The blogging dilemma

So I am getting rid of the Thanksgiving background on my blog and I did a quick check of everyone's blogs and I'm pretty sure everyone has just about given up. I actually got excited because a friend of mine from Vegas finally got a blog a couple months ago and put one post and hasn't done another. I really love reading my friend's blogs. I love keeping up with old friends that I don't get to see every day. I love the concept of blogs. But I sit here and wonder... why bother?

I can't believe it's November

How did that happen?

Sidney's birthday weekend

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIDNEY!


So I am officially the mother of a teenager. Sidney turned 13 about two weeks ago and it also happened to be a three day weekend from school. So we decided to get out of town. The last time we all went out of town together was 2 1/2 years ago for by brother-in-law's wedding. We didn't even really go too far. We left on Saturday morning and went to the aquarium in Denver. I'd heard a lot of good things about it and we had a really great time!
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Chris was the only one brave enough to feed the sting rays.... ewwww!

After the aquarium we drove up to Estes Park. It's about an 1 1/2 hours northwest of Denver. It was absolutely beautiful there. We were completely surrounded by mountains and the weather was pretty nice. We enjoyed the quaint little town and all of it's shops. It was just nice to spend some quality time together as a family.

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This is the Stanly Hotel where they filmed the movie The Shining. I've never actually seen the movie, but I just may muster up the courage to see it now. There are all kinds of stories of paranormal activities happening here. They do ghost tours, but there were all booked while we were there. Maybe next time...




This is candy they sold in the gift shop. It's from the movie. It's MURDER spelled backwards. Megan thought it was really cool so she took a picture of it. Who would actually want candy with murder spelled backwards on it?



I think we realized after this weekend that we definitely need to get out of town more often. It was nice to get away. There are definitely more parts of Colorado that we need to explore and I'm sure we'll get around to it... eventually.

It's amazing what a coat of paint can do!

We were given this dresser by a guy in our ward and all we did was paint it and put some new drawer pulls on it. Isn't it amazing what a coat of paint can do?

This Labor Day I decided to put my kids to work...

sorting socks. They have such a rough life! :)

Addiction? I think not.

So a little while back my husband was having a "choice" day and was being a real jerk. I had to leave to take the girls somewhere and when I came back this is what I found on my kitchen table...



Oodles and oodles of diet pepsi! I was in heaven! I promptly forgave him for whatever he had done (which today I have no idea what it even was!) I set to work drinking my glorious diet pepsi. I just finished the last bottle of it about 3 days ago. I couldn't remember when he had bought all of it so I checked the date on the photo. July 24th...
Hi! My name is Gretchen and I'm a diet pepsi-aholic.

Depeche Mode

Let me start this post by saying that Depeche Mode was my favorite band all through high school. I saw them in concert back in 1994 and had a great time. Well they came to Red Rocks and we saw them again. I bought the tickets the day they went on sale back in March and so I felt like this day was never going to come! I was like a kid waiting for Christmas or my birthday! We went with the Roncos and had a blast! It was amazing. I just felt really, really OLD! They played a bunch of classics. And their new stuff is pretty good, too. It just reminded me of the days I spent as a teenage girl crying in my bedroom to half of these songs. Oh... the good old days!

Walking home

Today, and for the next two days, Megan only has half days of school so they can keep small groups of kids at a time for testing. The weather has been pretty mild around here, mid 70's generally, so I decided today I would walk the mile to the school to pick her up and we could walk home together. A little exercise would be good for both of us, right? Well leave it to Colorado.... I walked to the school and I saw the clouds. I thought we would have plenty of time to get home before the rain came. Wrong. About half-way home it started sprinkling. It really wasn't TOO bad. We didn't get THAT wet. Megan just looked at me and said, "Mom, we can never walk home from school EVER AGAIN!" Little does she know we're walking again tomorrow! Unless, of course, it's raining before I leave. :)

Back on track...

Well, it's been a little while since I have blogged. I miss doing it and I've decided to rededicate my efforts. I guess there were so many things I DIDN'T want to talk about so I avoided this place altogether. So after reading my friend Jennifer's blog she has inspired me to get it together (in more ways than one) and start doing more of what I enjoy doing.
The girls have been back in school now for a week. I can't believe how fast it goes. I know all you moms out there know what I mean. Sidney just started 7th grade and is about to turn 13! She is growing up so fast it's unbelievable. I've been noticing more and more little things she does that shows me that she is really a mature and responsible young woman. As for junior high, all I can say is... so far so good.
Megan is in 6th grade and just turned 11. She is one of the funniest kids I know. She has such a great sense of humor and a great imagination. Just last night we were at Buffy's house for dinner and after we ate she sat and played play dough with Ryan and made herself a tree picture using real leaves from Buffy's back yard and acorns that had fallen on the deck. I love that she still has that KID in her. She's not too cool to play with 5 year olds and do what she thinks is fun.
I'm not quite sure how I ended up with such great kids. All I know is that I am one lucky mom.

It's official

we're boring.

The Decemberists

It's concert time again! Chris and I went on Tuesday to see The Decemberists up in Denver. The concert was amazing. The opening band was really good and The Decemberists were... amazing. I've liked them for a little while now and we've had the tickets since February. They went straight through their new album 'The Hazards of Love" took a little break and came out to play some of their older stuff. They played for almost two hours. Did I mention that they sounded amazing?


Gregg... I have a feeling that if you were a singer this is what you would look like! :)

When we were outside waiting in line to get into the venue we saw Colin Meloy get off the tour bus and go inside the building. Too bad I didn't have my camera ready because he was only about 10 feet away from where we were standing. Oh well...




This is my favorite song from the new album.




Saturday... Neko Case

End of the year stuff

I can't believe it's the end of the school year again. Sidney had her 6th grade "graduation" yesterday and will be going to the junior high next year. *sigh* She had a great run at PVE and I can't believe it's over. She was a tiny bit sad that she's not in elementary school anymore, but she is so excited about getting to wear flip flops to school next year I think she's already over it!





This was Sidney's 3rd grade (and favorite of ALL teachers) Mr. Hicks. Soon enough she'll be taller than him! :)


Megan had her awards ceremony today. Next year she'll be a big, bad 6th grader that rules the school... or something like that. She had a really great year too.



Megan and the art teacher Mrs. Milliron


And this is just a funny video of Megan's new favorite saying... on helium...

Trish, party of four...

Today we went to lunch to celebrate the end of the school year for everyone in our family. It's been a rough couple of weeks and thought we'd go to a well deserved lunch. Alicia's kids used to call Chris "Trish" because they couldn't say his name right. When we walked into Red Robin today we decided to put "Trish" down on the waiting list. We all got a good laugh when they called out "Trish, party of four..." (The hostess was probably wondering what was so funny!) I love my family!

Family Blogs

This post goes out to my family. As I was l looking at a friend's blog I saw her whole list of her family's blogs and I thought to myself... WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE IN MY FAMILY BLOG? I know they look at mine. So, dearest family members, it' s time to get off your duff and start your own so I can see what happens in your life too. It's only fair.

Someone should probably take that award away

The girls are in basketball right now. I never seem to have my camera with me because we go straight from work to their games. So my "Good Mom" award should probably be surrendered to Leslie... go here to see why. (And if you want to see pics of MY kids playing basketball!)

Cooking lessons

Chris was called into work tonight so the girls and I decided to make dinner nice and simple. Megan wanted pancakes and Sidney wanted eggs. So I taught them how to make both. It was a pretty successful event with nothing burned, no arguing, and a pretty delicious dinner. I like knowing that my kids can at least cook pancakes and eggs if I died tomorrow. And the "Good Mom" award goes to... me. At least for tonight. (Just don't look too close at the messy counter!)

Megan managed to flip the pancakes in the air too. It's almost vertical, but if you look close you can see the pancake in the air. Cute!

6th grade "dinner theater"

Last week Sidney's class did a dinner theater. Dinner consisted of school lunch lasagna, salad, and a really yummy piece of cheesecake. I just loved this picture of Megan drinking her lemonade.



Here are pics from the production. The first one is Sidney performing her solo & ensemble piece while we were eating. It was very nice dinner music indeed. The other is her right after the show was over. I loved their costumes and the play was pretty good. You could tell that some of the 6th graders thought they were way too cool to be doing these still. I'm pretty sure Sidney wasn't one of them. How cute!

Bay Leaves

When my mom used to make chili she would put a bay leaf in it. She always said that whoever got the bay leaf in their bowl of chili had to do the dishes. So the other night I was making some soup and it called for 2 bay leaves so I told my husband and children the same thing. Whoever gets the bay leaves has to do the dishes. Wouldn't you know... I got both.

Paging Drs. Sidney and Megan

I don't get sick very often, and when I do it's usually the minor sniffles and sneezes. Well, I woke up last Friday morning and knew something bad was coming my way. I was achy and just didn't feel good. By the end of the day Friday I couldn't even move. My whole body hurt. I had the chills, then a fever, then the chills, then a fever. I couldn't sleep because every time I moved, even a little, it hurt. I seriously felt like I was going to die. Saturday... more of the same. It was awful. Sunday I felt a little bit better but not where I should be. I got a house call from a Dr. friend and he prescribed me an antibiotic and it has cleared everything right up. I had to get my first substitute this year on Monday because I wasn't quite 100% yet. Thank goodness for drugs. That's all I have to say about that.
Now to the part when Sidney and Megan come in. Like I said, I don't get sick like this hardly ever. My kids haven't seen me like this since who knows when. They were pretty sympathetic. They did everything I needed. They were very attentive and sweet checking in on me and seeing if I needed anything. Especially when Chris was at work. After Chris went to work Saturday night both kids went and put on their pj's and came and laid down with me. It was Saturday night and I was laying miserably in my bed with my kids watching football. My kids HATE football. I even offered for them to change the channel and we could watch what they wanted to watch. They kept insisting that football was fine. They have never sat through a football game, and probably never will again. But Saturday night with their sick mom, they sat and watched a game. What good kids.