I Give Up

I have to admit something. I am not cute, funny AND witty. I may be cute some of the times. And I do crack myself up every once in a while. And I might just even pull something witty out of my hat when the need arises. But I am not cute, funny AND witty. I look at some other blogs that are cute, funny and witty, and I think, "Golly, I wish MY blog was cute, funny AND witty." So, I think and I ponder and I try and I come up with a semi-ok cute, funny and witty blog. The pressure is just too much!

This is to announce that I am no longer trying to be cute, funny AND witty. I am giving you a disclaimer for my blog...

DISCLAIMER: The author of this blog is not cute, funny AND witty. If you find something written herein that is cute, funny OR witty, it was a complete accident and you should not hope for it to be repeated. Thank you for reading my blog.

I hope this doesn't cause any of you to vow to never look at my blog again. I do enjoy your comments. And, if you ever do get a chuckle out of my life, then just count yourselves lucky.

Ahhhhh...I feel so much better. I bet I will even be able to catch up on all the Utah happenings now. :)

Update / Update

My mom had her gallbladder surgery yesterday and is doing well. The surgery took about twice as long as they thought it would - much like mine - so it was a little stressful. She is home and on pain meds right now so really fun to talk to.

Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes!

Wow-wii

We've had a Wii for about a year now and it can be a lot of fun. What I like about it is the interactiveness....you aren't just sitting there. So, when Wii Fit came out, I thought that I would buy it for some different exercise than my daily walks, but then I found out that your Mii could be fat. Not wanting a big round dot Mii, I opted out of the Wii Fit.

Now they have Wii Active. No fat little Mii's here. I got it on Saturday - thanks for the encouragement Court - and did my first workout this morning. I don't know if I'll be able to move for the rest of the day. It was REALLY hard and I was on easy! It did feel good and there were some fun things you did like basketball and tennis - the inline skating was not quite as fun, but...

Oh, and we went to see the new Star Trek this weekend. I hate recommending movies because then if you don't like them, I feel bad, but this movie was AWESOME! Definitely worth the watch even if you aren't a Trekie (how would you spell that?).

Have a great day! I think it's time to get up before my muscles really freeze up!

Update

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes for my mom. She is out of the hospital today. She is going to have her gallbladder removed on Wednesday, so then she should start really feeling better.

I guess the reason she was in the hospital overnight was because a tube that goes from her pancreas to her intestines got plugged by an escaped gallstone so the enzymes were basically digesting her pancreas - and a little bit her liver. So, the take home lesson is...if you think you have gallstones, go to the doctor before you start digesting yourself!

So, if you don't mind, keep up the prayers for her to have a speedy recovery once she has the surgery.

Happy Memorial Day!

Kind of Scary

I just got a call from my Dad telling me that my Mom is in the hospital. She's been having problems with her gallbladder and last night she had a bad enough episode that she had to go to the emergency room. Apparently she has "a lot" of gallstones and one might have gotten loose and gone into her pancreas - which isn't super good. They need to do surgery, but with it being a holiday weekend, she might not be able to have it until tomorrow.

I had my gallbladder removed about six years ago so I know the pain she's having, but then again, they never put me on morphine.

Could you please keep her in your prayers?

Thanks!

Much Anticipated

Just wanted to let you all know that Brent has updated his blog. Since he does it so seldom, I thought I'd say something. Not that I update my so often anymore...my yard (and all the weeds) has been calling my name lately.

:)

Why Was That So Stressful?

As you know, I am married to the BIGGEST NCAA March Madness fan. There are many times I lament about being a basketball widow. But, truthfully, he loves it so much that I don't mind sharing him with the basketball once a year.

He has been talking about 2010 for years now because it was going to be his big year! The first and second round games are in Spokane and the third and fourth round games are in Salt Lake. It's a two-fer! Literally, I've been hearing about this for years.

So, the tickets go on sale (they're a lottery sort of thing) and we get the email from both Spokane and Salt Lake with similar themes. "Thanks for trying, but you didn't win the lotto." Sorry Brent. He was really sad about not getting his much anticipated two-fer.

Then, he gets home from Japan and I'm checking my email (while he's "not sleeping" on the couch - he was sleeping but he didn't want to be so every time I said something, he would shout, "I'm not sleeping!"), and I get an email about Spokane that says, "We didn't sell as many tickets as we thought we were going to, so if you still want some, log on on Monday." Then the next email is from Salt Lake saying the same thing. Woho!

I dutifully got on the computer this morning at 10am Mountain Time and waited patiently for the tickets to be purchased. It was really stressful being the one in charge of Brent's fun for 2010. Luckily, I did get the tickets he wanted and now I just have to wait for 10am Pacific time to see if I can make next year a two-fer for him.

My question is, why was it so stressful for me? Do you think Brent's at work stressing about it? I'm pretty sure he's forgotten all about it since he didn't remind me this morning. I'm just a silly person I guess.

So, anyone want to go to Spokane - provided I get tickets?

***Update****
It's a two-fer!

Nothing is as Constant as Change

Proving once again that anything Brent's work says is just a suggestion...

Brent will be home tomorrow morning! Hooray!

I talked to him this morning and he sounded tired and happy to be coming home. He did say that it's been a great experience.

I'm super excited to have him coming home. Let's just hope that this isn't a suggestion too!

:)

Let's Go Back in Time

Let's all go back in time to about a month ago when my Mom and Grandma came to the beautiful northwest to visit.

Most of our visit was spent in Victoria, British Columbia. We got to stay in the Empress Hotel. If you have three people in one room, it makes it somewhat affordable.

The room was really pretty with a kind size bed and a sofa bed. Our view was great too. But, the whole hotel did smell somewhat like an old lady's house. That's Victoria Harbor. We could watch the sea planes come in, along with all the beautiful boats. (Floating vessels?)

Then, we were off to Butchart Gardens, which, as I've said before, is my Mecca. I love it there. I hadn't ever been there this early in the season, and while it was a little chilly (especially for the visiting family), it was still beautiful. Since I am the plant lady, you have to at least look at some of the pictures...

These flowers were on top of a garbage can. That just goes to show you how great this place really is!

And, just to prove that we really were there...

Another highlight of our Canadian experience was Afternoon Tea at the Empress. Before the gasps begin, I had a nice little pineapple-orange herbal tea. It was quite refreshing. You got little finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. They weren't even English-type desserts, since they had sugar in them.

Ok, truthfully, some of the finger sandwiches and desserts were kind of yucky, but there was enough there that you could just ignore those and eat the rest. The scones were great and I especially liked the carrot and ginger finger sandwiches. Yum!

What a good looking group of tea-goers!

On the Empress grounds, there were these beautiful cherry trees that were completely in bloom. It was an awesome sight. So, of course I had to take a bunch of pictures.

Aren't they beautiful?

Once we got home from Canada, Brent made us some yummy homemade pizzas, then we spent the next day in Seattle before putting Mom and Grandma back on a plane. It was fun to have them here. We just need to talk them into coming a little later in the year next time. It really does warm up for about1-1/2 weeks in the summer!

Happy Mother's Day yesterday to all you child-full people. And happy Sunday to all you child-less.

Sorry if this is a weird post...I'm just feeling a bit off today. Haven't you ever had a day like that?

:)

Home Again, Home Again

Hello All! I'm home. I'm so happy. My flight was quite bumpy and the last about 5 minutes, I had to chant, "Don't throw up, we're almost on the ground. Don't throw up, we're almost on the ground." But, I didn't throw up and we are now on the ground.

As I was waiting for the airporter (that's the bus you take from the airport to our town...it's about a 1 hour drive), I overheard two people talking. The one guy asked the other guy where he was coming from. The other guy said, "Yokosuka, Japan...it's about an hour south of Tokyo." Hey, that's where Brent was up until he got on the floating vessel. (I've been told it's technically a boat.) I thought that was funny.

I found my house much as I left it, except for this...

That is suppose to be my front lawn. Crap...guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow!

And...happy birthday to Court!

:)

WAL-MART!

I have to give a little bit of background for this story. It just makes me laugh. My mom works for Smith's in Utah. (Smith's and Fred Meyer are owned by the same company.) So, Smith's is in direct competition with Wal-mart for most things. Because of this...my mom HATES Wal-mart! She hated it when we were in Hawaii and the only place to shop was Wal-mart.

So, we go to lunch today with my cousin Jennifer and her 4-year-old daughter, Sarah. Jennifer also works at Smith's. After lunch, Jen says, "Do you guys want to go shopping?" To which Sarah starts jumping around and say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" I really have never seen anyone that excited to go shopping. When Jen asked where Sarah wanted to go shopping she cried, "WAL-MART!" I just had to laugh. Everyone was so amazed that she a) knew what Wal-mart was, and b) wanted to go shopping there since she hadn't ever been.

We split the difference and went to Target. Kids are so funny!

Update

Well, just to keep you informed, here is what I know.

Japan is like on the other side of the world! I mean, I always knew that, but now that someone I love is there and I have to wait for his phone call "in the morning," it just seems farther away.

I spoke to Brent this afternoon (2:30p in Utah...5:30a the next day in Japan) and he was off to the boat...ship?...whatever. He will not be able to email or anything while he's out so this is really good practice for me for when he goes backpacking. :)

And, Julie, I reminded him to take a lot of pictures and also that he has a blog to put them on, so I'm interested to see what he brings back.

I have one and a 1/2 more days here in Utah. I'm having fun, but looking forward to my bed. Why can't you just pack your bed with you?

:)

Just in Case

Just in case any of you are worriers like me, and let's face it, no one is as big of a worrier as I am...Brent made it to Japan safe and sound. Even with the Swine Flu. First Mad Cow Disease and now the Swine Flu. What does he have against barnyard animals? (Apparently Japan is really scared of the swine flu coming their way, so they take your temperature before you even get off the plane and if you have a fever, they put you in quarantine for ten days. Now that I think about it, what does Japan have against barnyard animals?)

Now we just have to keep our collective fingers crossed that he will be able to get Internet access while on the boat...or ship....or whatever you call it.

I'm having a great time here in Utah. The rain has followed me down, so it makes me feel right at home.

Have a great day!