March 15, 2010 Monday...

March 15, 2010
It’s time for me to count my blessings…

My husband…because of him, I can finally be myself. He supports me 100% and allows me to speak my mind. He doesn’t judge me. He is my best friend.

My children…I have learned many life lessons from them. The biggest thing I have learned as a parent is the importance of free agency. As a parent, it is so hard to let them choose for themselves. I have also learned how to love unconditionally.

My parents…My father was always there for me, protected me, and sacrificed for me. I could tell my dad anything and knew he would never judge me. He was very wise. He would tell me all the time that I was a good mother. I miss him. My mother is 100% behind me. I could tell her I am going to dye my hair blue because I feel like it and she would support me and tell me I need to do what I feel is best. She gives good advise.

Jesus Christ…He has always been there. That cheesy poem about footsteps in the sand is true. Many times I have felt Him right next to me when I am struggling.
Heavenly Father…He has taught me how to be a better parent. I feel his love for me. I know He loves me no matter what.

The Holy Ghost…He guides me. He has been a huge part of my ability to mother my children. He has always let me know when I need to be aware of my childrens’ struggles. He has never failed me. He gives me a quiet assurance that everything will be okay.

My talents…my ability to play the piano and create art has saved me. It allows me to process things that are happening. I play the piano and my mind sorts through all my troubles. I create art and I heal.

My testimony…my belief in God, Jesus Christ and the doctrines that Christ taught are my core. I can’t imagine not having that belief. It carries me through rough times. It helps me have perspective.

My health…I am healthy, strong, able to work hard, and function. I am fortunate that my health has never been something that keeps me from enjoying life and all the opportunities I have.

My childhood…I had a very protected childhood. I lived in a safe place. I always had a roof over my head. I never went hungry or wanted for things. I was indulged often. I struggled like everyone, but I knew my family loved me and they would always be there. I had a good life.

When I stop and think about my blessings, it puts life into perspective. I can see how much Heavenly Father has blessed me. I see how I need to help others. I am grateful.

Friday

I promised I would post more, so here goes.

Robby's new paper route is hard. That's all that needs to be said. I remember how much of a pain my route was in WA and it brings it all back.

Last Saturday morning, we were folding our papers. There was this one girl all dressed in spandex. Bright red hair, plain looking with a build like myself, but bigger boobs and she works at WalMart. How do I know she works at WalMart? Because she was telling anyone within earshot about her job, talking to no one in particular, just talking. She was jogging in place in line to get her papers. There were carts, people and huge racks everywhere, but she was jogging around the warehouse, around people, carts, papers and racks. She stopped by her own cart and said, "People tell me they get tired watching me jog around." Our neighbor, who got Robby the job, said, "I get tired watching you, so go outside." I wanted to say even meaner things, but I kept them to myself (because I'm like that...Brett would laugh at that!) I just wanted to slap her. I'm not at my most patient at 2am.

Lots of drama about the kids possibly moving with their dad, but I don't want to talk about it because it gets me upset and angry. Suffice it to say, I'm bitter, sad, angry, etc.

I went to the doctor the other day for my ADD meds. The night before I had stabbing pain in my right shoulder blade on my back every time I took a deep breath. I woke up with it. I figured that while I was at the doctor's I would ask him about it. He pressed on my back, but there was no pain. He listened to my lungs and they sounded good. He asked me if I had done any kind of exercise that would hurt my back. I had not. He asked if I had been out in the cold...yep!!! Robby's paper route. So he told me I have pleurisy. It's a viral lung inflammatory infection. It lasts about 7 days and you just get to take a lot of ibuprofen. It's feeling better, but every once in a while it gets uncomfortable. I found a hoodie thingee at WalMart for $1. It's pink (of course). I tried it on in the car and Robby told me he was going to sew ears on it. Then he told me I look like E.T from the side. He asked if I was planning on wearing that in the warehouse...BRAT!!!!

Every morning, when I play dutiful mom and fix breakfast for Emeli and tease Brett, they like to sing for me. Their song of choice is, "Doing Your Mom". I told them today that that song is not allowed in my house!!! There was a lady in SLC who was a cafeteria worker at the high school. She was busted for buying expensive gifts for a fifteen year old so he would have sex with her. HOLY COW!!!!! How in the hell...there is NO way I could even think that, let alone do it. Fifteen?!!!

I am wearing my KZOK t-shirt today and of course, my boss had a comment. I told him that radio station blows the supposed rock station 103.5 The Arrow out of the water. The Arrow considers Billy Joel classic rock...okay. I told him that this radio station has been around since the beginning of rock n roll and plays rock n roll, not 80's pop. He said it was part of the whole Seattle grunge thing...whatever. I am proud of my KZOK shirt and wear it with pride.

I love my husband, my children and I love being a mother. For the last twenty-two years that is what I have been. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have children in my home. I had no plans to be an "empty nester" for at least six years.

March 2, 2010

Yesterday Robby got a paper route. We have a Mexican family on our street who got him the job. I knew they did paper routes and I also remembered from when I did routes that they don't really care if you have all your green card stuff accurate. A lot of illegal aliens work doing paper routes. It's hard work, but it pays well.

Robby went this morning with someone so they could show him his route. He gets car sick easily and this guy was driving so erratically that Robby had to throw up during the route. Then when he came home, he threw up again. When he climbed back into bed, he was literally frozen. I left him this morning with a couple of layers of blankets, a heating pad at his feet and tea by the bedside. He's not worried about doing it himself because he will be the one driving and that makes a huge difference.

I will help him this weekend. The kids want to help, too. They have a ton of experience...hahaha!!

Poor Robby. :(

Surprise!!

Poor Taylor waits and waits for me to post a blog and it never happens. Well, today is the day!

If I waited until my life was quiet and without stress, I would never blog; hence, the absence of posts for a while. So even though my life is very hectic, I will try to be more faithful.

My job is going well. I am not working on quotes and renewals which means that I can get commission, which will be nice in the summer months because those are our busy times. Bill, who has been a thorn in my side at work, got fired on Friday. It was because I told Rick how he has been yelling at another employee. It was the final straw for Rick, so Bill was let go. It was very uncomfortable on Friday and I kind of had a cloud over me all weekend because of it.

Robby and I are happy, even though he doesn't have a job right now. He is working toward getting unemployment, but that's on hold because there was a dispute about his last job, so we are ironing that out and then hopefully unemployment can go through. In the meantime, he is not earning anything and he feels like a complete loser. It's really hard on him to not be busy. But he does make great dinners! :)

Brett and Emeli are wanting to move with their dad if he gets a job in CA. I'm not happy with that at all. I would have NO children with me. They would be raised by Cozette, who is a terrible mother.

On a positive note, I sold something on etsy.I also finished a craft project I will be hanging on the wall, which I'm excited about.

I will also be taking March 12 off so I can have a long weekend. There are no days off in March, so I'm giving myself one. That will be nice.

I would love to be home and craft all day and sell them, but until then, I work in an office. :)

Today...

I have not posted for a long time and I promise that I will write more this week.

On Friday night, we went to a BYU game. That was a lot of fun. We sat right by the canons. Each time BYU scored, they pulled the cord on the canon. It was pretty loud and each time it made me jump. We went with John Mason and his daughter, Bella. It was pretty exciting to sit so close to the field. Robby surprised me with cotton candy. That was really nice.

On Saturday we slept in and listened to both conference sessions. I enjoyed them a lot. It's getting colder and we haven't turned out heat on, so we just lay in bed to keep warm and listened on the radio. We don't have TV and it wasn't working on the computer, so we listened the old fashioned way.

Between the sessions, there was a radio program about a man who was a very gifted composer. He grew up in Southern Utah and studied the violin. He arranged many of the hymns that the Tabernacle Choir sings. He wrote an oratorio on The Book of Mormon. It gave me the idea that I really need to support Brett's interest in music. He has been thinking about pursuing his music. I am going to try and get him a piano teacher who can teach him what I can't. He is too advanced for me. I can suggest songs and I can critique his playing, but I can't really teach him much theory.

After the sessions, we went to BYU and looked at the genealogy library they have there. Robby is a hug genealogy enthusiast. He has gone back to the 1400's in his search.

On Sunday, Brett and Freddy came by to visit. We fed them lunch and then listened to the sessions again while they watched a movie. We dropped them off at their dad's house and headed up to SLC to meet Rachelle and her friend, Celeste. It was pouring. We got to see them for about twenty minutes.

After a weekend like that, it's hard to go to work on Monday. It's not like we did a whole bunch of things, but it was so relaxing. I love weekends like that.

FRIDAY

I am all alone in the office and I love it when that happens! So I am typing in my blog. When I type this fast, most people know I am NOT working, so no one is here to find out.

On Wednesday night, I had book club. I also had to be at Emeli's soccer game. I left her game early. I parked my car in the garage and did the whole push the garage door button and run under the closing door thingee. I was walking to Andrea's house to catch a ride to book club. As I was walking across the driveway, I saw a tarantula walking across the street towards our house in a kind of diagonal fashion. For about two seconds, I stood frozen and started to whine. Then I called Brett. I told him to hurry and get out here. He came running because I hadn't told him what it was about. When he saw the tarantula, his eyes lit up and he smiled this huge smile.
I said, "Okay, I want you to do something for me..."
He turned to me and said, "I will not kill it."
I told him that I wanted him to catch it for me so I could take it to work the next day for Heather. I knew she would LOVE it. So Brett got a container we had and caught the tarantula. The tarantula was not happy about it. He kept raising up on his front legs.

I kept it in the container, in the bed of the truck until the next day when I gave it to Heather. She immediately named it Steve. Funny!

Robby had never seen how freaked out I can be about huge spiders until the night before when we went for our walk and walked under a huge, orange spider that had built a web right above our front porch. I had a mini meltdown. I wouldn't walk back into the house under the web. I literally walked to the side of the porch and went in that way. I think that finally sunk in with him. He was so cute. I was lying in his arms kind of whining about how scary it was and he quietly said, "Tomorrow I will go out and kill it for you." Sure enough, the next day he went out with the broom, tore down the huge web and crushed the spider up in the rafters above the porch. It was a huge spider with a butt the size of a nickel.

I told him I can handle spiders until they get bigger than a quarter and then I freak. If they come in my house, they die. It's that simple. I was explaining to Robby that I don't go tromping around in their webs, so they are not allowed in my house. If I went into THEIR web, they would try to kill ME, so the same thing applies here.

Now when I walk out of my house, I scan the horizon for approaching tarantulas before I head out walking somewhere. I have been told they are all over the place right now and I don't want any more surprises!!