It is Official

We are old and Cody is a real teenager! I took him to Mesquite yesterday to get his driving permit. We waited for 30 minutes for our number to be called and then he had to take the written test on the computer and then we had to wait again (I love the DMV and their efficiency!) Then we had to fill out paper work and take his picture and wait. He passed the test on the first try which I guess is really good because alot of kids fail the first time. I asked him if wanted to drive and he said no that he would wait until we got to Logandale. Mesquite was too big! Crazy kid-try Vegas!! He has to have the permit for 6 months, take Drivers Ed and have 50 hours of driving time logged. Also he has to get his Eagle as per our family policy since he was 12. He is excited! We are too (sort of). Don said that he sprouted 7 gray hairs just when Cody called him to tell him that he passed the test and got the permit. I better go and take my arthritis meds and see where I can rent a walker.

Nuthouse-How May I Help You?

Do you know what time it is? The sun has not even peaked over the Mesa!









So yesterday was the first day of school. I thought that the days and nights and days and nights of utter insanity would be a thing to relegate to the back of the closet ready and waiting to be pulled out again next June. Most mothers are in glorious bliss reveling in the knowledge that their houses will stay relatively clean. The sounds of muddy little feet going pitter patter across their freshly mopped floor will be strangely silent. The fridge door, the outside door,the bedroom door, the cupboard door and the bathroom door will now only get their turns at being slammed in the wee hours of the morning and the late hours of the afternoon. "Not me" and "he did it" will have to find somewhere else to play. 11pm scripture and prayer will have to reschedule their flights for 8am and 8pm. Lights will mysteriously stay off and the TV will have to accept that it's power to turn brains into mush will just have to wait. All of this comes with the yearly return of the pods of massive yellow rockets tearing through my neighborhood-at least 6 of them a day. The site of backpacks and lunch boxes littering my counters and ahhh, the ever pervasive scent of "Eu de boy" lingering in my hallways, and wafting in from the bedrooms. So why am I not in glorious bliss you may wonder. Well, let me tell you. The shackles of the summer have fallen away for most mommies but the shackles of high school and homeschooling have taken their place here. Cody has decided to take 9 classes-yes count them 9 classes instead of the 8 he could and all but 3 are honors classes. He joined the Encore choir and the teacher has to move between the high school and the middle school and so has decided that Encore will be at the unearthly hour of 6am. Never mind that seminary pushed their start time back to 6:15 and even Chamber Orchestra only starts at 6:10. Poor Cody! (Poor mommy too!) Yesterday we were all dragging by the end of the day. I had dinner made by 4:55 and home evening was promptly at 7:00pm shortly followed by scripture, prayer and bedtime. I almost wanted to cry when at 9:30pm when I SHOULD have crashed headfirst into dream land I could not go to sleep. I think it was almost 11 before I was officially asleep. The alarm started screaming at 5:15 and I begrudgingly rolled off the bed and onto the floor to plead for some energy. A huge blessing though when(Cody) had to be there at 6 and the friend said that he did not care and that he would come earlier even though he did not have to be there until 6:10. Mykle Lee you are an angel! I was extremely angry with the teacher of Encore for having to be different than every one else-still am a little miffed but less so now because Cody has a ride at least for now. Caleb started his last year and Cayden started his first year at Grant M Bowler Elementary. I was pretty nervous about Cayden because he has been at a different school for the last 3 years but his teacher this year is awesome and he is doing very good. Mommy just has to cut the apron stings even though it is hard. Caleb and Cayden had a great first day even though the a/c was not working AGAIN in Caleb's classroom (metal sweatbox). Yesterday they actually went outside to sit in the shade because it was cooler outside than inside. Has anyone been in Logandale at the end of August? I think it was 106 yesterday. Today they went inside to the resource room and the cafeteria because it got so hot in the afternoon. Poor kids! I have not been thrilled about the things that have transpired in the last few weeks since we decided to postpone the move to Texas but it will all work out and I am waiting patiently (insert eyeball rolling). Don has the job in Texas and actually left Sunday night for meetings on Monday. He will have to be gone more because of the large area that he covers and because it is farther away but at least when he is home- he is home, except for the occasional golf outing with his boss. Ahhh Vegas in the winter where the grass is green. Connor was supposed to go the middle school but as many parents will attest that is not such a good thing. Especially for Connor who has challenges. We decided to homeschool him this year to help him with his diabetes, and helping him get caught up hopefully. I homeschooled Cody in 7th grade and we (me and the mouse in my pocket) are giving this a try with Connor. Anyone who knows my children will ackowledge the vast ocean of difference between them. Cody can learn just with books and movies. Connor needs to be doing something. There in lies the problem. There are numerous online schools and DVD programs available, of which worked just fine for Cody but Connor needs more to keep his attention. So now my childhood dream (nightmare?) of becoming a teacher is a reality although I don't have to have a degree for this one. I really wanted to become a teacher all my life until I had kids. I really admire moms who can teach other's kids all day and then come home and not strangle their own. I think I would be on the evening news the first day of school. So we (me and the mouse in my pocket) are creating our own curriculum for Connor. My inate sense of scheduling and lists and organization may have to be filed away for future use which really is going to be hard for me. Do they have a pill for OCD and perfectitis? This week we are just trying to see what will work. I am hunting on the internet, in bookstores, the library and picking people's brains -not to mention doing alot of praying to make this work. Don's mother, and his sister have willingly volunteered to help me. Dena is going to help him with science and Dottie is going to work with him on history and geography. Dottie's neighbor Joan who has homeschooled lots of her kids and is amazing will tutor Connor in math 2 days a week and a fabulous piano teacher who does not take may kids will teach him piano. I feel much better this afternoon partly because I took a nap and partly because Connor went to tutoring and science to day so I was able to start on my now-that-the- kids-are-back-in-school list and actually check some things off. Don is in Dallas until tomorrow. My new mantra is "whatever"-and I must find the book on the Power of Postive Thinking or else find a good therapist. Any suggestions, condolences, well wishes, good vibes, e-hugs, and monetary donations can be sent to my PO Box. This will be a good expericene.This will be a good experience! THIS WILL BE A GOOD EXPERIENCE!!!!! Do Bon-Bons freeze well?
(The mouse in my pocket refers to the fact that when I say we it should mean me and Don but since he is unavailable for consultation-we is me and the mouse in my pocket. Sort of an inside joke if you don't get it)

Things to do with a laptop at 12:30 in the morning.

So I finally broke down and bought a new Dell Laptop. It's PINK! The mouse is Pink too. I did this for 2 reasons
1. I like pink-it makes me happy
2. Hopefully it will deter any little people of the male persuasion to play with, on, or around it.
So all the kids are asleep, Don is asleep in his chair out front and I am sitting in my bed with my laptop on a pillow in front of me. I have been here for the last 3 hours telling myself to go to bed but I keep playing with my fun new toy. So far tonight I have been-
1. Making myself numerous to-do lists, schedules and calendars courtesy of Igoogle's list maker and my insane sense of OCD. Not as bad my sister mind you but OCD none the less. See item #8.
2. Playing Literati-ok so not actually playing tonight but logged on and thought about it.
3. Flitting around Itunes and watching music video previews
4. Purchasing and watching 3 of those videos (Sugarland-Stay, Brad Paisley-Waiting on a Woman with Andy Griffith, and Dierks Bently-Settle for a Slowdown.
5. Seriously wanting to purchase some Bon Jovi videos but after watching the previews declined due to adult content.
6. Emailing back and forth with Serena for a while.
7. Looking long and hard for things to do with Connor while homeschooling him. Yes, you read correctly. I am taking on the arduous task of homeschooling a very active, very inattentive 11 year old. Condolences and positive vibes requested. (Also someone may want to open an account so that you can all start donating to my mental breakdown care fund.)
8. Reading Suzanna's blog again and laughing hysterically for numerous reasons.
9. Copying lots of files from my old computer onto a flash drive and loading them onto my new one.
10. Checking the KSL website atleast 1o times.
11. Reading blog postings of those of you who are still posting at 1:00am. (hi mom and tibi)
12. Not reading my scriptures.
13. Draining the battery watching above mentioned videos.
14. Updating my NetFlicks Queue-how do you spell that?
15. Looking at Shelfari for books my sister and sister-in-law have read recently.
16. Installing the flashplayer thingy.
17. Updating the filter system so I can access blogs. (if you want a good free filter go to K9web protection.com)
18. Checking my email-all 3 accounts.
19. Making this ridiculous post.
20. Thinking up all these things that I can do with this new piece of electronic gadgetry so that I can justify having it.

The Sane Train Has Left the Station

After staying in this house all week long and consequently losing my mind and getting more and more depressed-Logandale tends to do that to me-I decided to venture out and I had to take my kids plus 2 of their friends with me. Our delightful adventure started when we could not find Connor's meter. He got mad and tore apart his room and the upstairs looking for it. Of course I got mad at him and that gave me less of desire to go anywhere but I felt that at least in public I would be less inclined to beat him to death-that was strike one. Strike 2-Taking 5 boys to McDonald's. Bad idea-nasty food + loud boys + 108 degrees=not a happy camper. Strike 3-Taking above mentioned boys to the library. Boys and library not a good mix but luckily there were lots of kids there to help increase the volume and distract the library wardens from my loud bunch. Strike 4-Taking all of the kids and myself to the Maverick matchbox for drinks-no hard liquor was available for purchase so Dr. Pepper had to suffice. The woman in line in front of us had $5 worth of beer and her debit card would not work. The guy ran the thing through 4 times before it worked all the while 5 antsy kids are grabbing at displays, trying to convince me to buy more gum and candy and playing with the wet floor sign. Did I mention the $102 it cost to fill up my car or the $653 it cost to renew the registration on that car that I had to pay today. This was not a therapuetic exercise. Almost as fun as taking my kids school shopping or getting a root canal. At least at the dentist they give you drugs and happy gas-when can I schedule an appointment?

Texas is calling but we can't find the phone.

So our plans to move have been put on hold. The powers that be and are controlling our lives still don't know what they can/will/should do for us with this house. Once the lightbulb went on in someone's head that the required paperwork to initiate this move was not turned in and they turned in said paperwork the ball started rolling ever so slowly but apparently it is going uphill. We had 2 appraisals done and they came back really far apart and so we had to have another one done over the weekend. This one was not good either and with the #'s they are giving us would not even pay off the house so in limbo we must stay as someone decides what to do with the mess that the real estate market has created for relocation rejects like us. Apparently the company lost their shirt on a deal out of California and so they are really leary about purchasing houses and the Vegas market blows right now and we are part of that. So as of last Wednesday night when we found out that they needed another appraisal we decided that we will just stay residents of Logandale for a while until someone decides what to do about this house and we have it in writing. Yes, my hsuband still has a job and yes, he still will be covering the middle of the United States but he will be doing it from Logandale and flying to Texas a few times a month-good news with that is that maybe he can wrack up a few billion frequent flyer miles so that we can go to Hawaii. Supposedly the real estate market is coming around so we will put the house up for sale with a realtor and see if it will sell and if not then we will get appraisals again in 3 months and see if the market has come up enough for them to make us a decent offer on the house. Not couting on that one though! I'm not sure what the purpose of all this mess is or what the grand design is for our family. We really feel/felt like we should pursue this Texas thing but we just keep hitting roadblocks, brickwalls and potholes and whatever other metaphor is appropriate here. So for the time being we are staying put. Obviously the lesson on patience has not been learned yet-I could have told you that without having this whole fiasco to deal with. Could someone please call the Lonestar state and put our reservation on hold?

EFY Rocks-ok those are my words not my son's!

Cody's pre-EFY lunch at Burger Supreme

The lovely accomodations.

Cody and dad

Cody and mom

Putting together the fan that we had to go and buy at Shopko for Cody because the room was so blazing hot.

Luckily there were no tools required for assembly!




We went to Provo again last week so Cody could go to EFY at BYU. He had a great time with his friend Daniel and met and made some other good friends. Luckily there was not a shortage of boys like there was at Summer Scholars. I talked to him every night and each time he said that the day was great. Hopefully he will post on his blog sometime what they did there. I gave him an older camera and he took a few pics but as he stayed at Grandma Penny's house for an extra week after we went home, the pictures are up there with him.

Major Disappointment

So Breaking Dawn came into my possession on Saturday night at 8:00pm. My sister Calley and Cody went to Barnes and Noble and picked it up for me along with a tasty Jamba Juice. I started reading it that night at stayed up until 2am. We all got up and went to church and when we came home I read for about an hour and then took a nap. After the nap I read on and off-mostly on all afternoon. I finished it about 8:00pm. Total hours actually reading-about 11. I was totally disappointed though not enough to stop reading it. It was too Sci Fi and where did the romance go? I thought that she totally could have done so much more with the book and it was very adult. Granted there was nothing totally immoral about it but Wow!-for the intended audience-teen girls-it was too much. I guess that technically that she can do another book with all that happened but it would probably continue in the same vein. Anyone want to chat about it? We have been talking in code and in low voices around the family members that have not finished it but they better hurry so that we can have a big discussion on the let down.

The Week in Review-Is it over yet?

Monday -hmmm I can't remember-Oh yes I made my children earn their keep by forcing them into child slave labor. They cleaned the house that hasn't been cleaned since before we went to Dallas. You would have thought that I asked them to toothbrush the tiles and Qtip the baseboards but contrary to popular belief I am not the meanest mother in the world for making my kids do chores. They are all of the age to do manual labor and it is just a little payback for my giving them birth. Don and I ran to Mesquite to go to the new Quiznos and get some more totes for packing. We brought the kids back Del Taco-much less dinero. Don took care of FHE and treats which were a late dinner of pancakes. I started feeling sick on Sunday-thank you to Cayden who passed along the dreaded gomboo. I wanted to stay home from church but we have not been here hardly at all this summer and thought it was a good idea to all go as a family-plus I got released from scouts so that was a bonus. I kept getting sicker all week and of course Don left Tuesday for Dallas.
Tuesday-The younger boys got to go to Grandma Dottie's for the day and over to Aunt Dena's to swim while I took Cody to St. George for school/EFY shopping. I needed a hair cut desperately-insert complaint here-I usually like the way my hair is cut but I am telling you that no one can style my hair after it is cut the way that I like it. The UT thing is the straightener/flat look which I cannot pull off but the cut was ok so I just plan on washing it shortly after I get home. Cody and I went to Kohl's after my haircut. This is quite an easy kids to shop for. He got 3 pair of pants and some dress clothes. We then went to the mall. The St. George has improved in recent years. They now have an Aeropostale, American Eagle and Hollister. Cody does not even like Hollister so that was good because they are so expensive. He got 2 shirts at Aeropostale, 2 shirts from American Eagle and a pair of shoes from Foot Locker. He does not like me picking out his clothes but he is pretty good going shopping. He does not totally love it so he really just wants to get the stuff and get done. We ate at Ruby Tuesday and went to Sonic on the way home after a quick trip into Target. He even said that he would just use the backpack that he already has because the one's at Target were $30 bucks and we had already spend a ton of money. He is a good boy. I came home and basically went to bed-ok as much as a sick mother can go to bed with 4 kids and a traveling husband. It was definiely a Nyquil night but UUCCKKK that stuff is crap! Cody and I had grits around 10:00. My throat was so sore I could hardly swallow not to mention that everything just tasted funny.
Wednesday we did not do much. I woke up with my throat on fire so bad that I thought I had Strep but after a few hours it calmed down so did not go to the doctor. I did some laundry in the morning and had the kids do a few other things but by 2:00 I was miserable so I went back to my bed for the duration of the day. I pulled some frozen something out of the freezer for dinner and went back to bed again. I have Without a Trace and Good Eats on DVR so there were numerous hours of viewing pleasure. I did not take Nyquil that night and actally made it through pretty good. I am afraid to take it too much because the genes in our family suggest that it could become "mommy's little friend"-barring the horrible taste-if I let it. Connor spent the night at Grandma's Wednesday and Thursday so that was good.
Thursday I was starting to feel better so me and the kids drove to Mesquite for another tasty Quiznos experience and some backpack purchasing for Caleb and Cayden. We went for a delicious Jamba experience on the way home. That was basically the whole afternoon. I will be so glad to be able to go to lunch and Walmart and be back in less than 2 hours as opposed to the 4 it takes now. Don got home around 7 and brought PF Changs so that was one more night I did not have to cook! Yippee!
Friday-I had really good intentions of getting alot done today but alas-I was about worthless. We got a phone call from the insurance company about the car wreck and they gave us some pitally low offer and were being just complete horse's behinds. That just ruined almost the whole day for me. This whole car wreck thing has just about made us completely insane. It has been such an emotional roller coaster and we thought that the ride was ending here soon but no they have to morons. They seriously believe that I am better even though I have been sending them monthly compilations of receipts for all the doctors that I still go to. Their ridiculous logic is that I saw a nuerologist in July last year and because I have not had surgery yet or had injections then I must be better. Yeah that makes sense you bunch of *************! Anyway we contacted an attorney AGAIN and this ridiculous saga will continue. Plus we still don't have a place to live in Dallas. Don visited a few apartments-no way-and a few houses that are available for lease before he came home but we still don't have anything set. School starts in 3 weeks and we really wanted to be down there in 2 weeks. After fretting and stewing about all that BS all morning I was worn out and actually went to bed again. I got up around 4 and have been quite productive since then. I have packed the scrapbooks-very important and irreplacable and have been cleaning out my office closet. We have had lots of offers for help but we don't really know what to have anyone do. We have to dejunk everything ourselves and the moving company will come and pack and box everything when we are ready to go. Don and I will go back to Dallas next week and try and find a house to rent. There a few houses that will work it's just a matter of seeing them and getting the right terms. Most want a 1 year lease but we don't want to commit to that long because we want to buy a house as soon as we can. Anyway we will be leaving for Utah tomorrow because Cody has EFY starting Monday.

Funny story-Cayden came in here yesterday dragging around his doll "Loralie" That is the name of his school teacher's daughter and once in a while he gets a hankering to play house. Anyway I was in the office and he comes in and asks the lovely question that every parent waits to hear "Mom, how do they get the baby out of your belly?" I said to him "Well what do you think?' He said "I don't know. Do they use a pizza cutter like on Grey's Anatomy?" "I said "Umm no they just pull the baby out and they don't use a pizza cutter." Hmmm, good thing that I quit watching Grey's Anatomy for Lent-oh wait it was my New Year's resolution. He was good with that answer and said "oh" in his sweet high pitched voice and toodled off on his way.
Hark, I hear the laundry calling me.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation-Cayden Style

This is Cayden lounging on my bed amongst the pillows and his favorite thing to do is to make "Christmas trees" in his room. He pulls out the top drawer on his dresser and hangs items (shirts on hangers, ties, ribbon, scarves etc) from the knobs. He also likes to take my floral arrangements and add his own special touch. The pillows must be presents.