Into the "Wii" hours of the night

I think the title of this post pretty much sums up how Jeff has spent his time the past few days. After months of searching, he finally stumbled across a Wii game system. While I honestly didn't think he would actually buy one (they're $250!), secretly I am pumped. I mean, who would have thought exercising could be so fun (we need the Wii Fit) and a great way to bond as a family? Wii does count as a church approved FHE activity, doesn't it?

While I haven't stayed up into the Wii hours of the night for the same fun reasons as Jeff, I have been up all night myself the past few days. I can't sleep and can't seem to turn my mind off at night. It just seems like there's never enough time to do everything. Friday, which is supposed to be a fun mama and Pearl day, was spent doing the laundry, vacuuming every room at least 3 times (I think Cheerios have magical powers to transport themselves onto a clean floor), picking up toys constantly, dishes, and finally rearranging/cleaning out our back bedroom and sunroom/office. It was the first day I had to give Kimmy's old room a good cleaning and get the desk and bookshelf sorted. Then Saturday I suckered Jeff into taking the bunkbeds apart and moving the furniture around in the backroom. He didn't complain much, mainly because it meant he finally had a "man room" again to play video games in undisturbed. It seemed to take all day to clean but hey the DI is getting a big box of goodies from us. It's a good thing our house is so small because we have a lot of junk as it is so I can't imagine having even more room to keep stuff. Saturday night we went to a BBQ with some of Jeff's co-workers and played at a park. Out of 50 pictures, I think we got about 3 good ones of Pearl. We need a better camera!

Ok, back to the late night hours, so I'm supposed to be completing an internship for my MPH degree, not to mention the never ending work tasks that need to be done (and fine, I admit the occasional blogging - but as you can see I've been good and avoided the temptation this week because of everything else I had to get done). I really have been trying to do my internship but honestly the only time I have to work on it (plus take care of the housework, unwind from the day, and other projects I get myself into) is after Pearl goes to bed which can range from 8-9:30 depending on what we have going on. Plus this weekend I had to review 16 grants for a meeting on Tuesday which normally wouldn't be an at home assignment but I was out of the office last week for a training. Needless to say I've been up until midnight every night reading grants, not getting anything done on my internship, which has to be done before school starts next week, and then getting woke up by a screaming child at 2 or 3 in morning. I am exhausted! It seems like my life is tumbling out of control sometimes. I just can't seem to get it together. I feel totally guilty for not getting everything done and there's always something that gets put off again and again. Not to mention I've been a crappy mom lately too. How do the rest of you moms do it? You would think raising this adorable and funny little girl would be a breeze but no! Oh well, I'm sure at this point Jeff is "thinking why did I keep reading this post?" so I better stop. Sorry to complain to everyone and for the rambling which I'm sure makes absolutely no sense but hey my blog is sometimes the best place to vent without screaming and pulling my hair out!

Be warned

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING!!! What will follow includes everything from bridesmaid dress disasters to sunburns and tin foil dinners. Oh and did I mention lots of photos? So if you're a blog reader who just likes to skim over posts, you might as well turn back now because this post is going to take a few minutes of your time.

Last week my little sister got married and I still can't believe that one, she isn't 12 anymore and two, she is old enough to not just have a boyfriend but now a husband! We love Nick and are so grateful Kimmy found such a wonderful guy. The wedding was on Thursday and while I could spend this whole post going through all the wedding details and saying how beautiful the bride was, the cute cupcake wedding cake and decorations, how much fun Pearl had running around, family and friends, a yummy steak/salmon luncheon, and how perfect the day was (minus the heat) that would be BORING to everyone but my family. Sorry Kimmy:) So, I've decided to venture down the bath of the bridesmaid dress disaster. You see months ago Kimmy and I went bridesmaid dress shopping only to find the perfect dress with one major problem - no sleeves. So we figure we can just put sleeves in the dress, no problem this happens all the time. Well my mom freaks about it so we decide to have them made by the same lady who is putting sleeves in Kimmy's wedding dress (which is one of the cutest I've seen). Kimmy doesn't want to pick out any patterns so my mom and I go and buy the fabric and pick out two patterns to combine. Months go by and no one hears from the lady sewing our dresses. I start to panic, especially when two weeks before the wedding no one has been fitted yet. We finally get a hold of the dressmaker and she says I can come and get fitted the Saturday before the wedding. To my horror the dress is NOT what I had envisioned and I try to be a good sport while thinking to myself the dresses are ugly and make me look fat! Not to mention the fact that when I got measured the first time around I was still nursing Pearl so now the top was huge on me (yes, I am totally bummed about the old chest size coming back). And Nick's sisters have threatened to not wear the dresses if they are ugly - I admit I don't want to look like an ugo either but hey if my sister wants them I'll wear them. Oh well, too late now and she promises they will be done for the wedding. To top of the worry about not having a cute dress to wear, I can't find any shoes I like! URGHHH!!! Who would believe in my household that someone can't find shoes to wear?! I mean Jeff and Pearl each got new wedding shoes (real surprise there) but I just can't seem to find anything. Well, Monday night - 3 days before the big day - my mom calls and says no one else has gotten fitted and it's time to PANIC! Kimmy is totally freaking out - did I mention we were moving her into her apartment when my mom called and it was way past Pearl's bedtime so we are all grumpy? I get told I have to find a black dress to wear and I'm on my own for it. SO...I'm thinking how hard will it be to find a cute black dress? Well, let me tell you it was hard! I was in near tears at the mall after going to every single store in the place. Nothing fits, everything is sleeveless, too short, and too casual. I call my mom crying and she says the dresses are done! What???? I took a day off work to find something, drove all over town, cried, and was on the verge of a nervous breakdown for many reasons and now the dresses are done. You would think that would be the end of the dress fiasco but no, Kimmy says I still have to bring a black dress in case Nick's sisters don't like the green ones. I am furious! So I buy a dress, another pair of shoes, and $80 worth of jewelry because I have no idea what I'm going to wear the next day. The big day comes and I get to wear the ones we had made which were absolutely adorable! I loved it! But it was a last minute decision on what to wear and a bit of threatening on my part that I will wear the green dress because the black one I bought was too big in the chest and too short. I'm sure anyone who has stuck with this post is thinking to themselves, what was the big deal? And yes, looking back on this situation a few days after a beautiful wedding, it wasn't a big deal but living the bridesmaid dress nightmare over the last month has been a beast to deal with! Pearl was an absolute angel the whole day, no nap and all. She loved every second of the day and would spin around in her dress laughing and you could tell she knew she was pretty cute. It was funny because I think she's figured out that Kimmy isn't coming home again because the past few days she has gone into the back room looking for her and then on Thursday wouldn't leave her side. Oh and Jeff was pumped to find our paver (watch the slide show) with our names on it for becoming lifetime members of the USU Alumni Association. It's supposed to be put into place at the Alumni House in the next couple of weeks so the next time you're on campus try to find it. One thing about this for certain, I sure appreciate everyone who helped pull off my wedding day a whole lot more after all this. Who knew weddings were so exhausting?

Okay, we survived the wedding on Thursday and decide to take a few days off for some R&R. Which for Jeff means we go camping. Now I didn't mention that camping is my idea of rest and relaxation in that last sentence and he knows it so he "bought me off" for the weekend with a gorgeous pearl necklace. Well, I guess any girl can hang out in the dirt and smell like B.O. and campfire for a few days with a bribe like that. I know I should like camping more but there is something about it that just drives me totally nuts. I hate having everything smell like campfires, dirt in everything, and not being able to turn on the lights when it gets dark. I don't totally hate camping. In fact I loved being with my family someplace not 100 degrees and being able to look up and actually see stars, millions of them, at night. I guess I take after my grandma Jewkes because her idea of camping was in a trailer, cabin or hotel! I'm just glad my parents have a trailer that the girls sleep in instead of a tent! I think Jeff prefers this too, since he gets a tent all to himself. It took forever to get up Logan canyon and find a spot - pretty much all of Friday to pack, get my parents' trailer ready, and drive up there - but we finally made it.


Jeff spent the weekend doing "man things" which I honestly have no idea what that means (probably napping, playing with fire, and killing small animals/bugs), while Pearl, my mom, and I headed up to Bear Lake. It was Raspberry Days at Bear Lake so we visited the craft fair where my mom bought me a super cute bag/purse. But as soon as we got there the stroller got a flat tire, urghhhh!!! Not only was it super hot but I spent all my energy chasing Pearl around (she was following all the doggies she saw) or carrying her. We had lunch at my grandparent's trailer, not a glorious place but hey it's beach front property and it has a place to sit down, and then headed for the beach. Pearl had a blast playing on the beach and running in the water. She wouldn't get out until I finally dragged her to the beach because her lips were turning blue and she was shivering. Of course in my worry that Pearl would get sunburned, I slathered her several times with sunscreen but forgot to cover myself with it. So I left Bear Lake totally pooped and burned! Bear Lake is notorious for bad sunburns and for someone whose body hasn't seen the sun in years, let's just say the lake won the battle. It was a good reminder that long gone are the lazy days of college when I drove to Bear Lake every week to lay around and work on my tan.

My mom's family came up for tin foil dinners that night (why is it that men, aka my dad, brother, and husband, can't get dinner ready themselves?). At this point, Pearl was starting to show the signs of weeks without naps and long days playing and with one day left of R&R, I was showing signs of exhaustion too. We spent Sunday playing my family's infamous card game - Hell - which is sort of like Solitaire on steroids, then packed up and drove home. I'm now trying to recover from loads of laundry (thanks Jeff for your help), cleaning, getting caught up at work, and of course blogging! We had a blast but I'm glad to be home.

The embarassment should be over now

After a week of Jeff being totally embarassed by my last post on the "quirks" I have (like he doesn't have any gross quirks either), I figured it was high-time for me to put something new up. Apparently the girls at work have been giving him a really hard time and well, I suppose I was a bit too honest before. Plus I'm tired of him teasing me all the time. So... in my attempt to make up for my quirks I have done the following: 1) finished ALL of the laundry in 2 days (okay so I still have a few shirts drying that need to be hung up but everything else made it out of the dryer and laundry basket in less than 48 hours), 2) rearranged and washed everything in the fridge, and 3) CHOPPED my hair off! I guess in my futile attempt to become America's Next Top Model, I figured getting a hair cut on a very bad hair day, would make me feel better. You would have thought that one, I wouldn't have cut my hair short right before my sister's wedding just in case I hated it and two, that I would have taken a picture afterwards to post but nope! I still haven't taken a picture of the new look but hopefully will have one by Thursday since that's the day my little sis gets hitched (and hopefully I am having a fabulous hair day). I guess it's not that short but for someone who has only had long hair, a new do that is above the shoulders is short. It's growing on me but I still miss pulling it back into a ponytail. Luckily though, Pearl doesn't pull at it nearly as much now that she can't grab it.

Speaking of Pearl, can I just say that she is definitely her father's child. It is now apparent that she inherited the "Johnson shoe gene." It's a sick, sick disease that Jeff shares with his mom and sister and now Pearl! She would wear all of her shoes if we let her and on Sunday attempted to wear two pairs at one time. She found some sandals that our neighbor gave her that are too big but threw a royal fit until we put them on her. It was hilarious because as soon as she had them on, she went tromping all over the house with a big grin on her face. Then last night we found some cute boots Kimmy brought home from Alaska (by the way, Kimmy is officially moved out and Pearl/Jeff have reclaimed the play room) and she wanted those on. So here she is in the middle of summer in shorts and fuzzy boots. She was pretty cute in them! And tonight, she ran around the house butt naked with just shoes on. I tell ya, we're in for it come 14 years from now! At least Jeff will finally have someone to go shoe shopping with.

Oh and a short video of Pearl playing in the freezing mountain stream up the canyon. We were bored on the 24th and angry at all the people parking in our driveway for the park festivities so we headed up the canyon for tin foil dinners. Let me just say that I've never thought of camping as a relaxing vacation (although Jeff loves camping so I go to make him happy) but with a 1 year old heading straight for the water, it was definitely not relaxing. Man, how did my parents do this with 4 kids and a dog? But looking back, it was fun to just hang out with my hubby and baby. Pearl seemed to love the dirt and throwing rocks in the water and Jeff does cook a mean tin foil dinner.

Am I really this weird?

The RULES
1. Link the person who tagged you...Liberty
2. Post these rules.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.

First of all, I have to admit some of my quirks are the same as Lib's so that said, visit her blog and guess which ones. But to play fairly, I'll add six new ones.

1. I never finish the laundry. Well, let me reword that last sentence - I never finish putting the laundry away. Without a doubt each week, the last load to get put in the dryer stays there for a good 3 or 4 days, if it's lucky, but most of the time it sits there until I start the next week's laundry. Only when I open the dryer to put in a new load do I realize that once again I've forgotten about it. I don't know why I do this, logically you would think if someone has spent several hours sorting, spraying, washing, and folding that all the laundry would get put away. And yet, it doesn't. I even remind myself throughout the day to not forget the last load. And I'm getting worse than before because I usually have one laundry basket full of clean and folded clothes just waiting to be put in drawers the entire week too. I don't think I'm too tired to finish, just lazy I guess. I used to love laundry days but now the thrill of cleaning just isn't there anymore. It seems a lot of my life is symbolic of the last load never getting finished. Sigh...

2. Please don't let this next quirk rein a friendship! I admit I've done some gross things before and this is my chance to come clean. I've peed in the shower. I've picked my nose. I've bitten my own toe nails. And I pick at my split ends. Yes, they're all true! With regards to the peeing, I just never got why anyone would get out of the shower, towel off, and sit on the toilet naked just to pee. All of you Seinfeld fans are thinking of that episode where George pees in the shower at a gym and I have to agree with George, it all goes to the same place. And just to justify my grossness, there were days when I was up at 3 am feeding Pearl that picking my nose or split ends was seriously the only way I could stay awake long enough to ensure her safety by not dropping her because I was so tired and the darn little twirp wouldn't burp!

3. If my husband would let me, I would preen him everyday. I would love to grab hold of his eyebrows and give them a good trimming. I have this quirk that I pull at my own eyebrows (or pick at my split ends - hmmm maybe it's time for a haircut) when I get bored, tired, or frustrated. It doesn't hurt and I don't get why he is such a baby about letting me pull an eyebrow that is sticking straight out. It would be for his own good, I mean who but a loving wife doesn't want to ensure her hubby is looking fabulous! I'm sure he would let me pop his zits or something totally gross like that and that would actually hurt, so what's the big deal with eyebrows?

4. I've always wanted to be a model. Pathetic and totally worldly I know. But seriously, for some reason I am totally drawn to the whole idea of getting dolled up, looking gorgeous, having my pictures taken, and getting paid millions to look beautiful. But fat girls who hate shopping and don't know a thing about hair, makeup, or fashion just aren't cut out to be models. I guess I'll have to live out my fantasy by watching America's Next Top Model!

5. Given the chance, I would brush my teeth 50 times a day. I am totally paranoid that I have horrible breath (yes, Jeff I know I have awful morning breath) or something caught in my teeth. In college I always had a pack or two of Breathsavers handy for this very reason. My doctor once told me that no matter how gross you think you are, smell, or look if you've brushed your teeth then nothing else matters. I guess she had seen some pretty stinky patients in her day and figured a clean mouth made up for it. The only bad part about having a clean and healthy smile is going to the dentist every 6 months. I hate it! I sit there white knuckled and in extreme fear. I've even had the dentist ask me if I'm going to be okay or pass out. Luckily, we've finally found a great dentist, it's just his dental assistants that scare me!

6. I love a clean house. I hate dust, crumbs on the floor, and most of all food in the sink. I'm sure Jeff is laughing hysterically at this because he will be the first to tell everyone that I used to clean the house every week but now, well let's just say that keeping a spotless house with a 13 month old (aka "The Tornado") is nearly impossible. Fine, I admit my house is not what it used to be and organization has seen better days but I still love a clean house nonetheless. I like to think of my lifestyle now as much more relaxed, even though it's probably just an excuse to blog instead of dust. I tell ya, before Jeff and Pearl came along I was a wacko, obsessive compulsive, neat freak who even had to have her closet organized according to color, style, and season. It nearly killed me!

And as a bonus here are a few more quirks I have: I love the smell of gasoline/Rubber Cement/paint; I'm afraid of snakes, the wind, thunder and lightning, and getting a cavity or worse root canal; I hate grocery shopping mainly because I spend way too much and am a horrible cook; I couldn't blow my nose until I was married (Stop laughing 'cause I'm serious! Jeff made so much fun of me that I "practiced" blowing my nose until I finally figured it out.); I have a crown (yes like old people have on their teeth), I peed my pants at Lagoon, and I hate, hate, hate talking on the phone!

I tag Becky, Keisha, Toni, Rachel, Chandi, and Haley.

Good 'ole Sam

Tuesday my dog died. He was almost 15 years old and had been really sick the past year or two. Quite honestly, I'm glad my parents finally put him to sleep. He was practically blind, deaf, couldn't smell, and just miserable at times. But never once did he complain. My dad and Kurtis buried him in the backyard. Did you know the vet will give you a cardboard coffin for your dog? He was the best dog a family could ask for. I remember the first time I saw Sam (AKC registered as Chief Remington Sam), he was the cutest thing I had ever seen! A white and brown (liver is the official color) fluff ball. He didn't have the typical English Springer Spaniel markings all over his back. He followed me and Jesse around and was so calm with us that we knew he was the puppy for us. That first night we slept in the basement all of us -me, Jesse, probably Kimmy, Sam, and my dad. My dad of course had to take Sam out every few hours and carry him up and down the stairs - sorry Dad I seem to remember saying I would do that but I did feed him, take him for walks, and picked up dog poop! Sam went everywhere with me and was inseparable from the family till the moment he died. I loved taking him running and boy could he go and go and go. He would run for miles with me (yes, I used to run MILES everyday). I would take him running in the farmer's fields by our house hoping he would figure out he was supposed to be a hunting dog and flush pheasants but he was always so busy running around that those pheasants I'm sure just sat there and mocked him. I remember pulling stickers and ice balls out of his hair and toes afterwards and no matter how much it hurt, he always let me do it. I always felt safe running with Sam and to this day tell everyone the reason I don't run anymore is because I lost my running partner. He would pull us on our bikes, climb the playgrounds with us and go down the slides, bite and run through the sprinklers, spring up and down in the alfalfa fields (it was hilarious because you would Sam spring up then disappear then spring up somewhere else) and swim at Bear Lake until he almost drowned. Seriously, he almost drowned because he couldn't stand it to see us playing in the water without him. I finally figured out he would sit on our inner tubes if we pushed him around the lake with us. What dog does that? None that I've seen! Sam would have done anything to protect me. I remember one time he kept barking to go outside so I of course opened the back door and let him out. Us kids were home alone at the time, and the next thing I heard was someone yelling. I looked out the window and saw that Sam had chased the utility guy up our back fence and was barking at him. He also did that to my grandpas a few times, but only when we were home alone. I'm pretty sure in his prime Sam would have killed anyone who had tried to hurt us. He could leap into the back of a truck with the gate up without a running start, not to mention leap our 6 foot high fence like it was nothing. We could always expect to see Sam sitting on the front porch waiting for us when we came home - he jumped the fence a lot. I remember teaching him to shake hands, lay down, and when Kurtis would stick Cheerios on his nose and say "steady, steady, get it Sam" and he would flip them up and catch them in his mouth. He would sleep with us, lay under our feet (whether we wanted him to or not), and despite getting into the garbage, eating entire bags of Hersey's Kisses (whoever said chocolate kills dogs obviously did not meet Sam), never walking calmly on a leash, or inhaling any food left on the table, Sam was the best dog in the whole world! I will miss him so much and so will Pearl. She just loves doggies and I think that was her favorite part of going to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It just won't be the same without him.