Thursday, October 20, 2016

walmart grocery pick up makes me a better person


apparently something really unbelievably amazing is just around the corner because the past two weeks were as hard as trying to retrieve your chapstick from between the seats in your car. it's a seemingly menial task that can leave your sweaty and exhausted. but life is still really good. we haven't had to flee our homeland and we have plenty of food in our pantry. i am not yet as job. but some days i'd love to have a paying job so that i can specifically hire someone to do the household tasks i loathe and despise. which is pretty much everything. pioneer spirit!

the highlights-

walmart grocery pick up. i plan my menu, i place my order the night before. i choose a pick up time. i drive to walmart at the appointed time and collect my groceries without ever stepping foot in hell, or the store. it's the greatest thing that's ever happened. AND IT'S FREE! not even "free" but free. no fee or price change and they honor the price of the item you chose when they have to give you a substitution. talk about making america great again! i save at least 3 hours a week and i actually follow my menu plan because i'm not burned out simply by the task of acquiring food. imagine if i had to skin a deer or shoot a duck? or if had to debone a chicken? how did we live before boneless skinless chicken breasts? HOW? look in my eyes and tell me how? 

reagan had his run-a-thon at school. he walked every single lap and did his absolute best to avoid having his laps marked off on the back of his shirt. he's kind of an anarchist like that. but he loved high-fiving all the lookers on. 

i also received a phone call from a secretary at reagan's school telling me that reagan had done something so outstanding that he was being honored on the principal's wall of fame. she didn't want to divulge to me what the noble act was so that reagan could share it with me. the problem with that is reagan does not like praise and he also doesn't notice when he is doing a good deed. it wouldn't even register to him, and not that he's always going out of his way doing good deeds, but more from a completely oblivious of other people standpoint. when i asked him about it, he couldn't remember what he had done to be recognized, but he was willing to pose with his name on the wall of fame. autism!


our neighborhood can be kind of snobby. it's a nice neighborhood that i am grateful to live in, but there appear to be a few too many people in our 'hood who think they are pretty hot snot just because of where we live. on our neighborhood website a few of these nouveau riche snoots were complaining about a local gardening store that lives in the place of an old gas station. they think it's an eyesore and that it devalues our property and want to see them run out of town simply because their wares include multiple 9+ foot carved bear statues and a plethora of football team oriented statuary. because i loathe snobby people more than almost anything, and being the social vulgarians that we are, we took a family trip to look at the pumpkins at the gas station garden store. if i have zero friends in my snob neighborhood, i'll know i'm doing something right. fight the power! 

scarlett wanted a few shots of her in front of this classy table display.

scarlett gave a talk in primary. i wrote said talk for her during sacrament meeting. though i am in the primary presidency, i still like to live on the edge with remembering who has talks. if i'm not related to the kid, i can tell you when they are speaking in primary but something about sharing DNA makes it pretty hard for me to remember their assignments. familial amnesia. thomas was recently called to teach a class in primary and he's finally going to learn all the words to the primary songs. this will serve him well while working in law and he will need pleasant gospel song reminders to sing to help get him through his day. lawyers love to say the F word at any chance they can. 

athena blythe had a field trip to a christmas tree farm. she tolerated it well enough. they had some goats and she told anyone who would listen that all your need to do to milk a goat was to, "squeak their bottom."

they had scottish cows, which is the closest i'll ever get to my motherland of scotland. 


the less bright lights(low lights):

we took a trip to the park and athena blythe went face first down the skate board half pipe. 

nothing was broken. not even her spirit.



and piece de resistance of annoying things, having our master bathroom and laundry room torn apart because of water damage from a leaky toilet. delicious.


so far, we've had 100 degree fans and humidifiers set up for the past 6 days to dry out saturated tile but it looks like we're going to have to re tile parts of the master bath floor anyway. hurray
when this is over, i'll be a happy woman. but i can easily claim that i am a happy woman now, because i don't live in aleppo and my DVR works all the time. 
the end.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

i'm not afraid anymore!

you know that part in home alone when kevin realizes that he's not afraid of harry and marv anymore?
Image result for home alone i'm not afraid anymore
that's kind of what watching general conference does to me. i feel empowered and then i start collecting supplies to booby trap my house so that the bad guys can't get in, or if they do, they'll be mega hurt in a delightfully comical way. 

i realize now that i've accidentally thrown out my conference notes from the first weekend in october. i can't be trusted with anything anymore. conference was such an uplifting experience. the answers are there if you're ready to listen. i've found that several of my friends from different portions of my life have fallen away from the church. i find that each time i hear about someone deciding to not be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it affects me. it jars me. it makes me question things i already know to be true all over again. i struggle to accept the news and move on. but this conference was full of so many wonderful reassurances of the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ if we remain faithful, that it keeps me going. which i need in this absolute debacle of an election season. if i was forced to pick my favorites, i'd have to say, uchtdorf, ballard, natress, and bednar. i'll need to plan a reread of their messages soon. but i'm recalling a lot of encouragement about faith? and scripture reading? and going to church? 

here's a recap of this last week:
eating news-now that it's october, we are finally being able to eat outside. still in the 80s most days but delightful. everyone north of the mason dixon line has been enjoying eating outside for the last 4 months. we just got that opportunity, which will last until december and then march and april. so there's georgia's 4 months of al fresco dining. 

this is the remnant of our conference sunday dessert. brownies, ice cream, and fruits in fondue. i just discovered a new apple type that i'd never had before, sweetango! i've only found them at kroger but they are fantastic. sweet and tangy tango in your mouth. appropriately named.

fitness news- our family weight lifting program is plodding along. i'm actually rather impressed at how well reagan and scarlett are picking up correct form. i'm a mirror hog at the gym so that i can always check form because it's not inherent for me. it's not their favorite activity but i hated pulling weeds with the family growing up and now i'm not afraid of yard work. the kids complaining is annoying, but i'm hoping that being strong will help them have a better perspective of the value of their own body. 




embarrassing news-i tried to save money by touching up reagan's haircut myself. it's okay to laugh. i have laughed about this many times. i figure there are much worse things in this world to experience than a really terrible haircut at the hands of your mother. 



baby talk-herschel the adorable has maintained his love for dogs and poses appropriately as to get out of trouble after i've found more grapes and broccoli spit out on the floor. that's his thing. eat all his food and then hide it to spit out in high traffic areas of the house when he's done sucking out the flavor. 

 tomfoolery is at an all time high. 


the end.