Late Christmas

To Whom It May Concern, 
We regret to inform you that the Adams family lost the coveted Gnomeholio due to majorly being in the hole and wagering Texas with a dollar sign.  During the 3rd Annual Gessel Family Christmas Jeopardy game Gnomeholio was savagely stolen right out from underneath them by the cunning and strategically placed Dr. Chris and Nurse Lola.  The special place on their mantle will now remain empty and gnomeless until you rue the day that you thieved it away.  Please remain from using ethnic slurs and keep your chump change in your pocket. 
Sincerely,
T. Ferguson

Since we did not make it to Utah over Christmas because of sickies, the dryer incident, and the weather, we went up over MLK weekend when the kids had a no school.  We left Friday morning and got there early enough for a Chic-Fil-A run before the festivities.  We opened presents and I became the newest recipient of the Quesadilla maker in a long line Quesadilla  maker as gifts.  The kids got giftcards and cash and Wii games.  Cayden was especially pleased with the child-size camcorder.  Don got the new Chad Lewis book from Suzanna and Mawmaw was able to get it signed by Chad.  Chad is a former BYU football player and a former Philadelphia Eagles player who retired a few years ago.  He also happens to have grown up right down the street from Mawmaw.  After we opened gifts we played the traditional Gessel family edition of Jeopardy. Suzanna has made up different questions every year so it is always lively.  We hope this tradition continues so that we can redeem ourselves and return Gnomeholio to his rightful spot on the mantle.

I Have Another Teenager

Connor turned 13 on January 11.  He couldn't hardly stand it waiting for his presents.  So he opened them as soon as Cayden got home from school.  He got a DVD player for his room-he got a small older TV  a few months ago from a man in our ward who he always goes and helps.  He has been begging for a DVD player since before Thanksgiving so we decided that we would accommodate him.  He also got a new scooter because he broke his other one.  He wanted Artichoke and Mushroom Chicken with Capers for dinner and then his favorite Skor cake for dessert.  Then we devoted FHE just to Connor.  We read his favorite scripture story and then played a game of Charades.  That was quite entertaining.  Grandpa and Grandma came over for the cake and ice cream part.  It just not seem possible that he is actually 13.

Roar

Cody got Lion King tickets for Christmas and we went on January 9.  I forgot to take my camera so this is our after the show picture with the bag from the giftshop.  We went to lunch at Red Robin first and then drove down to Mandalay Bay.  (Sidenote-that place is a den of evil-their idea of art and design is pornography to me, and a dance/stripper pole and stage WITH the dancer on it in the middle of the casino floor on the way to theater.  You have to walk through most of the casino to get to the theater.  Not exactly the place I want my 17 year old son or even myself for that matter.)  I digress-the show was pretty cool.  The costumes and choreography were AMAZING!  I was not thrilled with the music like I am for some Broadway productions but just to see what they could do was fabulous.  Cody really enjoyed it and Cayden wanted to go see it as soon as we got home.  There are some scary scenes in the show and so I don't know if Cayden would like that.  The show and the music he would love though.  After the show we got Cody a cool shirt from the giftshop.  It was a fun night.  I have tried to get a picture of him in it but no luck yet. That happened to be the night of the Reverse dance and I could not get the tickets changed so Cody didn't go even though he had lots of girls wanting to take him.  He got to go out with his mother instead.  Sidenote #2 The lady that sat directly in front of me had taken a bath in her perfume and I thought I was going to die.  I had to keep putting my arm up to my face so that I could breathe through my sweater to try and get some air that was not dripping with perfume. 

Happy

1.  Rain
2. Pineapple
3.  Jack Bauer and his really dumb lines.
4.  George Strait
5.  Pink
6.  Flip flops
7.  Sour Patch Kids
8.  Junior Mints
9.  Tuesday is almost over.
10.  The Proclamation on the Family
11.  My own personal Instacare-Dr. Chris
12.  Rice Cozies
13.  Fuzzy socks
14.  Moonlight Path-Bath and Body Works
15.  Legos keeping Cayden occupied
16.  Thoughts of Maui

Still Thinking Happy Thoughts

Reading makes me happy.
Fairy Tales make me happy.
My electric blanket makes me happy.
Cafe Rio makes me happy.
Cayden getting his braces off next month makes me happy.
Having Cayden and Caleb's braces paid for makes me happy.
Testing week means no homework week and that makes me happy.
No school Friday makes me happy.
Pictures of my nieces and nephews make me happy.
Pancakes for dinner makes me happy.

Happy Thoughts Thursday

The guy from the Boulevard came to fix the dryer finally today.  That makes me happy.  The part took a while to come in plus with New Year's being a holiday where no one can type in an order (it's not like I wanted anyone to actually go to Salt Lake and pick it up or anything)  it just added an extra dimension of irritation. Thank you Boulevard Man for fixing my dryer and for throwing in your service to fix the icemaker that has been dead for about a year now.  I can now have warn jammies and a cup full of ice.  Warm/clean  jammies and cups of ice make me happy.  I also saved a bunch on our car/home insurance.  Me=happy.  Tomorrow is Friday which is always good AND the only cloud in my relatively sunny sky is that I have to go to Scouts.  What is it with me that I struggle to be happy about Cub Scouts?  Could it have something to do with the herd of boys that I am with ALL the time?  I love my super-great super-patient super-friend who is the actual Leader while I am the lowly assistant but that is really a bonus to not have to "be in charge".  We do have such fun together and it's an excuse to get together which is hard to do.  Question-what do you say to someone who says "How are liking your calling?'  Well I would like to say that I would rather shove an icepick in my eye or pour lemon juice on my paper cuts or never eat a donut again but that just does not sound very mormon-like to actually complain or dislike your calling.  My ideal calling would be Visiting Teaching Supervisor.  I would love to call you and ask you if you got your visiting teaching done and then call in that information to the Visiting Teaching Coordinator.  How about Physical Facilities Rep?  Don had that calling 7 years ago and that was a pretty sweet job.  It required making sure that the church was locked and the lights were all out during our 3 scheduled months during the year.  I think that he had to organize or atleast make sure the assignments to clean the church were out too.  I helped him with this calling because it was during the time when he had the horrible eye surgery experience and could not see.  It was a little creepy to walk through the dark empty church imagining all the ghosties and spooks hiding around the corner or even thinking that an actual person was there in the building somewhere.  I would recommend this calling be a 2 person calling so 1 person does not have to wander around the church in the dark of night.  I will probably be in Cub Scouts until I enjoy it or until I die whichever comes first! 
I started working on my taxes today.  Tax refunds make me happy.  I was just adding up all the medical expenses and stuff.  Do you want to know how much we spent in medical for the year 2009?  You better sit down and grab a bucket.  $13,592!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Do you see all those numbers?  Did you throw up?  Did you atleast gag?  I could take a very nice cruise with that much money!  Heck I could take alot of people on a cruise for that much money.  Thinking for the happy thought now.................................Oh yes.  We have health insurance.  That number probably would have quadrupled without insurance. 
One more thing-thanks to my sister-in-law Anne who said that I make her happy.  If you're reading this you are my happy thought.

Musings

Cayden said a funny thing yesterday.  He told us that he wanted to be baptized in the bathtub.

I enjoy Facebook.  It can be a colossal waste of time but it is fun to find friends from long ago and keep in touch.  It also is sort of sad to me to see that some of my Facebook friends and some long lost family members who have taken different roads.  I feel bad to see how far removed some of them are from the church and from a life that I know that they were a part of or were atleast familiar with.  I'm sure that they are all very happy with their lives but I sometimes I wonder.

I've decided that I need to find things that make me happy and seriously focus on the happy aspect. My usual way of thinking is that I need to be "grateful" which is good but to often grateful can connote just getting through something or it becomes a mantra that I chant to force myself to be grateful.  Being happy is different because you SHOULD be grateful but you have to choose to be happy.  Sometimes it is hard to be happy when things are hard or I don't feel that I am getting or doing or being exactly what I need to be.  It is hard to be happy when my expectations are clearly not being met by myself or my kids or others or my locality. So in an effort to do better I want to focus on happy.  So today I am happy because...
1.  My house is clean.
2.  We have shipped 8 boxes of school supplies to India.
3.  I can walk.
4.  I can and love to read.
5.  Today was a relatively easy day.
6.  I know that I am not the only one with struggles.  Not that I am happy others have struggles but just to know that I am not the only one.
7.  There are teachers who actually care about their students and want to see them succeed.
8.  I have acted like an adult today and have tried to love others when they are being unlovable.
9.  It is Taco Salad Wednesday.
10. I have helped someone else today.
11.  Oreos

I am reading the book Jacob Have I Loved.  I have been reading some of the Newberry Award winning books.  I always wonder how some of these books get chosen as awards winners.  Not that they aren't good books but it is just interesting to see how different they all are.  Case in point-Island of the Blue Dolphins.  It was an ok book but what was the award winning part of it?  I know I am not a literary genius but I do read alot of books so it's just a thought.

This new year I really don't want to set resolutions per se because it just is a cause for disappointment in myself when I don't attain or complete the things that I need to.  The resolutions just become to broad and for a person that seeks perfection in most things, attaining perfection in these goals is not possible.  The only goal from last year that I can totally say that I did and accomplished was that I read the conference issues of the Ensign before the next conference.  I think that I just need to do better a little at a time and say that I want to better tomorrow or I will do better next time. To make a page long list of things that I think that I need to finish or be perfect at does not seem productive.