Golfing & Other Fun Stuff

When I was in graduate school, I actually won our mock-golf tournament and even received "the jacket". Those kids in my class must have really sucked for me to win, that's all I can say.

DH recalls that the summer we got pregnant with Natalie, we golfed together a lot but I don't remember that. I remember being busy with my internship, and several jobs but I suppose it was possible. But that was 4 years ago and since then, I haven't even picked up my golf clubs. When I retrieved them from a corner in the basement this morning, there were actually cobwebs on them and I felt sad that I'd not been for so long since I love it so much.

We went to a course today that allows you to take children on the fairways and we all had so much fun! I actually did much better than I anticipated striking the ball nearly 99% of the time although sometimes it didn't really go where I had intended it. I had forgotten how satisfying it is to hear that *crack* and know that you actually connected with the ball, and that it's going where you want it to go! For those of you who have never golfed, you probably think it's silly but it's really sort of addicting.

We even took her miniature golfing this morning. They handed her the tiniest little putter, I thought it was a hammer at first. I think it was only about 15" long! She was so adorable trying to hit that ball into the holes and was so animated and fun! It helped me get over my frustrations from this past week about not being able to take her anywhere that she truly enjoys - and the fits that are associated with every outing. We had a great time today. We even hit the Alpine Slide up in Park City; something else Natalie was totally down for!

All in all, a great day.

Hanging on a Thread...literally

This past week we had our old hot tub removed from our backyard. Anyone who had visited our house knows that the only way into our backyard is down the stairs in our house, or down the stairs on the side of the house. Either way, it's tough getting things in...or out of there. Wheelbarrows, lawnmowers, etc - once they're down there it's not easy getting them up. So imagine a 2,500 lb. (maybe more) hot tub needing to come out! We had to get a crane and it was so fun! I got the whole thing on video. The man stuck the boom clear out over the house and into the backyard where some guys tied the hot tub on, and then it got lifted up, over the house - and then the entire length of the house including over the carport, and then was set down on a trailer. It was so amazing to see that huge hot tub danging over my house knowing that at any moment, it could come careening down destroying my brand new kitchen, my bedroom, my car, the whole garage and all that's in it. It was a little nerve-wracking. Aside from that, it was awesome. Only yesterday I found out that 2 other times just this week, a crane which was not well secured fell onto a house. Yikes!

Chicken

DH and I were hanging out in the pool on Saturday on rafts just floating around because it was like 100 degrees. The pool felt wonderful and Natalie couldn't wait to get in. She ran in and got her suit on and came back out and I picked her up to put her on her dad's lap and the minute her toes touched the water, she freaked out! It was chilly in the way water is when you first get in it but after only 10 seconds, it was perfect. She wouldn't hear of going in after that. We cojoled her with ice cream sandwiches, Reece's, and even a very off-limits drink of my Pepsi. Nothing worked. But it was still really hot and she obviously wanted to cool off so she climbed into her water table instead and sat down and played while we floated. What a kid.

I'm wondering...do you empower kids to do things they don't want to do to by requiring them to try; or do you just let them be scared hoping they eventually grow out of it? DH and I conflict on this but we're both equally frustrated knowing she'd have a blast if she would just get over her fear. Case in point...little Cooper R.

Pajama Bottoms

To all of you who have helped make pajama bottoms for the kids at Primary's or Shriner's or wherever these go (the question is who wants them) - thank you so much! Right now, I have 30 pairs completed and ready to give away. I make a couple new pairs each week to add to the lot but the day when we got together and made them was the biggest difference and probably amounts to 75% of what I have.

Thank you also to all of you who unselfishly contributed fabric for us to use. Bonnie Haines, Kelly Sansom, Heidi Redd, Kimberlee Freedom and others that I am forgetting. We had a lot of fabric! Huge thank you to Bonnie who by far was the biggest contributor and gave us the cutest flannel in kid-designs.

To those of you who are wondering when I plan to take them to the hospital: I was planning on doing it shortly after the date when we made them all but then I thought I'd wait a little bit so I could add to it for a few more weeks. I wanted to have at least 30 pairs to take.

I'll be calling Primary's or Shriner's this week to see who is in greater need and then Nat and I will take them over. Natalie has been talking about this for a while and I hope it's a good learning experience for her for how we can, individually, do great things to serve others by just using our talents.


Anyway, thanks again to all who helped pull this off. Anyone who is still interested in making these to donate, I will be taking another batch at the end of this year. I have patterns available, and invite anyone over to make them with me. I do it every week for a couple of hours and love company!

Paris Hilton

So Paris went back to jail to fulfill her sentence, the full 42 days left. She was screaming & crying and carrying on the way one would expect someone in that situation to be. Does anyone want to go to jail? She broke the law; she's young, unwise and silly. Has she had many character-building experiences? Unlikely.

However, she had a "medical situation" that was incompatible with jail and a reasonable person decided that house-arrest might be the best situation especially since jails are usually for hardened criminals. As my friend Kelly would say: "The end". On with real news, right folks?

So what about the hundreds & hundreds, or was it thousands, of letters & phone calls the courthouse received from people who were "outraged" about the decision. Come on people. This is what I'm talking about...get a job, get a hobby, get a book, get a date...whatever. Get something in your life that will give you something else to do rather than worry about what people you don't even truly know are up to! PUH-LEASE!

Rule of thumb: mind your own freakin' business

How Did I Get Out of Shape?

Oh, it must have been those early morning roll-overs! I went this morning to take my Tahoe down to this place at Colonial Square (about 1 1/2 miles from the house) to finally have an iPod adapter installed -YEAH!, again YEAH! And I took my 10 speed and bike trailer to come home with. It's a little up-hill from there to here but I thought it would be no sweat. Well, it was...a lot of sweat. My lungs are hurting me and it's been 15 minutes since I got home! I need to get out more! I'm so glad the weather is nice again so I can get back out! But it did feel so good to be back on that thing. I think poor Todd's wondering why he even bought me that bike since I've ridden it a total of 5 times. Seriously though, every time I get on it, I blow a tire - that sounded funny. Anyway, anyone up for a ride? I have a spare bike!

Twenty Years From Now

Twenty years from now...I see myself accepting my gray hair and wrinkly skin. I see myself finding new reasons to love my husband now that our nest will be empty. I see myself on a farm & still be close to my family. I hope to see that I will still not be visited much by death among friends. I see myself not regreting too many decisions I made in younger years. I see myself still a runner. I see myself surrounded by more family & friends (and maybe a grandchild). I see that I have overcome some of the petty nuisance behaviors that have plagued many of my younger years. I see myself giving more time to volunteering than for paid labor and feeling happy that I'm capable. I see myself a little more educated and a lot more wise. I see that I have served hands-on in several natural disasters as the leader in a company devoted to these causes in occupational therapy. I see myself happy with the life I've created.

I'm THAT Lady

So I went grocery shopping tonight after Natalie went to bed and it's really late. The grocery store closes at 11 and I am still picking up my last few items. I seriously thought Smith's Marketplace was open all night long! Well, whatever. So I get up to the checkstand and there's this tired girl standing there looking at my humongous cart full of stuff and I just know she's thinking, "I'll bet she's couponing too." Well, fortunately for her, I wasn't but that was rare anyway. Okay so here's the good part. I shop according in categories like, I go get all my produce, then head to frozen stuff, then meats, then canned goods, then baking goods or whatever. But it's all layered up in my cart in categories so that when I get it out to lay it on the thingie, it all goes in bags ...in those same categories. That makes it easier to put away. Don't you think?

So you're thinking, is this the long version or the short version? Well, it's the long.

So the cheese I'd picked up was moldy and I voluntereed to go get a replacement and she was just getting ready to bag. So I started saying this:

"Would you please do me a huge favor and make sure all the frozen stuff goes in it's own bag, and then the refrigerator stuff gets it's very own bags, and produce too..."

And then I had this out of body experience because she suddenly looked up at me like, "are you for real lady?"

I just turned right around in the middle of my sentence and ran to the cheese. Seriously. And while I was running, I was thinking "who are you?"

I really like my categorized grocery shopping bagging thing but I've really never had to explain to to anyone before and for the first time, I was really embarrassed of my "systems".