and Patrick. Well Patrick thinks he is pretty funny.
I asked him to walk Bogie (a task he hates to do) he looks at me and says, what mom I think my ears are broken.
Being a smart kid and old enough to understand "the look" jumps up and gets bogie to take hin on a walk as soon as he got "the look".

Afirmative Action

This last week I have been working on an Affirmative Action Plan and it has sucked!
Now don't get me wrong. I am a believer in Affirmative Action. However, I am not such a big fan of putting them together. There is so many steps to take. I have had to print off a million reports to put in the hard copy of the plan. This is just in case any employees or god forbid the EEOC wants to see it. Then I have had to write narratives. I had do do a business summary and a narrative with an action plan on how we are going to try to "fix" where we are under utilizing women or minorities and a narrative explaining our community involvement and how that has encouraged women and minorities to apply. I have not even began working on the veterans section!
However, I cannot complain too much. I knew that I would have certain things like this to deal with on my job. Hopefully it is easier to put together next year!

Weather

There is not much about Burley that is better than Idaho Falls, but one thing that is better in Burley is the weather. We do not have any snow. Not to say we have not gotten snow, but when it snows it usually is gone soon after it stops snowing. It also is warmer. We have had a few cold days where is has gotten into the 20's and some in the 30'. But for the most part it is in the low to mid 40's.
Wednesday I went to work in snow and come home with sunshine and most of the snow melting. It is weird, but I sure love it.

Moving Day

Friday was moving day. I hate moving. It is a lot of work!
I don't mind packing things up, but I sure hate to move it and unpack it. You have to figure out where you are going to put things and then you can never find them! This morning I have no idea what hapened to the pair of shoes I wanted to wear today. Even though it is a pain it already is so nice. This house is so quiet, we only hear each other and we control the smell!
We bought a new washer and dryer. We have not hooked them up yet so we had to go to the old house do to laundry. So we walked in and the smell about knocked me over. The smell of cigarette smoke was so strong I thought I was going to puke. Then when we were putting our clothes away they all smelt like an ash tray. So that made me wonder did I go to work smelling like that? Or was it faint enough that it really could not be smelt? Anyway those days are gone. All we have left is to clear out the fridge and clean and cleaning should not take us that long.
So while it was a pain to move and to unpack it is all worth it in the end.

Better late than never

Here are some Christmas post. A little late, but here they are finally!
Enjoy....

Christmas

Christmas this year was something new for us. We have never lived away from family and have never had to figure out how to celebrate with family while living away from them! Well we took the week off and went into IF. It was a nice Christmas, we brought all of our presents and opened them Christmas morning at Matt's parents and then spent evening with my family. It was nice and being so far sure makes me appriciate family!

The best part of Christmas was Patrick's present my little sister had gotten him. She bought him a book that helped teach him how to play the guitar.True to her personality she decided to make the present unwrapping funny. She wrapped the book in tissue paper, then in 10 grocery sacks, then with wrapping paper, then put it in a box and then wrapped the box. She was laughing the whole time. It was funny and funnier to watch her think she was so clever than it was to watch Patrick!

Patrick opening his BIG present. He got an Xbox


Matt with his new hat, pretty cute huh?

Me with my new sonicare toothbrush. I love it.

It is blurry, but this patrick opening his clever present. See all the bags on the ground?
Isn't heather funny?

My sisters laughing. Again, Cleaver Heather!

Gingerbread House

Last year at Christmas time we made a gingerbread house. Nothing fancy, just one of those kits you buy at the store. Well I thought it was fun so I wanted to get one again this year and make a new tradition. Well I got one and it sat in our house for about 3 weeks. Then we came into IF sooner than we thought we were going to so I ended up bringing it with us. Finally on Christmas eve we put it together. Now let me tell you I am no Martha Stewart. The roof kept falling off and the candy design is less than desirable, but we sure had fun.
After we were done Matt read the direction. "Let the icing dry before decorating" Is that where we went wrong? HMM... Maybe next year.

Don't we look like we are having fun?

Here it is in all of its glory... Pretty huh?

Gym

In the last part of October I got my family a gym membership. Matt thought it was a ridiculous idea so usually it was just Patrick and I going. Well I finally got Matt to go. He started going on the elliptical machine with me about 2 weeks ago and has turned into a gym rat.
He loves the treadmill. He will go on the elliptical with me for 30 minutes and then he gets on the treadmill. He will walk on it at an incline of 10 and won't stop. Last night after we had been on the treadmill for a while I told him I was done and was going to do some weights in one of the other rooms. Well he got off the treadmill and came with me. While I do weights he got back on the treadmill in that room at an incline of 10 again. It is the craziest thing to watch.
He used to have the mentality of why pay for a gym membership, just go outside and move. Well we were talking about going to IF and he says, "do you think APPLE will give us a 2 day pass?"
What?? My husband is officially a gym rat.

Hair Color

Hair is pretty interesting. I had my hair colored right before Christmas. The colors I picked were golden brown a dark brown and then a few pieces of blond (bleach blond). The girl that did my hair was a little worried about the blond, but it took fabulously. The blond looks like blond, not orange or any tint of orange. However, the golden brown did not come in as it should have. It came in almost a reddish. The color has toned down a little, but in looking at it you would think I tried to go red! Hair sure is funny.

Too Young

Matt got a phone call that nobody wants to get. His friend who is 31 and has been friends with Matt since Jr High died. It is hard to see someone you love cry.
Know I had only met this guy once, but Matt and him were inseparable before we met. Jerome (his friend) was on a different path than Matt so they did not hang out a whole lot, but still talked. I was not quite as sad as Matt since I did not know him that well, but it hit home.

I am 31 and 31 is way too young to die. I know when I turned 31 I thought wow I am old, but when you think of it in terms of a life ending, it is really young. Then I thought, that would leave Patrick motherless. Can you imaginge at the age of 13 losing your mother? Kind of sad to think.

After thinking this I gave Patrick a big hug and told him I am glad he is my son. He did look at me like I was crazy, but I siezed the moment. That moment could have slipped by and I would have missed it. Life is way too short and for some it is shorter than others.