Saggy baggy pants

Right now I can either wear pants that are a little bit snug or ridiculously large. Being that it's the holidays, I've chosen to wear the latter. You know what wearing saggy, baggy pants gives you? It gives you a false sense of confidence. You think, maybe I've lost some weight- I mean these pants are just falling off of me. You feel good, small even. Then, you see sweater dresses at Dillard's and you think- hey maybe, just maybe I can pull off a sweater dress because heck look how loose my pants are! Then with your new found confidence you march into the dressing room with 5 sweater dresses to try on. Let me tell you- you think you can make a sweater dress work, you CAN NOT make a sweater dress work. I will wear my snug pants from now on.

Lessons learned on the road

1. Cagey needs more fiber in his diet- stopping at a gas station for 30 minutes is not my idea of a good time.

2. Handicap stalls put the tp too far away from the toilet. Thank you Taylor for crawling under the stall and saving your brother.

3. Micky D's and Wendy's will never get your order right...never.

4. Chick-fil-a I love that you're closed on Sundays and keeping the sabbath day holy, but danguh being resigned to Micky D's breakfast 2 days in a row is just wrong.

5. When you keep seeing Arby's signs for a beef and cheddar sandwich and you're thinking Arby's you better let Jeebs know instead of trying to make it easy on him and going for Wendy's because the kids want Wendy's. Did that sentence make sense? Probably not- what I'm getting at is- I was thinking Arby's all day and the kids opted for Wendy's so I opted for Wendy's. Jeebs came back with Wendy's for the kids and salad without the chili to go on said salad and....Arby's for him.

6. Somehow the dog can do acrobatics in his little kennel and when you get him out he will have his leg so twisted in his blanket that you have to cut his leg, I mean the blanket off.

7. NEVER take Ezra into a public restroom with you. He will say out loud that "Cagey is peeing like a dog?" I don't know what that means, but maybe using the toilet instead of a diaper somehow seems beneath him, like a dog.

Stay tuned, we have more miles to go.........

Truly Jeebs' daughter

Jeebs can usually be found tangled in electrical wires (maybe not tangled, but he has a huge box of cords he's constantly digging through and I'm sure he'd enjoy rolling in them if he could) and his kids aren't any different.

Last Sunday in New Bern

Like a big bobo head I forgot my camera to take pics with all our New Bern friends, but I made the kids pose for a few. We will miss our ward!

Burka for Mooka

Jeebs went in to get Mooks out of the bed and found her preparing for life under sharia law. I have no idea how to spell sharia law and I'm not googling it because I want to live. (I don't know how to spell burka either)

My bouquet

My wedding bouquet has lasted 10 years, 4 moves, 4 children and a partridge in a pear tree. It will not be making it's way back to Utah with us. I finally bit the bullet and threw it away. I did save one of the dried out flowers. My sister made this out of the bouquet the florist made- which was so not very pretty. She used the white roses and formed them into a pretty nosegay and wrapped them in satin white ribbons accented with a couple of thin silver ribbons. Our wedding colors were blue, white and silver. I thought I would be able to keep it forever- put it in a shadow box, but it has sat in a mug in my closet the entire time we've lived in this house. I decided to snap a pic, document it and leave it behind. Ten years has gone by way too fast.

Awakenings

My piano lessons started when I was in middle school. I remember starting and being hugely excited to one day play like momma or Yang. Then as my lessons drug on and my teacher shook her head in disappointment as she thumbed through my practice log or lack of practice log I started to lose interest. I wanted to play, but I could never remember to do theory (I was usually digging through my teacher's couch cushions looking for a pencil to complete my assignments as I waited for it to be my turn) and the songs I was assigned sounded so boring and for lack of a better word rinky dink. Oh and the festivals my teacher wanted me to play in- ugh. I would always comply and immediately start a secret plot to somehow get out of it. I hated playing in front of people- and I thought I would faint dead away playing in front of judges at the hymn festival. But, I made it through 2 years. My teacher's head shaking got more annoying and her prices got more insane so I had an out and I took it. I started playing anything I wanted. Anything that sounded hard- hymns, classical pieces, pieces in the backs of all my books. I played everything and cursed my teacher behind her back. I started playing the Children's songs and then the easier pieces my sister played. I found that if I practiced enough I could play well enough to get through most accompaniment piano parts. I was eventually called as primary pianist then relief society pianist, then relief society pianist again in a different ward and then again as primary pianist in yet another ward. Eventually it gets around that I can play and then I always have a way I can help out in church meetings.

Yesterday after church my 2 years of disappointing my piano teacher helped out in a way I could have never guessed. A couple of months ago the mother of this man came to me and gave me a piece of music. It was the only piece that Brother Brown has composed and had written down. Through his different illnesses he has apparently lost the ability to read music. He didn't remember the piece and she asked if I could learn it and play it for him. Yesterday I bucked up all my courage and told him I had the piece ready to play for him. My hands shook and I played the piece as best I could with my stubby fingers as he and his parents listened in silence. I got done, looked up and asked him, "remember it?" His face lit up and, "Yes!" He sat down and played as I stood by his mother and listened to how it was supposed to be played. Both of his parents thanked me profusely- I was just so happy to be a part of awakening Brother Brown to some of his former thoughts. I'll never forget it...music is powerful.

Oh my holy big garage sale

Our yard sale was kind of ridiculous and ya know what? We could probably do another one. Dang. Mookie decided she didn't want to sleep in that morning so when Jeebs decided to get up at 5:30 she wanted up too. Which means I had to get up and try to set up everything with baby in tow. I finally got a chance to breathe and get my moby out of the car so I could have my hands free. Our first "customer" showed up at 6:40. I knew there would be early birds, but wow. I think we had made $50 before 7am.